Historic Beer Birthday: John Bird Fuller

March 6, 2025 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the birthday of John Bird Fuller (March 6, 1801-May 27, 1872). He was the son of John Fuller, who became a part owner of the Griffin Brewery around 1829, though it had been founded as early as 1816. When his father passed away, John Bird made moved to become sole owner and then brought in two new investors, John Smith, his son, Henry Smith, and his son-in-law, John Turner. In 1845, the new enterprise was called Fuller, Smith & Turner PLC, which is still the official name of Fuller’s Brewery today.

John Bird Fuller was born on 6 March 1801. He was the son of John Fuller and Dinah Jeans. He married Sophia Harriet Hanning, daughter of William Hanning and Harriet Lee, on 22 June 1829. He died on 27 May 1872 at age 71.
He held the office of High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1852. He held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Wiltshire. He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant (D.L.) of Wiltshire. He lived at Neston Park, Wiltshire, England.

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The Fuller’s Brewery in 1902.

Here’s a history of the brewery from Fuller’s website page entitled “History and Heritage:”

Immortalised in the name of one of our famous ales, 1845 is a year that will forever be Fuller’s. It was then that the partnership papers of Fuller, Smith & Turner were officially signed, marking the start of something very special for London’s brewery scene.
However, the Fuller’s story had been brewing long before then.
Beer has been made in this part of the capital for more than 350 years, dating back to the era of Oliver Cromwell. Back then, it was quite common for large households to brew their own beer.
In the late 1600s, one such private brewhouse was in the gardens of Bedford House on Chiswick Mall. Another, a far humbler concern, was operating nearby at the cottage of Thomas Urlin.
When Urlin died, the property passed to his widow and son-in-law, a gentleman named Thomas Mawson, who stepped in to take up the reigns as manager. It was he who laid the foundations for a major brewing enterprise – buying The George public house and two adjoining cottages for £70, then later snapping up the brewhouse on Bedford House too.
Thomas Mawson is still honoured today through the Mawson Arms, the pub located on the Brewery site.
Legal wranglings
The next notable owners of the brewery were John Thompson and David Roberts, whose six-year partnership suffered due to a series of legal wranglings. The duo predictably parted company in 1786 when Roberts left to join the Royal Household and Thompson soldiered on alone.
Eventually, the brewery passed to his sons, Douglas and Henry. It was under their stewardship, in 1816, that the brewery first acquired the Griffin name and emblem. The Griffin had previously been the symbol of Meux and Reid’s Brewery in the aptly-named Liquorpond Street, but when that business collapsed, the Thompson brothers moved swiftly to snaffle the name.
“In a letter to his brother in 1828, Henry Thompson boasted of increasing sales from 8,000 to 24,000 barrels. Things continue to head the right way. In 2013, we sold 334,000.”
The adoption of the Griffin is a decision that’s certainly stood the test of time, but other decisions by the pair were far less successful. Double dealings pertaining to mortgages led the brothers – and the brewery – to the brink of ruin. They needed investment, and fast.
Enter John Fuller
The Thompson brothers invited Philip Wood, brother of London’s Lord Mayor, into the partnership, but Wood knew his money alone couldn’t save the brewery. He too looked elsewhere for help. It came from one John Fuller.
Fuller was a wealthy country gentleman and he jumped at the chance to come aboard, investing primarily on behalf of his son. He soon bought one of the Thompsons out, and, within a couple of years, found himself the majority shareholder at the brewery.
In 1839, John Fuller died and passed control to his son, John Bird Fuller. The younger Fuller moved quickly to make his mark, and by 1845 he’d severed ties with the Thompsons to take the reins by himself.
He sought investment and expertise from third parties though, and John Smith – already helping to run a successful brewery elsewhere – was invited aboard. He invested on behalf of his son, Henry Smith, and his son-in-law, John Turner.
So it was that Fuller, Smith & Turner came into being.
A new era
Smith and Turner brought with them a welcome bonus – an extensive list of private customers for whom the brewery went on to make a special kind of beer. It was known as HK (hopped and keepable), and a milder version went into production too.
Until that point, the brewery had brewed only ‘ale’ and ‘hock’. Even porter, which had been popular since the mid-1700s, wasn’t adopted at Griffin Brewery until the 1840s.
Slow on the uptake perhaps – but we like to think we’ve made up for it since.
Indeed since that date, the Griffin Brewery has gone from strength to strength. In 1929, exactly 100 years after the first Fuller had come to Chiswick, Fuller, Smith & Turner became a limited company.

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From a visit to the brewery in 2007.

