Yankee Brew News Archive

An Evening with the Beerhunter

Originally Published: 12/96

By: John Staradumsky

Few men are regarded as highly in their fields as Michael Jackson is in his.

He is the world's acknowledged authority on beer, having written books on the subject, starred in a TV documentary about beer for the Discovery Channel, and even entered the nineties with forays into CD-ROM titles such as the Beerhunter and World Beerhunter as well as a Beerhunter web site on the Internet (http://www.beerhunter.com).

Despite all this, Mr. Jackson is probably one of the least well-known celebrities of our time. Why do I say

this? Well, just tell any of your non-beer geek friends you will be attending a beer dinner with Michael Jackson and you will probably get the same reaction I got: What the hell does Michael Jackson know about beer?

As it turns out, a lot, but he is not the Michael Jackson your friends will think of, and MJ made light of this with his opening remarks: "Yes, my name really is Michael Jackson," he joked, "but I don't sing and I don't like small boys." That set the tone for an incredible evening at Jacob Marley's restaurant in Orange, Connecticut, a fine establishment with such brews on draught as Longshot American Pale Ale, Magic Hat #9 Ale, and Whitbread Ale from England. The folks from the nearby Wine and Liquor Outlet package store helped arrange this great event .

First, the dinner itself and the accompanying beers. The beers served were entirely the province of the importer Beverage United, all of them German. Schneider Weiss and Aventinus were offered with hors d'ouevres of gourmet pizza, andouille-stuffed clams and petite filet mignon. Next, we enjoyed such fare as duck braised in Whitbread ale served over mesculin greens and paired with Schlenkerla Rauchbier, pork tenderloin with rye stuffing along with Schierlinger Roggen, and a rich chocolate cake made with Guinness and accompanied by Reichelbrau Eisbock. The food/beer matching was done extremely well.

Of course, the food was secondary to meeting Mr. Jackson as far as I was concerned. Michael gave a description of each beer as it was served, as well as an opening speech and overview of beer and brewing. He compared beer to wine, and argued that the latter is actually less complex than the former, not only in flavor but in the production process as well.

In between courses, I got a chance to speak with Jackson, and being aware that he had visited the Emerald Isle Brewery in my hometown of West Warwick, Rhode Island, I asked him his opinions of the flagship beer produced there, Bank Street Ale, a cask-only English-style ale. Jackson responded that he had enjoyed the beer, and inquired about the brewer, Ray McDonnell. I was impressed that Jackson would recall so much on the spot, after all, the man visits countless breweries every year.

A short question and answer session followed dinner. Someone asked the Beerhunter if he had ever homebrewed. Jackson replied that he is often asked that question, but indeed he had never homebrewed, and there are two reasons for this. First, he said, he is never home. Second, he recounted that every day, UPS, FedEx, and the British Post pull up to his door with beer for him to sample. He added that he has four beer refrigerators with about three hundred beers he has yet to sample still in them, so even if he did homebrew he wouldn't know what to do with it. Talk about fringe benefits.

After the Q&A, most of the audience began to slowly file out, but a few of us hung around to speak with Mr. Jackson. I was fortunate enough to sit directly next to him for the last hour of the event, and chatted with him along with several other enthusiasts. Jackson was very approachable, and spoke to everyone at the table cordially and without an air of aloofness that many celebrities often display. At one point, a good friend of mine asked Michael if he would be doing another Beer Hunter TV series, but he replied that Discovery was unwilling to fund another such venture. Truly a pity, and I encourage anyone who has enjoyed the first series to join me in a letter writing campaign to Discovery.

Before Mr. Jackson left for the evening, we chatted a bit about regional brews. Jackson stressed the importance of freshness for most beers, and agreed that Otter Creek was a good example of a brewery doing a fine job in that area, shipping in small quantities and bottle-dating their products. When asked to mention a few of what he considered excellent New England brewers, he mentioned Catamount and Geary, and singled out Geary's Hampshire Ale and Catamount Porter as being deserving of much praise.

We also discussed the growing number of multi-tap establishments across the nation. Jackson wondered how such businesses recovered the cost of stale beer that they would be forced to dump. I asked him what he thought of Sunset Grille and Tap in Boston, and he replied that he had only been there once, but gave the establishment high marks on selection (currently over 100 taps) and freshness, adding that every beer he tasted there was in very good condition.

One of the great controversies in beer and brewing today is that of contract brewing, especially the largest contract brewer of all, the Boston Beer Company. I asked Jackson what he thought of Jim Koch, Samuel Adams beers and contract brewing. The Beer Hunter replied that he thought the Boston beer Company makes some very good beers, among the best the Double Bock, Cream Stout, and Boston Lager. He said he felt some West Coast brewers were miffed that an upstart from the East could attain such success without even owning a major brewing facility. Of Koch in person, he said that there is no denying his contributions to the American beer renaissance, and that Koch put micros "on the map" in the US. He said he has met Koch on several occasions, and had a favorable opinion of him.

Michael Jackson is not only a man with whom it is a pleasure to discuss beer, he is also a gentleman and an easy-going individual. I consider it a great honor to have had the opportunity to talk with him as I did in such a small gathering. I would recommend attending any of the events at which he is featured to anyone who is presented with the chance.