One of the most popular was “E.S.B.”, indicating a beer modelled on the Extra Special Bitter made by Fuller’s of London. Today, the makers of Budweiser have a share in a micro-brewery renowned for that style of beer. Wherever you see an American example of such a speciality, you are likely to see an imported original.Washington, DC, and specifically a bar called The Brickskeller, is a hotbed of beer revolutionaries. When I first appeared there more than a decade ago to read from my book, I wondered whether they would sell any tickets.

But the advertisement on the door had been pasted over with the legend: “Sold Out”. Were they expecting a different Michael Jackson?”Your backing group will be the Tom Principato Blues Band,” the promoter informed me.”Backing group? What am I doing?”"You are reading from your work.”All rather Ginsberg-ish. “The Brick” has a tiny spotlit stage and the atmosphere of a speakeasy, perhaps a supper club. Stars of the show this year included John Willie Lees’ Harvest Ale, matured in Lagavulin whisky casks.I’m back in Washington on 29 March, for my fourth tasting at a quite different venue, The National Geographic Society. It’s one of those cool, dignified institutions: all polished granite outside, tropical hardwoods inside, and a raked lecture theatre This year’s Live…

from National Geographic series includes Dr Meave Leakey, on “New Hominid Discoveries”, Dr Robert Ballard on “Noah’s Flood and the Black Sea”, and Michael Jackson on “Great Beers of the United Kingdom and Ireland”. The beers we hope to feature include Brain’s Dark (a classic Mild, from Cardiff), Fuller’s Chiswick Bitter, Porterhouse Oyster Stout, and Kelpie Scottish Ale (made with seaweed).Anthony Fuller was one of several European brewers who came to Philadelphia last year for my tenth series of tastings at the University of Pennsylvania. Its Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has brewing artefacts from the Sumerian civilisation. Tastings are held in the museum’s galleries, among sphinxes and mummies, and attract 1,000-1,500 people: three sittings in one afternoon It is the toughest working day of my year. Last year’s beers included St Peter’s Nettle Ale (Suffolk), Melbourn Brothers spontaneously fermenting Apricot Beer (Lincolnshire) and Ebulum Elderberry Ale (Alloa, Scotland).It was in the city of brotherly love that a stylish young woman broke into a sprint to ask me for an autograph. That happened once, one of the few times that I was travelling with my girlfriend.