Beer in his name would've been 'greatest honour' for Jim MacNeill, son says

An Island brewery will be honouring a real-life "rabble rouser" with its latest craft beer.

Copper Bottom Brewing is launching a new craft beer in honour of the late Jim MacNeill, the former publisher of P.E.I.'s Eastern Graphic. TheMontague brewery will release a new craft beer called "Rabble Rouser Red" on Thursday.

"We're absolutely tickled," said MacNeill's son Paul MacNeill. "I'm not underestimating this at all. This would be considered the greatest honour that dad ever received if he were alive today."

The launch date on Thursday would have been the elder MacNeill's82ndbirthday and it's also the one-year anniversary of Copper Bottom Brewing signingthe deal to purchase the old Eastern Graphic building.

The cans will feature an artistic drawing of JimMacNeill, according to Ashley Condon, the co-ownerof Copper Bottom Brewing.The new beer is described as"an American Red Ale with a crisp andbold malt profile."

PaulMacNeill,the current publisher of the Eastern Graphic and other publications, said his dad made friends wherever he went and even had stickers printed of a cartoon drawing ofhimself in a kilt with "This bar approved by Jim MacNeill," that can be found around the world.

"He was a man who was so true to his core that journalism mattered, that you always told the truth, that you held public officials to account, but he also had this incredible social side," MacNeill said."He loved drinking a glass and talking to people from all social and economic levels and he was just someone who always had a giggle wherever he went."

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