Jackson, Michael (1942–2007), an English journalist, can justly be considered the father of both whisky and beer writing in the modern era. While he wrote numerous books on whisky and beer, his The World Guide to Beer (1977) and The World Guide to Whisky (1987) were truly seminal works that have influenced the study of these subjects through the current day. Jackson’s memory is most celebrated in America as a beer writer, but his global reputation is arguably more based on his writings on whisky.
Jackson was born in Yorkshire, of Lithuanian Jewish parents (the family name Jakowitz was Anglicized to Jackson when his father emigrated to the United Kingdom). He often contrasted his career with the predispositions of his ancestry, recalling that his parents drank infrequently, and usually sweet wines. Jackson, however, was introduced to beer as a young journalist and began writing a series of pieces called This Is Your Pub for weekly papers in West Yorkshire at the age of sixteen. A job in Edinburgh led to similar musings about malt whisky.
Publication of The World Guide to Beer in 1977 was notable for its thorough and serious approach to beer and for introducing the idea of beer “styles,” the groupings and relationships of beers such as pale ale, porter, pilsner, bock, and India pale ale. Ten years later, The World Guide to Whisky would similarly lay a foundation for a new way of looking at whiskies, showing the relationships among the world whisky types. His follow-on book, Michael Jackson’s Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch (1990), rated every single malt brand he could find on a 1–100 scale, along with descriptive notes on each distillery. It was the most complete catalog of scotch whisky since Alfred Barnard’s The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom in 1887, and it has been regularly updated by noted whisky writers such as Gavin D. Smith and Dominic Roskrow.
That the format and content of these books, unique in their day, seem common and obvious today is perhaps the greatest tribute to Jackson’s influence on writers, readers, and drinkers. His influence on distillers and brewers was similarly large, with many counting him as a mentor, an inspiration, or simply a friend.
Jackson’s awards and accolades were many. Among others, he was a master of the quaich, a knight of the Ridderschap van de Roerstok, a 2006 James Beard Award winner, noted for lifetime achievement by both Whisky and Whisky Advocate magazines, and a winner of the Glenfiddich Trophy.
Jackson struggled with diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, something he sometimes said was brought on by a freak sporting accident in his younger years. The progress of his disease led to sometimes rambling speech, rocking motion, and growing lack of balance in his gait.
“Understandably, people think I am drunk, especially given my profession. I am not,” Jackson assured members of the Michael Jackson Rare Beer Club in December of 2006. “My writing has always fostered the notion of tasting more and drinking less, and I am true to that philosophy. The Gods have a sense of irony in making me look drunk when my intake of alcohol is at its most modest.” He planned, he said, to write an autobiography titled I Am Not Drunk.
The book never was written. Jackson died of a heart attack brought on by Parkinson’s less than a year later, at the age of sixty-five. Tributes included a memorial dinner in London, a Festschrift entitled Beer Hunter, Whisky Chaser (Jackson’s self-applied noms de l’alcool), and a variety of memorial awards and scholarships. His collection of books on whisky and beer, plus his research files and notebooks, was donated to the Oxford Brookes University Library.
beer and whisky.Brooks, Jay. “Michael Jackson Reveals His Battle with Parkinson’s.” Brookston Beer Bulletin (blog), December 18, 2006 (accessed February 17, 2021).
Buxton, Iain, ed. Beer Hunter, Whisky Chaser: New Writing on Beer and Whisky in Honour of Michael Jackson. New York: Neil Wilson, 2009.
“Michael Jackson, 65, Beer Critic and Author, Is Dead.” New York Times, September 3, 2007.
By: Lew Bryson