(1926–), homebrewer, influential beer and sake author, and one of American craft brewing’s most important and enduring personalities. Author of the 1989 book The Essentials of Beer Style, he set out a road map for classical beer styles that was eagerly followed by many brewers during the microbrewing revolution of the 1990s. His first book, A Treatise on Lager Beers, was a homebrewing book released in 1969, several years before the hobby was made legal in the United States. A relentlessly upbeat presence in the American Northwest beer scene, Eckhardt’s residency in Portland, Oregon, no doubt partly explains why craft beer has a market share of more than 35% in that city.

Eckhardt became enamored with European beer while stationed in Japan during the Korean War as a radio operator in the Marines. The beer on hand in Japan was Denmark’s Tuborg. Once back in the United States he came to realize that the United States also had a great beer history that could be revitalized. His own early homebrewing was a blend of published winemaking techniques and his original research of professional brewing texts. He went on to inspire legions of homebrewers and professional brewers alike, writing the first regular beer column in the United States and hosting hundreds of events over more than 2 decades as one of the best known and best loved beer educators in the country. Eckhardt still writes for several publications, including All About Beer magazine, and his impish smile and trademark waxed mustache make him instantly recognizable to thousands of beer enthusiasts. Although beer is his primary interest, Eckhardt has also published books on sake, helping spark an interest in craft sake making in the United States.