Beer hunter Michael Jackson has died; worldwide good beer community mourns today.

It always was my hope that there'd be a second visit to the Public House by beer writer Michael Jackson. Sadly, it isn't to be.

Joyfully, his role in teaching us about beer will be celebrated for as long as there is a craft brewing business.

As always, ironies abound. I'd just finished posting about essential beer books, smiled inwardly at my memories of meeting Jackson at Rich O's and later in Denver, and then I checked my e-mail, only to learn that Jackson died last evening.

There'll be eulogies by the thousands, written and spoken by people in good beer circles who recognize the almost unfathomable extent of Jackson's contribution to the success we enjoy today. The hyperbole is deserved, because he made us all.

I'll have more to write when there's time; the show truly must go on, and we have a Bamberg-centric draft beer event kicking off on Friday. If not for Jackson, would I have visited Bamberg when I did? Would I have chosen to make good beer my life's work?

The weekend's beers are going to have his imprint, and I'm having the first one now.

All About Beer is the first place to turn for an appreciation. There'll be others, and I'll collect them at another time.