Michael Jackson was a friend of mine. No, not the Michael Jackson of Thriller, the OTHER Michael Jackson, also known as The Beer Hunter. Michael was born in England and devoted his life to bringing beer to the same level of excellence as that of wine. His love for beer was evident in his series, The Beer Hunter, which was first shown on Discovery some years back. In that series Michael traveled to different beer hot spots and went through the uniqueness of each beer, the brewing style and effect each brew had on the beer-enjoying world.

I had the chance to meet and dine with Michael in Galena, when he came to my former pub, The Man in the Moon Celtic Brewpub at The Kingston Inn Restaurant, where I established a mini-micro brewery. Michael tasted my offerings, gave excellent advice and pronounced each brew unique for the area and worthy of praise. I was humbled and gratified, because a word from Michael alerted the beer-drinking world to either flock to your doorstep or avoid you like the plague.

After he tasted and evaluated my beers, we went to dinner at a friend's house, enjoying several of the beers I had brought along, and some excellent, hard-to-find Single Malt Scotch samples Michael had brought with him. His tastes were not exclusively relegated to beer, and we also enjoyed some excellent California wines that evening.

Michael was born in 1942 and passed away on August 30th, 2007 after a battle with Parkinson's Disease. He did more for the world of brewing than any other writer and was famous throughout the Home Brewing world for his columns that often inspired many of the great brewers of our time.

Michael came to Galena at the behest of a good friend, Alan Ditky, who also helped me get my mini-micro brewery started, and he held the guests at my brewpub spellbound with stories and histories of beer, often taking questions and giving great advice about how to get started learning more about beer and its long and interesting history. It was Michael's suggestion that we market our beer for the water that is unique to the Galena area, deep well, mineralized water, that gave me brews their unique, pleasing taste.

His favorite amongst my beers were the Galena Graphite Triple Stout and the Pilsner Honey Brew, a recipe I learned brewing beer with my Czech grandmother.

Michael will be missed and the world of beer owes him a year salute for all he did to revive an industry that had long ago fallen into a single style of beer.

Cheers, Michael!