And this is from Wikipedia:

Beer has been brewed on Fuller’s historic Griffin Brewery site in Chiswick since the seventeenth century. From the original brewery in the gardens of Bedford House on Chiswick Mall, the business expanded and thrived until the early part of the nineteenth century. Money problems forced the owners, Douglas and Henry Thompson and Philip Wood, to seek a partner. John Fuller, of Neston Park, Wiltshire was approached to see if he would inject the required amount of money. In 1829 he joined the enterprise, but the partnership proved a difficult one and in 1841 Douglas Thompson fled to France and the partnership was dissolved. It soon became apparent that it was impossible for one man with no brewing experience to run a brewery of that size alone so in 1845 John Fuller’s son, John Bird Fuller, was joined by Henry Smith from the Romford Brewery of Ind & Smith and his brother-in-law, Head Brewer John Turner, thereby forming Fuller Smith & Turner.

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After our tour, our tour guide with Shaun O’Sullivan and Christian Kazakoff.

Historic Beer Birthday: William Bass

March 2, 2025 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the birthday of William Bass (1717-March 2, 1787). Since the exact date of his birth is uncertain, in fact some sources give his birth year as 1721, the best date we have for him is when he died. For most of his life he worked as a general carrier, and moved to Burton-upon-Trent with his bride shortly after they married when he was 39, in 1756. His business increasingly involved carrying beer, and sensing an opportunity, he saved his money for many years. When he was sixty, in 1777, he founded the Bass Brewery

This is a short biography of Bass from the Local History of Burton upon Trent:

William’s father died when he was just fifteen. The eldest son, John, succeeded his father as plumber and glazier, leaving William to look after the running of the small-holding. Eventually, John and William established a carrier business and by 1754, they were operating a bi-directional service between Manchester and London but the following year, William gained complete control over the carrying business with his brother preferring to concentrate on the original established business so that he could remain in Hinckley.
In 1756, William married Mary Gibbons, the daughter of a London publican close who ran the ‘Red Lion’ close to the London depot. They chose to make their home in Burton upon Trent because it was mid-way en route from Manchester and London, was a growing industrial and commercial centre, and was positioned on the new, under construction Trunk canal.
From Burton, he carried felt hats, which had a strong manufacturing presence in Burton, together with spades, axes, screws and hardware predominantly for Thomas Thornewill’s works in New Street but also for other Burton manufacturers such as Richard Green. Increasingly, he was also shipping casks of beer from Burton’s steadily growing brewery trade for the likes of Charles Leeson, William Musgrave, Samuel Sketchley, Joseph Clay, Thomas Lovatt and Henry Evans.
Living in a modest house in Wetmore, William’s first of two sons, Michael Thomas was born in 1759. As a well established carrier proprietor, in 1765, William Bass was able to lease a large new house in High Street.
He entered brewing relatively late in life, aged 60, by selling his transportation business to the Pickford family and using the funds to purchase a Town House in High Street, with a brewery and malthouse on adjoining land, seeing brewing as providing a better future business for his two sons.
The Bass Brewery catered mainly for the domestic market, but in 1784 he started to export ale directly to the Baltic (Russia) via Hull. After his death, he was succeeded in the business by his sons William and Michael and in 1795 Michael took sole control.

This etching, from 1882, is the earliest known image showing the completed new buildings together with the original one on the left.

Here is his entry from Wikipedia:

The exact origins of William Bass, the founder of the brewery are not clear, but a scholarly account of the history of the Bass brewery shows that in the 1720s he was living with his parents, John and Ann Bass, and his two brothers, John and Thomas, in Hinckley, Leicestershire.
His father, a plumber and glazier, died when William was 15, after which he carried on a carrier business with his older brother John in Hinckley, Leicestershire. In 1756 William married Mary Gibbons, daughter of a London publican who ran the Red Lion Inn close to the London depot. They chose Burton-upon-Trent as their home because it was midway between Manchester and London, was a growing industrial-commercial centre, and was ideally positioned on the new Trunk canal, continuing his business there as a carrier of beer, his chief client being Benjamin Printon, a local brewer.
By 1777, aged 60, he had saved some money, and, seeing the growing demand for Burton beer, he entered the brewing business. He bought a town house in the High Street, which contained a brewery and malthouse on adjoining land. Burton was already a thriving brewing town with several breweries exploiting the growing export beer trade via the Trent Navigation and Hull to the Baltic ports in Russia, mainly Saint Petersburg. He established the Bass Brewery and catered mainly for the domestic market, but in 1784 he started to export ale directly to Russia.
After his death, he was succeeded in the business by his sons William and Michael, and in 1795 Michael took sole control.

The Bass Town House, as would have looked in 1834.

And here’s part of the early history of the Bass Brewery he founded:

Prior to establishing a brewery, William Bass transported ale for brewer Benjamin Printon. Bass sold this carrier business to the Pickford family, using the funds to establish Bass & Co Brewery in 1777 as one of the first breweries in Burton-upon-Trent.
Early in the company’s history, Bass was exporting bottled beer around the world, serving the Baltic region through the port of Hull. Growing demand led his son Michael Thomas Bass (senior), to build a second brewery in Burton in 1799 in partnership with John Ratcliff. The water produced from local boreholes became popular with brewers, with 30 operating there by the mid-19th century. His son, Michael Thomas Bass, succeeded on his father’s death in 1827, renewed the Ratcliff partnership, brought in John Gretton, and created ‘Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton.’

