Like everyone in the craft brewing industry we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the pioneering work Michael Jackson did in putting quality beer on the map. The impact of his writing and lecturing was to educate consumers all over the world about quality beer.  In his own words he wanted his work "to elevate the understanding, the diversity and the nobility of beer."  His enduring legacy is that he firmly elevated the status and appreciation of beers.

Perhaps at BrewDog we are a little bit more indebted to him.

When Martin and I were considering starting our brewery we were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to meet him. At the time we were home brewing together and really keen to quit our jobs and follow our dream. It was a pretty big risk for a couple of 24 year olds with no previous experience of running a business to consider taking. However we were extremely passionate about craft beer and were keen to put everything on the line to pursue our passion. We decided to let Michael Jackson taste our home brewed beer and get his advice on whether we should start our brewery or not. The picture shows Michael Jackson tasting a batch of Paradox which was brewed in late 2006 in Martin's garage and aged in a single Islay whisky cask.

His stunning appraisal of the early batch of our beer and his encouragement was instrumental is us taking the plunge and starting our own brewery. He loved our early Paradox beer and he was impressed with how passionate we were about the beers we were making. His encouragement combined with our favourite John Locke quote finally pushed us over the edge.

‘If we disbelieve everything because we cannot certainly know all things, we will do much - what as wisely as he who would not use his legs, but sit still and perish because he had no wings to fly.'

We did not want to sit still and perish.

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