John Keeling: “Some of the criticism coming out of keg fanatics is incorrect and it’s born out of ignorance”
“You can, and should try to, educate consumers about the merits of good beer, and the best way for people to like a beer you enjoy, and respect, is to drink it. But for some people, their prejudice won’t allow them to taste, and like, a good beer. And you can’t win with people like that. I don’t know many of those types as there’s not a huge amount of them, thankfully,” explains a defiant John Keeling, nestled in his office at Fuller, Smith & Turner’s Griffin Brewery in West London.
Stepping into Keeling’s office is akin to to being greeted with an abridged insight into some of the key moments and highlights from the head brewer’s 34 years at the Chiswick brewery.
Sitting in-between photos of old colleagues and various accolades and awards, is an impressive cross-section of beer bottles, old and new. Fuller’s Vintage Ale and Robinson’s Old Tom sit side-by-side with Stone Brewing Co and Firestone Walker from the US, breweries he both respects and is mutually respected by.
And Keeling’s ability to marry tradition and the new, is one of the main reasons the Manchester-born brewer remains a key figure in the brewing landscape, both in the UK and abroad.
While he knows Fuller’s back-to-front, and having travelled the world regaling drinkers about the merits of good beer, Keeling remains an opinionated, vocal advocate of the cause he continues to fight.
“There are dyed in the wool difficult drinkers but there are those drinking in the craft beer world won’t appreciate traditional cask beer. Some of the criticism coming out of keg fanatics is incorrect and it’s born out of ignorance. But they can be vocal, writing in to magazines, tweeting about “boring brown beer” and the middle ground, where a lot of people lie, are subjected to this,” he laments.
Modern success
But Keeling doesn’t sit where he does today by taking criticism on the chin. In the 2015 financial year, Fuller’s brewery operation contributed considerably to increasing group sales of £321.5 million, a 12% hike on the £288million made in 2014.
And while turnover is vanity and profit is sanity, the latter increased too, with a 7% growth in adjusted profit before tax to £36.4 million. Impressive figures and an indication of the continued success of one of the UK’s most well-known breweries.
“Some of the family breweries that have taken to the modern world well, are aware that things are changing. If you sit in a place and don’t think that, it means there is only two ways you can go,” he explains.
He adds: “And there are breweries like that where it is a more than acceptable solution. Look at Harvey’s for instance, a fantastic brewery, but they aren’t interested in the world domination approach adopted by someone like BrewDog, who also make some good beer. But they are vastly different in the types of beer they choose to make, and the companies that they are running.”