And this is from a Burton-on-Trent history website:

William Bass, born in 1717, was the second son of three sons of William Bass who ran a moderately successful plumbing and glaziery business and small-holding in Hinkley.
William’s father died when he was just fifteen. The eldest son, John, succeeded his father as plumber and glazier, leaving William to look after the running of the small-holding. Eventually, John and William established a carrier business and by 1754, they were operating a bi-directional service between Manchester and London but the following year, William gained complete control over the carrying business with his brother preferring to concentrate on the original established business so that he could remain in Hinckley.
In 1756, William married Mary Gibbons, the daughter of a London publican close who ran the ‘Red Lion’ close to the London depot. They chose to make their home in Burton upon Trent because it was mid-way en route from Manchester and London, was a growing industrial and commercial centre, and was positioned on the new, under construction Trunk canal.
From Burton, he carried felt hats, which had a strong manufacturing presence in Burton, together with spades, axes, screws and hardware predominantly for Thomas Thornewill’s works in New Street but also for other Burton manufacturers such as Richard Green. Increasingly, he was also shipping casks of beer from Burton’s steadily growing brewery trade for the likes of Charles Leeson, William Musgrave, Samuel Sketchley, Joseph Clay, Thomas Lovatt and Henry Evans.
Living in a modest house in Wetmore, William’s first of two sons, Michael Thomas was born in 1759. As a well established carrier proprietor, in 1765, William Bass was able to lease a large new house in High Street.
He entered brewing relatively late in life, aged 60, by selling his transportation business to the Pickford family and using the funds to purchase a Town House in High Street, with a brewery and malthouse on adjoining land, seeing brewing as providing a better future business for his two sons.
The Bass Brewery catered mainly for the domestic market, but in 1784 he started to export ale directly to the Baltic (Russia) via Hull. After his death, he was succeeded in the business by his sons William and Michael and in 1795 Michael took sole control.

William Bass and one of the firm’s earliest pubs in Hinckley

Historic Beer Birthday: Robert Neame

February 25, 2025 By Jay Brooks

shepherd-neame
Today is the birthday of Robert Harry Beale Neame, though he was generally known as Bobby (February 25, 1934-November 15, 2019). He joined his family’s company, Shephard Neame in 1956, and in 1971 became the chairman of the company, a position he held until retiring in 2005, when he was named president.

He passed away recently, in 2019, and here is his obituary from the Guardian:

Robert Neame, who has died aged 85, helped safeguard the independence of Shepherd Neame, Britain’s oldest brewery. He was a director from 1957 until 2006 and steered it through the turbulence of the 1960s and 70s, when many family breweries were taken over by national groups keen to acquire more pubs to fill with keg beer and lager.
Bobby, as he was known, joined the family business as marketing director in 1956. Shepherd Neame, founded in 1698 in Faversham in the heart of the Kent hop fields, enjoyed a good reputation for its beer, while its large estate of pubs was tempting bait for bigger brewers. In 1967 Shepherd Neame’s rival in Faversham, Fremlin’s, was bought by Whitbread. Bobby and his family were determined that their brewery would not suffer a similar fate.
Born in London, Bobby was the son of Violet (nee Cobb) and Jasper Neame, chairman and managing director of the brewery until 1961. He went to Harrow school, where he became head boy. Before he joined the family firm he went on a grand tour of breweries in Europe and Scandinavia to gain experience of both making and selling beer. He finished the tour at Hürlimann in Zurich, a visit that led to the Swiss lager being brewed at Faversham.
One of Bobby’s first tasks at the family brewery was to add keg beer to its cask and bottled ales. Such filtered and pasteurised keg beers as Watney’s Red Barrel and Worthington E were taking sales away from traditional beer – and Shepherd Neame knew it had to respond with its own version.
The Shepherd Neame brewery in Faversham, Kent. Photograph: Shepherd Neame
Bobby was given £1,000 to set up a keg plant and he recalled buying two tanks from a Mr Roberts in north London. It was like a scene from Steptoe and Son, he said, with the deal sealed behind Tottenham Hotspur football ground over a lunch of greasy chops on a tablecloth of newspapers. At the brewery the new keg beer was pasteurised in a primitive fashion, with kegs lowered into two zinc baths filled with hot water.
Bobby became chairman of the brewery in 1971 and was able to add more distinguished beers than those brewed under the keg initiative. One of his great achievements was to launch, in 1990, a new cask and bottled beer called Spitfire. It commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, when the RAF defeated the Luftwaffe in the skies above Kent. Spitfire went on to become the brewery’s best known and biggest-selling beer.
In the 90s Bobby and the brewery faced the threat of a new invasion, with the rise of hordes of British drinkers crossing to Calais on what became known as “booze cruises”. They returned with boxes of French beer that cost half the price of British beer as a result of far lower rates of duty in France.
Shepherd Neame, close to Dover and Folkestone, was badly affected by the cheap imports. Bobby hit back by exporting his strong ale, Bishops Finger, to Calais and other parts of northern France. The beer, first brewed in the 50s, takes its name from ancient road signs directing pilgrims to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Bishops Finger became a cult beer in France and helped counter the impact of cheap imports.
Bobby and his fellow directors lobbied successive British governments over the punitive rates of duty imposed on British beer. The campaign had only limited success, with some freezes on duty in recent years, but Bobby was able to use another government policy to build his pub estate.
In the early 90s the Conservative government, following advice from a report by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission into the brewing industry that had castigated the national brewers, forced the nationals (the Big Six) to sell off large parcels of their pubs. As a result, Bobby was able to snap up a number of pubs from Whitbread.
When Bobby retired as chairman in 2005 he was given the honorary role of president. He passed to his son, Jonathan, a company producing 200,000 barrels of beer a year, with 320 pubs and hotels, and substantial free trade.
Bobby was active in Kent life. A one-nation Tory, he was leader of Kent county council between 1982 and 1984. He was deputy lieutenant of Kent in 1992 and high sheriff in 2001. A passionate supporter of cricket, he was president of Kent county cricket club in 1992. He was appointed CBE in 1999.
He was married twice, first in 1961 to Sally Corben. The marriage ended in divorce, and in 1974 he married Yvonne Mackenzie. He is survived by Yvonne, their daughter, Moray, his children Jonathan, Charlotte and Sarah from his first marriage, and nine grandchildren; his son Richard died in 1968.

