A few days ago the Brewery History Journal published its Michael Jackson tribute issue from 2011 online for free. If you imagined a now deceased, glove wearing, ball fondling, pop star when you read that last sentence then you need to get over to the journal’s website and educate yourself about the greatest beer writing pioneer there has ever been.

Michael Jackson is the original Beer Hunter. The man who put Belgian beer on the world’s radar, chronicled over 30 years of the US craft beer movement, and won national brewers awards without actually being a brewer. If you went to a brewery anywhere in the world from 1975-2005 then he had already been there, tried every beer, and sold a million books telling the world about it.

Whether you know it or not this man has affected your life if you’re a homebrewer, craft brewer, distributor, bartender, or just a beer drinker, and every article in this journal is a fitting tribute. Some of the articles are reverent, some are funny, but they’re all worth reading. So head over to the journal archive, grab your favorite beer, and read about your craft beer roots.