Michael Jackson R.I.P.
Six months after his demise, Michael has left the house. This month’s Rare Beer Club newsletter, which accompanies a shipment of Leireken Buckwheat Bruin, is the first to be published without the Beer Hunter’s name. I emailed Beverage Bistro’s Rob Imeson for an explanation:
As you are aware, Michael helped to found the club and was certainly our inspiration. In his role, he selected the breweries and the beers for the club well into the future. In fact, all of the breweries and many of the beers that are on the schedule for next year (and the foreseeable future) are ones that Michael approved. So, while our focus will always be to carry on in the tradition that Michael started—we also want to be very careful that we do not mislead anyone particularly as we progress to the point where the beers—and even the breweries—are not specifically selected by Michael as, at some point, will inevitably be the case. We did discuss the issue with representatives from the estate and considered other iterations but, in the end we amicably agreed that the best thing we could do would be to remove Michael’s name from the logo but, at the same time, put together a page on the website that commemorates Michael as our founder and inspiration. We think about him everyday and make every decision with the belief that he is looking over our shoulder.
FYI: Rob was a very close friend of Michael’s, and he helped raise money for Parkinson’s research after his death. I have to believe that the decision to remove his name from the club had to be incredibly difficult. I’m going to toast Michael and Rob tonight with my botttle of Leireken.
Leave a Reply