Alastair Gilmour speaks to Stuart Cail, head brewer at Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland
How did you get involved in beer?
Like many people, as a student! My two industrial placements were at Harp Lager (I know, but I was a student) in Moss Side, Manchester and Moray Firth Maltings (as was) in Arbroath, Scotland. I then studied brewing at Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh and the rest is just a...
By Alastair Gilmour
from Issue 18 published on 19/06/2008
For those of you who think that Australian beer is all fizzy gnat’s pee from big breweries you’ve obviously never experienced the joy of Coopers. The brewery has a rich history, which spans from 1862, and seen it fend off take-over bids from major multi-nationals and have the confidence to launch vintage products. BotW has a
quick chat with executive chairman and marketing director Glenn Cooper to find out more…
How did you first get involved in beer?
Being a fifth generation Cooper, my family were always involved with the brewery; during my youth my father was company secretary and the brewery was located near our family home, so beer was never very far away.
What is fashionable in Australian beer at the...
By Sally Toms
from Issue 17 published on 30/04/2008
We chat to Alastair Hook, founder, owner and brewer of Meantime Brewing in Greenwich, London.
How did you first get involved in beer?
The call to a life in beer materialised with a typically wild and wonderful escape from childhood. I drank my first pint of beer at the age of 13, Theakston’s Bitter, with my father at a pub in the Lake District – I can taste the fresh hop character to this d...
By Sally Toms
from Issue 16 published on 25/01/2008
This issue we chat to John Keeling, head brewer at London’s Fuller, Smith & Turner
How did you first get involved in beer?
I did not like school, so I left.
Unfortunately I forgot to tell my mother who got a bit miffed and found me a job in the local brewery – Wilsons Brewery in Newton Heath, which was part of the Watneys Group. As an avid Manchester United supporter, I was quit...
By John Keeling
from Issue 14 published on 04/10/2007
This issue, we share a pint with managing director of Innis & Gunn, Dougal Sharp
How did you first get involved in beer?
I started working in our family’s brewery in Edinburgh to earn pocket money while I was still at school – filling barrels, helping out on the lorries and the like. The brewery was just down the road from my school so it was very convenient for a quiet glass o...
By Sally Toms
from Issue 13 published on 03/08/2007
This issue we chat to William Lees Jones, managing director of Manchester brewer JW Lees
How did you first get involved in beer?
With the silver spoon when I was born!
I started formally as marketing manager of JW Lees when I was 28 and eventually became managing director in 2000.
What is fashionable in beer at the moment?
Anything so cold that you can’t taste that it’s beer. The UK be...
By Sally Toms
from Issue 12 published on 25/05/2007
This issue, we have a few words with Jonathan Adnam chairman of Suffolk-based Adnams brewery
How did you first get involved in beer?
I was somewhat of a wayward youth and after leaving school at 16 spent time commercial fishing and delivering lifeboats for the RNLI around the United Kingdom. Having been encouraged to join the family firm as a brewery engineer apprentice everything clicked ...
By Jonathan Adnam
from Issue 11 published on 23/03/2007
The busy Witney brewery in Oxfordshire is home to Wychwood and Brakspear beers. We chat to Rupert
Thompson, chief executive of owning company Refresh UK
How do you look back at business in recent months?
For the British beer industry it has been challenging – the summer was not as good as we would have hoped given the football and the warm weather, and the recovery in the autumn did not fully compensate.
On the other hand, there does seem to be gr...
By
from Issue 10 published on 26/01/2007
In the first of a new series we talk to a key beer industry person. This issue Dominic Roskrow talks to Jonathan Neame, chief executive of Shepherd Neame
How is business for Shepherd Neame at the moment?
We feel we are in a very strong position. We do not share the gloom and doom that you find elsewhere. We feel our position is actually getting stronger and stronger. The market is moving towards more special beers and we have an interesting portfoli...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 9 published on 22/11/2006
