He’s had a career in which he’s learned a great deal from others. So during his retirement John Keeling, former head brewer at West London’s Fuller’s, wants to continue giving back to the industry.
I have been very lucky in my career. I have had help and support throughout. I have had great mentors and encouraging friends. I always felt that I should be putting something back into the industry that has given me so much and the industry I love.
The first way I have chosen is to sit on the Advisory Board of the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling. This is part of the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences located at the Riccarton Campus of Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh. I have been on the board since 2006, when I replaced Ken Don the former head brewer of Young’s and a great stalwart of Heriot Watt. I have decided to carry on despite my retirement.
The ICBD runs an undergraduate course, an MSc and a postgraduate Diploma in Brewing and Distilling. Indeed, I myself have a BSc in Brewing and Distilling. Many Heriot Watt graduates hold positions in Brewing and Distilling around the world. It is always a delight to run into one on my travels as I have done on numerous occasions.
One of the highlights of the year is the annual reunion dinner of the Watt Club – Brewing and Distilling. This is normally held in February and normally provides a reminder on how cold Edinburgh can be. Just to confound us the weather this year was quite balmy. We normally get between 60 and 100 former brewers each year which shows how enjoyable the dinner is. The chairman this year was Amy Cockburn who kindly asked me to make a speech which amused Ken, until he realised he was to be the butt of most of my jokes.
Typical of brewers, we turn a reunion dinner into a weekend. We meet up on the Friday for a pub crawl and this year we started at the Hanging Bat followed by the Blue Blazer, Black Bull, Bow Bar, Jolly Judge, Malt Shovel and the Guildford Arms. If you had a pint in each of them, you are a better man than me.
On the Saturday of the dinner we would meet up at Campervan Brewery for a beer followed by pizza. Campervan were very generous to the brewers and we greatly appreciated it. The dinner was to be held at the Royal Scots Club and I was lucky to be staying there so I didn’t have far to stagger for my well-earned sleep.
Of course, I have some responsibilities on the board. The main one is to ensure that the brewers received a good relevant education so they can make a contribution from day one of their employment. I also give a lecture on how to work with marketing and sales, obviously one of my stronger points.
The second area I want to concentrate on in my retirement is the London Brewing Alliance. A year ago, I was elected chairman and I will stand for election again this year. Whilst I attend around five meetings per year for my Heriot Watt commitment, the LBA takes up far more of my time. We have about ten meetings a year plus committee and sub-committee meetings, most of which are great fun and require the drinking of a pint or two.
The LBA was founded in 2010 when a number of us (I think it was 13 but my memory of the event is hazy) instigated by Phil Lowry then at Brew Wharf. I along with Derek Prentice represented Fuller’s and were welcomed by all despite only brewing brown boring bitter.
One of the first things we did was to formulate our aims for the Alliance which was to promote excellence in brewing within London by promoting the sale of beer brewed by its members, promoting its members and participating in any suitable event that promotes members interests.
We also cooperate with any other body that is deemed to have similar aims and support the improvement of brewing skills among the membership
I don’t think we have any interest in the commercial business side of brewing and we have concentrated on training for brewers and the promotion of the beers.
One of the founding members was Windsor and Eton who are just outside the M25, which we decided would be our geographical boundary. But how could we expel such a fine brewery and such gentlemen as Paddy and Will, so we introduced the founder’s rule to keep them in.
Last year we ran a beer festival at Fullers, having not run one for several years. We did run two at Brew Wharf in the early years very successfully, but we followed that with a disaster at London Fields. So, from then we had shied away.
Now running a festival is a great way to promote London beer so we again tipped our toes in the water. But without Fuller’s and its superb location, the festival would not have been as successful plus Fuller’s did sponsor it too. So, we at the LBA are hugely grateful to them. I have just recently heard that the new owners have agreed to do this all over again so my great thanks to Asahi.
In fact, I think the festival will be slightly bigger and even better than before so I hope you will all join us at Fuller’s Brewery on the 27th of July. Watch out for the tickets going on sale!
