Wednesday, November 26, 2014

To give thanks is a matter of joy. Should that be confined by excessive sobriety?

To give thanks is a matter of joy. Should that be confined by excessive sobriety?

That was how Michael Jackson commented upon American Thanksgiving, in A Twist on Tradition: The Right Beer, Dish by Dish, a 1983 Washington Post byline on choosing beer, not wine, for the Thanksgiving meal.

That would be the 'other' Michael Jackson, a British beer writer, the ungloved one, the Beer Hunter, who, in his long career, set a very high bar for modern beer writing, across all borders. That I feel it necessary to identify which Jackson I mean pushes me into 'kids-these-days' territory.

As quotidien as the idea of good-beer-with-good-food may appear today, three decades ago it was an epicurean epiphany, a "twist" against the style-makers. Jackson didn't personally conjoin these taste-companions, but he did certainly nurture them.

'Serious' meal?

Tomorrow, with the Thanksgiving meal, I will open a bottle of cider, gueuze, or Trappist ale; maybe a barleywine with pie. I will attempt to avoid excessive sobriety.

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