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Shepherd Neame is an English independent regional brewery founded in 1698 in Faversham, Kent. Evidence has been uncovered showing brewing has taken place continuously on the current site since at least 1573. It is the oldest brewer in Great Britain and has been family-owned since 1864. The brewery produces a range of cask ales and filtered beers. Production is around 281,000 brewers’ barrels a year. It owns 338 pubs & hotels predominantly in Kent, London and South East England.

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From the Neame Family Research:

The next generation faced the same difficulties in the 1960s. Bobby Neame came to work at the Brewery in 1956. In September 1957 he became a director when Madeleine Finn, due to retire, decided to step down. Jasper, his father was ill at the time, but Bobby was back at work in the following January. By the September 1969 AGM he had widened his range considerably and it was said that he was helping in the Brewery, and was in charge of the free trade, advertising etc.

Laurie’s son, Colin Roger Beale Neame joined the company in October 1959, to help his father in the bottled beer department, a month after Rex Neame had joined in Managing ‘Queen Court’. At the September 1961 AGM after serving a probationary period on the Board, they both became full members. As the production director, he was in charge of the more technical side of the brewing business, making improvements in the bottling plant and keg beer, by utilizing many labour saving techniques. He also introduced a small biochemical laboratory employing a laboratory technician.

Jasper died on 18 Jan 1961 at the early age of 56, Laurie then becoming sole managing director. He survived his brother for another nine years and continued his interest in production.

Following is his father’s footsteps, Bobby took particular interest in the sales side of the business. This became especially important once the larger brewers started investing heavily in advertising, especially on commercial television. Bobby then became marketing manager in charge of “improving the image of the Company in the eyes of the public”, showing greater attention to publicity, with advertising on Southern Television in 1970.

In 1968 the Cobb brewing company in Margate (with its family connection) again came on the market, together with 38 licensed premises. The Cobbs found it increasingly difficult to survive independently after the increasing success of the Butlins hotels group took over much of its trade. It was taken over by the Whitbreads in Januray 1968 and ceased to brew in the following October. This now left Shepherd Neame as ‘the last independent brewery in Kent.’

On 19 Dec 1970, Laurie died suddenly and unexpectedly at the end of the day, after all the excitement when his second son, Stuart, was married. In March 1971 Bobby became chairman and Colin managing director.

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I love the stained glass windows showing the brewery’s history.

Martyn Cornell has a nice photo tour of the Shepherd Neame Brewery. And on YouTube there’s an interesting tour of the brewery.

Historic Beer Birthday: Samuel Charles Whitbread

February 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Samuel Charles Whitbread (February 22, 1937- ), an heir to the Whitbread Brewery, who was president of the brewery and Whitbread’s other businesses from 1972 to 2001, when he retired. There’s some basic biographical information from the Peerage:

Sir Samuel Charles Whitbread was born on 22 February 1937. He is the son of Major Simon Whitbread and Helen Beatrice Margaret Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis.3 He married Jane Mary Hayter, daughter of Charles William John Hugh Hayter, on 31 August 1961.
He was educated at Eton College, Windsor, Berkshire, England. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. He held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Bedfordshire in 1969. He was a director of Whitbread plc between 1972 and 2001. He held the office of High Sheriff of Bedfordshire between 1973 and 1974. He was invested as a Knight, Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (K.St.J.). He was invested as a Fellow, Linnean Society (F.L.S.). He was invested as a Fellow, Royal Society of Arts (F.R.S.A.). He was chairman of Whitbread & Company between 1984 and 1992. He held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Bedfordshire in 1991. He lived in 2003 at Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England. He was invested as a Dame Commander, Royal Victorian Order (D.C.V.O.) in 2010.

b12-246 Lord Samuel Whitbread, outgoing Lord Lieutenant in the comfort of his own home at Southill estate.

