To what extent is British beer author Michael Jackson, born in Yorkshire 1942, died London 2007, relevant to the modern beer landscape?
Jackson authored numerous books and countless pieces of journalism, as well as starring in an important video series on beer. His 1977 The World Guide to Beer and 1975 The English Pub are particularly important in this history. Some of his freshest, most original and vibrant work lies therein, not least his typology, or beer classification system that classified beer types such as saison, bitter, Imperial Stout, Trappist, brown ale, using literary flourish.
Some were old-established categories, bitter and mild ale say, or German pils, but he imparted a mystique to their existence, a new importance, by poetic writing emphasised by effective illustration. And he more or less singlehandedly created categories such as Imperial Stout and Trappist Beer, which have become cornerstones of the modern beer scene, in some cases much expanded by sub-set types. Bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stout, say.
Of course there were other beer writers even in his time, in the U.K. and United States, who are important to this history. And countless publicans, hop scientists and farmers, and homebrewers who never knew the Jackson name or barely. Add to that publicists, export associations, and others obviously important to where the craft brewing scene ended.
All this noted, my view is his influence was and remains landmark, but with passage of the years increasingly hidden, latent vs. patent as earlier. New generations of writers and other scenesters have made their mark, but he is still a major undertow, the influence felt on the surface but largely unseen.
Having spent part of each year recently in France, I noted Jackson’s influence as well, but much less than in UK or North America. And that is because craft brewing is less prominent there. Certainly it exists, each region has its clutch of small-scale, often recently established brewersies whose range is influenced by the beer revolution that kicked off in the anglosphere.*
But except in the largest cities and even there, it is not as visible as here. Most beer sold is international-style lager, the trade dominated by large international beer groups such as Carlsberg, Heineken, and Anheuser Busch InBev. There are smaller, old-school French breweries, Licorne say (formerly Saverne) in the east, or Brasserie Saint-Omer in the north (both traditional brewing regions), but their stock in trade is similarly blonde, mild-tasting lager of about 5% abv.
The off-piste offerings from these larger and smaller breweries is the abbey beer – Grimbergen, Leffe, Affligem are some of the big names. The smaller brewers market their version, Goudale is one well-known from Brasserie Saint-Omer. Beers styled as Christmas for the season, often spiced, are another specialty of the old-established brewers large and smaller, a tradition that pre-dates modern craft beer.
Below is Licorne’s Christmas beer still available in some French bars in late January.
The abbey beer phenomenon is a spin-off not so much of the Jackson-craft beer development, but rather a longstanding interest in France in Belgian beer. It goes back at least to the 1950s, when Belgian-style beer bars were set up in Paris. Academie de la Bière is one, on boul. Port Royal, and a couple of other names from that era also survive.
Small amounts of Belgian Trappist beer were imported to France from the 1960s at least. When I first visited France in the 1980s, “Christmas” and Scotch ales from Belgium, often bearing old-fashioned British names, were popular. The Leffe-type beer (spicy, phenolic in taste) too but the latter grew exponentially in subsequent decades. It became the alternative to the corner bar blond beer. The Leffe type is known now as bière spéciale, vs. bière de soif for the 5% golden lager.
In other words, while good craft beer exists all over France but often has to be sought out, the main drivers are pale international lagers, in development now for over a century, and the Abbey/Trappist type, also Saison. These are stronger, usually darker by one or more degrees, and distinctive from the phenolic Belgian taste.
Imports, apart Belgian beers, play a minor role in the French scene. Certainly a few hundred types are available if you count them all but scattered in all types of retail and hospitality environments and not a factor for the big picture.
And so, had Michael Jackson never existed, I think our beer scene here would look a lot like that of France, even more so France of 20 years ago when craft brewing in our conception was still new. There would be some revival of long-closed breweries making pale 5% lagers not greatly different to the national-selling light beers, but the latter would have most of the sales (as they do now of course). The Anchor Brewing-type company probably would have proliferated, making idiosyncratic beers, but how far is hard to tell.
I doubt Abbey beers would have made an impact here similar to that in France, as the taste is too exotic for North Americans even as a niche market. Maybe bock beers would have revived in a similar way, in the (fairly pallid) style prevalent in North America before craft gained the cachet. And British-type ales, to a degree.** I doubt the grapefruity Cascade hop and its progeny would have made anything near the impact they have, because craft ale brewing largely originated their use, greatly boosted by Jackson’s influence.
Imports from the great beer countries are today a significant factor in the North American market, and that would have continued Jackson or no. The Beck’s-type beer, Heineken, the good German lagers, the Czech classics, would be here just as now but in the absence of thousands of craft breweries, would likely have a higher profile.
So, I think Jackson’s importance can be gleaned by considering what our beer environment would look like without him. I think it would resemble that of France, especially when only a few anglosphere-style craft breweries existed there. Instead of the Abbey beer as the main alternative to the 5% pale blond beer, there might be more bock beers and perhaps British-style ales. Maybe too a premium class of domestic lagers, what was called the Third Taste in the 1960s. Unlike modern France, non-Belgian imports would retain greater importance here.
What about India Pale Ale, anchor of modern craft brewing? Would that exist in a Jacksonless beer world? I doubt it, as IPA had practically disappeared from North American and UK beer shelves and bars when craft started, and is unlikely to have been revived, or by that name. IPA, as things developed in North America, proved an outgrowth of craft pale ales, themselves greatly magnified in appeal by Jackson’s pioneering work. So without a Jackson, without a home-grown raft of pale ales from which IPA took root, I doubt IPA would be any kind of unit here.
This said, it must be acknowledged that Jackson did not promote India Pale Ale as such in early writings. I described that history in my blog series IPA – A Pretty Romance.
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*There are over 2,000 craft breweries in France currently according to Statista, a many-fold increase in the last two decades. Currently France has about 65,000,000 people. On a day to day basis to this observer, their profile is relatively low, especially in bars, cafes, and brasseries. Specialty pubs and of course brewery brewery taps offer more selection but often must be sought out, especially outside the largest centres. Retailers offer more choice, but selection can be spotty and somewhat random, in our experience again. Well-established craft brands like Gallia tend to have more national penetration hence appear often in the large chain retail stores. Beer specialty retailers certainly exist, or as part of wine stores.
**Not likely steam beer, or under that name, since Anchor Brewing in San Francisco trade-marked the term after Fritz Maytag took control in the 1960s.
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