John Keeling, the former head brewer of Fuller’s, remembers Roger Ryman who has passed away. He was 52.

Everybody in brewing knows Roger Ryman by his achievements. He certainly knew how to make great beers.

I got to know him well. We were both head brewers of family brewers, we had similar problems, we sat on the same committees.

We both thought that head brewers should also be part of the wider brewing industry not just their own brewery.

We both welcomed the rise of craft brewing. He was the head brewer I used as an example for myself.

I first got to hear about Roger when he joined St Austell. One couldn’t help but be impressed.

When I sat on committees with him, he was always thoughtful and calm. He made his points well and it was a rare thing for anybody to disagree with him. 

When he was upgrading his brewhouse he brought his team to Fuller’s to spend the day looking at our new brewhouse. He wanted everybody involved not just him.

He understood instinctively that if you want something to succeed then the team operating it should be involved from the beginning, not just brought in as an after thought when all the decisions had been made.

He was a good man to have a beer with. He was an innovator. He valued tradition too. He was a leader. Never was a beer better named than Proper Job, Roger did a proper job.