This is his entry from the International Who’s Who for 2004.

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Historic Beer Birthday: Henry Allsopp

February 19, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Henry Allsopp, also known as the 1st Baron Hindlip (February 19, 1811–April 2, 1887). He was the son of Samuel Allsopp, who purchased the brewery started in the 1740s by his uncle, Benjamin Wilson, in 1807. Bringing his family into the business, he renamed it Samuel Allsopp & Sons. When his father died in 1838, the Burton-on-Trent brewery passed to Henry Allsopp. “He was very upset when shareholders claimed they had been misled over its 1887 stockmarket flotation, and he died within weeks of the criticism.”

Here’s a short biography of Allsopp from “Modern English Biography,” published in 1892:

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Here’s a history of Allsopp’s brewery from Wikipedia:

Allsopp’s origins go back to the 1740s, when Benjamin Wilson, an innkeeper-brewer of Burton, brewed beer for his own premises and sold some to other innkeepers. Over the next 60 years, Wilson and his son and successor, also called Benjamin, cautiously built up the business and became the town’s leading brewer. In about 1800, Benjamin Junior took his nephew Samuel Allsopp into the business and then in 1807, following a downturn in trade because of the Napoleonic blockade, he sold his brewery to Allsopp for £7,000.
Allsopp struggled at first as he tried to replace the lost Baltic trade with home trade, but in 1822 he successfully copied the India Pale Ale of Hodgson, a London brewer, and business started to improve.
After Samuel’s death in 1838, his sons Charles and Henry continued the brewery as Allsopp and Sons. In 1859 they built a new brewery near the railway station, and added a prestigious office block in 1864. By 1861 Allsopps was the second largest brewery after Bass. Henry Allsopp retired in 1882 and his son Samuel Charles Allsopp took over. Allsopps was incorporated as a public limited company in 1887 under the style Samuel Allsopp & Sons Limited . There were scuffles at the doors of the bank in the City as potential investors fought for copies of the prospectus, but within three years, these investors were demanding their money back as the returns were so much lower than predicted. Under Samuel Allsopp, ennobled as the 2nd Lord Hindlip on the death of his father, Allsopps lurched from crisis to crisis. With the difficult trading conditions for beer at the beginning of the 20th century, many Burton breweries were forced to close down or amalgamate. After a failed attempt at a merger with Thomas Salt and Co and the Burton Brewery Company in 1907, Allsopps fell into the hands of the receivers in 1911. The company’s capital was restructured and it continued trading. In 1935 Samuel Allsopp & Sons merged with Ind Coope Ltd to form Ind Coope and Allsopp Ltd. The Allsopp name was dropped in 1959 and in 1971 Ind Coope was incorporated into Allied Breweries.

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And here’s another history from “The Brewing Industry: A Guide to Historical Records,” edited by Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton, published in 1990:

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Historic Beer Birthday: Samuel C. Whitbread

February 16, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Samuel Charles Whitbread (February 16, 1796-May 22, 1879). “He was the grandson of Samuel Whitbread,” who founded the brewery Whitbread & Co. Samuel C. “represented the constituency of Middlesex (1820–1830) and was High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1831. His interests were astronomy and meteorology. He served as president of the Royal Meteorological Society from 1850 to 1853. In June 1854 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.”

Here is a portion of his biography from the History of Parliament:

