Ray Daniels and open heart surgery

This will be good news.

It was 1997. I was a judge at the wonderful, erstwhile US Real Ale Festival. Ray Daniels was giving us our pre-festival instructions. He passed out pencils with which to take notes. On each were the words "Ray Daniels for ..." some sort of political office.

Ray would leave the politics to John Hickenlooper (brewpub owner, now mayor of Denver) and others. Instead, he would concentrate on fomenting (and fermenting) good beer. It was a decision that would be fortuitous for the rest of us.

Among his many accomplishments, Ray Daniels is the author of Designing Great Beers, the past director of the Brewers Association Craft Beer Marketing Program, and the creator and director of the beer sommelier school- Cicerone Certification Program.

In August, Ray underwent open-heart surgery.

He is recovering well and reports that his doctors have okayed him to drink beer, although at present his limit is one per day.

"Funny how good they taste," he says.

More at A Healing Heart
Photo courtesy of Brookston Beer Bulletin.