Grumpy Beer Geek

Very sorry to hear of the passing of perhaps the greatest beer writer in history, Michael Jackson. Mr. Jackson, better known as The Beer Hunter passed away last night in his home in London. I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Jackson a few times while working for Real Beer. He was a good and very knowledgeable man. One of his methods of beer writing others could learn from still, never say anything bad about a beer, just don’t say anything at all. That points to how revered a mention by Mr. Jackson was by all brewers.

Some of his work is available online here: http://www.beerhunter.com

Update: His last column can be found here: http://www.allaboutbeer.com/

Some reaction around the web:

http://www.realbeer.com/blog/?p=632 (a great, quick obituary by Real Beer Editor, Stan Hieronymus)
http://www.brookstonbeerbulletin.com/michael-jackson-passes-away/
http://www.allaboutbeer.com/ (including his final published article)
http://appellationbeer.com/blog/more-than-a-moment-of-silence-for-michael-jackson/

Hop Talk has more links.

Take a look at pictures and the full recipe here.

The greatest bar in the country, hell the greatest bar in the world turns 20 years old this weekend.

Toronado 20th Anniversary Celebration
Come help us celebrate our 20th Anniversary, Saturday
August 11th at the Toronado at 5:00PM.

Some of the Beers:

1. The Toronado 20th Anniversary Beer, brewed by
Russian River Brewing Company, on draught and for sale
in cork finished 750ml bottles.
I approached Vinnie two years ago about making a
beer for the Toronado Anniversary, my guidelines were
wood aged, big, and barnyard. We toyed with the idea of
making six beers and blending them into one, but agreed
this was too time consuming as Vinnie has a lot on his
plate. I was surprised when it came to light that he had
come up with 5, 1 year old, wood aged beers to blend.
Vinnie mixed 5 different blends and we tasted them
together, all were fine beers , blend #1 was so good that
we filled 1 keg with it calling it 50-50. After removing this
quantity of beer from the over all blend ,we decided on a
new blend halfway between blend #4 and blend #5. The
result, Vinnie says, is a 10.43 percent alcohol by volume
beer that is smooth and soft with a faint sourness — a
beer that hides its alcohol well. “It drinks like a 6-percent
beer.” I say thank you Vinnie, for an outstanding beer,
beyond my expectations. Awesome! The bottles will be
available for $20 each at the Toronado and Russian River
Brewing Co only.

2. Anchor Cask Conditioned Porter
Anchor Steam was the first draught beer at the
Toronado,so I think it only fitting to have something from
them for our 20th, Fritz Maytag answered the call, with a
cask conditioned Porter, to be served on handpump.
Thanks to Mark Carpenter for crafting this special product
and to Fritz for taking the time to recognize our
anniversary.

3. Lost Abbey/Pizza Port Cable Car on draught and in
bottles.

Tomme Arthur scoured his wood casks and blended a
beer for our Anniversary, we have 1 keg and a limited
number of bottles. I have not sampled this beer yet, but
have it on the authority of John Hansel, of the Malt
Advocate, that it in his opinion it is the best beer he has
had from Lost Abbey and perhaps in the entire USA. Can’t
wait to try it.

At last count there were 13 other rare beers that brewers
have made or are releasing from their cellars for this
event. I will get a complete list together when possible,

Hope to see you there.
Big Daddy