b. 16 Feb. 1796, 3rd but 2nd surv. s. of Samuel Whitbread† (d. 1815) of Cardington and Southill, Beds. and Elizabeth, da. of Lt.-Gen. Sir Charles Grey of Falloden, Northumb.; bro. of William Henry Whitbread*. educ. by private tutor Richard Salmon 1802-7; Sunninghill, Berks. (Rev. Frederick Neve) 1807; Eton 1808; St. John’s, Camb. 1814. m. (1) 28 June 1824, Juliana (d. 13 Oct. 1858), da. of Maj.-Gen. Henry Otway Trevor (afterwards Brand), 3s. (1 d.v.p.) 3da. (1 d.v.p.); (2) 18 Feb. 1868, Lady Mary Stephenson Keppel, da. of William Charles, 4th earl of Albemarle, wid. of Henry Frederick Stephenson*, s.p. suc. bro. to family estates 1867. d. 27 May 1879. Offices Held Sheriff, Beds. 1831-2.
Biography
Whitbread, a member of the brewing dynasty, was raised in London and Bedfordshire, where his father, a leading Foxite Whig, inherited the family’s recently purchased estate of Southill in 1796. His parents’ favourite, he was educated with his elder brother William and sent to Cambridge to prepare him for a career in the church or politics. Little is known of his reaction to his father’s suicide in July 1815. His uncle Edward Ellice*, who now oversaw the Whitbreads’ troubled finances, dismissed the brothers’ private tutor Sam Reynolds, who ‘goes about as an idle companion to the boys’, and pressed their continued attendance at Cambridge. Whitbread joined Brooks’s, 22 May 1818, and became a trustee the following month of his father’s will, by which he received £5,000 and £500 a year from the age of 21, £5,000 in lieu of the church livings of Southill and Purfleet (Essex) reserved for him, and was granted the right to reside at Cardington when the house fell vacant. William came in for Bedford at the general election of 1818 and Samuel was now suggested for Westminster and Middlesex, where he nominated the Whig veteran George Byng* in a speech proclaiming his own credentials as a candidate-in-waiting. Encouraged by his mother, who took a house in Kensington Gore after William came of age, he fostered his connections with the Westminster reformers, purchased a £10,000 stake in the brewery and in 1819 joined their controlling partnership, which was then worth £490,000 ‘on paper’ and dominated by his father’s partners Sir Benjamin Hobhouse†, William Wilshere of Hitchin and the Martineau and Yallowley families. Maria Edgeworth, who now met Whitbread for the first time, described him as a ‘good, but too meek looking … youth’.
Whitbread grasped the opportunity to contest Middlesex at the general election of 1820, when, backed by his relations, brewing partners, the Nonconformists and the Whig-radical coalition campaigning in Westminster (which he denied), he defeated the sitting Tory William Mellish in a 12-day poll to come in with Byng. His lacklustre brother had shown none of their father’s talent and energy, but Samuel impressed with his enthusiasm and appealed throughout to his father’s reputation as a reformer and advocate of civil and religious liberty. Ellice praised his common sense and popularity and surmised that Parliament ‘may save him by throwing him into society and engaging him in politics, although possibly the situation he will occupy will be rather too prominent for either his abilities or experience’. He later informed Lord Grey:
Sam has exceeded all our expectations … He has on every occasion conducted himself with skill and feeling, and shown a quickness and talent, which I did not give him credit for, and if he will only apply himself with activity and industry to the business of the county, he may retain the seat as long as he pleases.

Samuel C. later in life.While most of the rest of his biography concerns political machinations, toward the end, there’s some more about his life outside politics:

Out of Parliament, Whitbread acted to combat the ‘Swing’ riots in Bedfordshire in December 1830, attended the Bedford reform meeting in January 1831, and addressed the Middlesex meeting at the Mermaid with Charles Shaw Lefevre, 21 Mar. He declared for the Grey ministry’s reform bill, notwithstanding the omission from it of the ballot. As sheriff, he assisted his brother and the Bedford reformers in the county and borough at the May 1831 general election, when both constituencies were contested. He continued to promote reform and the ministerial bill at district meetings in Middlesex, where he turned down a requisition to contest the new Tower Hamlets constituency at the 1832 general election. A lifelong Liberal, Whitbread did not stand for Parliament again, but from 1852 took a keen interest in his son Samuel’s political career as Member for Bedford. His health remained erratic, and he increasingly devoted his time to business and scientific pursuits. As a fellow since 1849 of the Royal Astronomical Society, and treasurer, 1857-78, he built the Howard observatory at Cardington (1850), and became a founder member that year of the British Meteorological Society and a fellow of the Royal Society in 1854. In 1867 he succeeded his childless brother William to the family estates and as head of the brewery and trusts, and in 1868, almost ten years after Juliana’s death, he married into the Albermarle family, making Cardington available for Samuel, who had inherited his uncle’s shares in Whitbreads’. He died in May 1879 at his town house in St. George’s Square, survived by his second wife (d. 20 Sept. 1884) and four of his six children. According to his obituary in the Bedford Mercury:
in the world at large, Mr. Whitbread did not figure greatly. He was fond of sport, but not to a base degree; his caution prevented him making rash ventures, which often end unhappily. As a walker he was rather famous; it was a matter of amusement to his friends to see how in the vigour of his manhood and even of late years he used to walk down interviewers who bored him … The anecdotes of this species of pedestrianism are neither few nor far between, and the richest of them are those in which the bores were portly and ponderous to a degree. It may be imagined therefore that he was humorous; and so he was. He was good company everywhere. Political economists might have praised his habits of economy, for his chief fault was his desire never to waste anything.
His will, dated 30 Nov. 1875, was proved in London, 24 July 1879. By it he confirmed Samuel’s succession to the entailed estates and several family settlements, ensured that the non-entailed estates, including the brewery’s Chiswell Street premises, passed to his younger son William, and provided generously for other family members.

George_Garrard,_Whitbread_Brewery_in_Chiswell_Street_(1792)

The Whitbread Brewery in Chiswell Street, 1792, painted by George Garrard.

Beer Birthday: Roger Protz

February 5, 2025 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the 86th birthday of British beer writer Roger Protz. Roger, of course, if one of Britain’s best-known beer writers, having authored over twenty books on the subject, including being the editor of CAMRA’s Good beer Guide for two decades. He’s also been very active in CAMRA through much of their history. Although our paths cross only occasionally, Roger’s great to share a pint with, and we apparently love a lot of the same British television shows, something I discovered after many beers at a dinner at Het Anker in Belgium a few years ago. Join me in wishing Roger a very happy birthday.

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Roger with Melissa Cole at the Great British Beer Festival in 2009.

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Roger with Austrian beer writer Conrad Seidl in Belgium during a press junket there in 2013.

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Roger with a bottle of Pliny the Elder I brought with me to England for him in 2008.

At our table at BrewDog in Brussels after judging in 2016, from bottom left: John Holl, me, Roger, Pete Brown, Tim Hampson and Adrian Tierney-Jones.

Historic Cider Birthday: H.P. Bulmer

January 28, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Henry Percival “H.P.” Bulmer (January 28, 1867-December 2, 1919). He was born in Credenhill, Herefordshire, England. He founded Bulmer’s Cider in 1887, and his brother Fred joined him in the business a year later. “He is said to have taken his mother’s advice to make a career in food or drink, “because neither ever go out of fashion.” The company’s two principal brands are its own Bulmers cider, which is sold worldwide, and Strongbow, which is sold across Europe, the US, Australasia and the Far East. The company is owned by Heineken International. Today, HP Bulmer makes 65% of the five hundred million litres of cider sold annually in the United Kingdom and the bulk of the UK’s cider exports. The firm’s primary competitor is the Irish C&C Group and its Magners brand (which holds the licence to the Bulmers name within the Republic of Ireland only).”

Here’s his biography from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

Bulmer, Henry Percival [Percy] (1867–1919), cider maker, was born on 28 January 1867 at the rectory, Credenhill, Herefordshire, the second son of Charles Henry Bulmer (1833–1918), rector of Credenhill, and his wife, Mary Grace Parnel Bulmer (née Cockrem). The rector was the son and grandson of Hereford wine merchants and cider makers, and himself won prizes for his bottled cider and perry. Bulmer, who was usually known as Percy, suffered from asthma as a child, and his interrupted education at Hereford Cathedral school between 1880 and 1886 gave him no chance of going to university. In 1887, at the age of twenty, he began to make cider out of the apples grown in his father’s glebe orchard, borrowing the family pony and a neighbour’s cider-mill for the purpose.
At that time most cider was made by farmers with ancient and primitive equipment out of any apples that came to hand, to be drunk as payment in kind by their thirsty but undiscriminating labourers. Bottled cider, carefully made from selected apples, for sale in hotels, public houses, and off-licences, was a rarity. It was this select market that Bulmer meant to supply. In the autumn of 1887 he moved to Hereford, where in his first full year of business he made forty casks (4000 gallons) of cider, that sold for a mere £157. His elder brother, Edward Frederick Bulmer (1865–1941), cider maker, born on 26 May 1865, at the rectory, Credenhill, lent a hand with the manual labour in the long vacations. Unlike Percy, Fred Bulmer went from Hereford Cathedral school to Shrewsbury School, and thence to King’s College, Cambridge, with an exhibition in classics. On graduation in 1889, he joined his brother in the cider business. The brothers only had one employee at first, but, small though the firm was, it produced cider of excellent quality, winning prizes in Paris in 1888 and at the Royal Agricultural Show in 1889. These successes almost certainly reflected not only the rector’s skill and experience, but also his financial support, as the brothers had little capital. They borrowed from some of Fred’s Cambridge friends and from the local bank; the rector, by pledging his life insurance policy, raised a further £1760. With these funds they bought land, erected some buildings, and invested in equipment typical of the industrial age—a steam engine, hydraulic presses and pumps, and some large vats.
There was an informal division of labour between the two brothers: Percy Bulmer concentrated on production, organizing the factory, reading Pasteur on yeasts, visiting Rheims to learn the techniques of champagne making (transferable to cider), and Germany to study the handling of sugar beet (what was good for beet was good for apples). He also studied bottling at the works where the Apollinaris mineral water was produced. The firm consulted analytical chemists from time to time, and from 1905 had a small laboratory of its own, where important discoveries were made by H. E. Durham. Fred Bulmer undertook purchase and marketing, and was, inter alia, the commercial traveller. Affable and outgoing, he was equal to most situations. Confronted with a blunt Yorkshireman, who asked him who the hell he thought he was staring at, Fred replied ‘The rudest bugger I ever saw’ (Bulmer, Early Days, 10). The riposte won him a good order and a firm friendship. Nevertheless, he was happy to give up touting for orders when in 1896, with output not far short of 200,000 gallons a year, the firm appointed a full-time commercial traveller. The Bulmers owed their success not only to hard work, access to adequate funds, and a little science, but also to a flair for publicity. In an age well aware of the uses of advertising, they were skilful practitioners of the art: in brochures, by poster, and by the choice of such evocative brand names as Pomagne, Woodpecker, and Strongbow. The firm ran its business on advanced paternalist lines, instituting a superannuation scheme in 1898, and family allowances in 1938. It also built some workers’ housing. The housing schemes and charitable trusts continue to benefit the people of Hereford.
Percy Bulmer was chairman and managing director, and also the more single-minded businessman. He was secretary of the short-lived National Association of English Cider Makers, founded in 1894. Fred, as head of the largest firm of cider makers, was the natural choice as chairman when the association was refounded in 1920. Percy had doubted the power of government to effect much social improvement, whereas Fred Bulmer was an ardent ‘new Liberal’, active in local politics. He was a local and a county councillor, and was twice mayor of Hereford. In later years, he moved to the right and in 1931 supported the National Government.
Percy Bulmer married a cousin, Susan Mildred Ball (1870/71–1968), in 1894, and they had four sons, and a daughter who died in infancy. Fred Bulmer married, in 1899, Sophie Rittner (1874–1968), the daughter of a Liverpool merchant of German origin. They had three sons and three daughters.
The brothers ran the business as a partnership until 1918, when H. P. Bulmer & Co. was turned into a private company, as a result of Percy Bulmer’s developing cancer; he died at the early age of fifty-two at his home, Longmeadow, Hereford, on 2 December 1919. His brother succeeded him as chairman. By then the firm was a soundly established concern with 200 employees, and produced some three-quarters of a million gallons of cider a year. When Fred Bulmer retired in 1938, the workforce had quadrupled, output was approaching 4 million gallons, and the firm was by far the largest cider maker in the country. Fred died on 2 September 1941 at his home, Adams Hill, Breinton, Herefordshire, at the age of seventy-six. Of contrasting characters and complementary talents, H. P. and E. F. Bulmer can fairly be regarded as joint creators of the firm that bears the younger brother’s name. It became a public limited company in 1970.

The original Bulmers’ cider factory in 1888, on Ryelands Street, Hereford.

And this history of the Bu;mer Cider Co. is from the website of The Cider Museum, Pomona Place, Hereford, on the part of their “Archive of Cider Pomology” entitled Industrialisation 1860s Onwards:

Fred Bulmer describes the beginning of the Bulmers factory, in a charming booklet called ‘Early Days of Cider Making’. He and his brother (H P or Percy Bulmer) were young men, sons of a gentleman vicar. Fred was Cambridge educated but Percy, due to ill health, had ‘no Education at all’ and it was he who began the cider business, joined one year later by Fred. In the first year of their enterprise, 1887, Percy produced 4,000 gallons of cider using traditional methods. The brothers became ‘whole time workers’, working round the clock. There were no cider making machines to speed the process up, so they invented them. With the help of an engineering friend the brothers innovated, they also imported a mill and press from France where production was more advanced, and in 1892 put in hydraulic pumps and two more presses. By 1894 they were selling £7558 of cider a year, 48 times more than the first year of their partnership in 1888. They also had a workforce. Bulmers only produced bottled cider in the early years and in 1898, just 11 years on from their first year, the bottling line employed 37 women.
Bulmers grew and grew. By 1919 there were 2 acres of cellaring below ground and they were selling 80,000 gallons p.a. which made a profit of £9,000. In 1937 as much as 20,000 tons could be pressed during the season September to December.
Between 1948 and 1960 turn over increased from £1,604,000 to £3,008,000. In 1957 a new bottling hall was erected at end of Plough Lane and by 1964 most bottling had been transferred there.
In 1970, in response to a cash flow crises brought on by investment in the company and high death duties on two family members, the decision was made to go public. The Bulmer family retained 65% of the shares.
In 1970 there were nine directors, four of whom were Bulmer’s family. The turnover was nearly £11m and they employed 1,817 people. Nearly 85,000 apple trees were planted in an attempt to keep ahead of demand and the orchards were producing 15,000 tons of apples a year. Output was over 100,000 gallons a day and their modern flagon bottling line could fill 12,000 bottles and hour. They had 60% of the £25m market (£15m). In 1985 the board had been divided into executive and non executive directors, 12 in all, four of whom were Bulmer’s family. By this time 35,000 tons of apples were being pressed a year. The record day was 1982 when the company pressed just over 1,000 tonnes in a day. The group produced several drinks including cider and had overseas operations. The total turnover was £138m and the profit £17m.
In 2003 Bulmers got into financial difficulties due to over investment abroad. The firm was taken over by Scottish and Newcastle. In 2008 Scottish and Newcastle were taken over by Heineken who now run the Bulmer’s cider business. Fruit processing (crushing the apples) has moved from the Bulmers site in Plough Lane, Hereford to Universal Beverages Ltd (UBL), Ledbury, also owned by Heineken. Some fermentation, processing and bottling is also done at this site but the huge majority of production is still carried out at the Plough Lane site in Hereford. The fruit concentrate is taken into the factory here by tanker and processed into their leading brands such as Strongbow and Woodpecker employing around 250 people and producing over 3 million hectolitres a year (68 million gallons), about half UK total output. Bulmers also runs a bouyant Fruit Office employing 30 staff, managing 10,000 acres of orchard, about a quarter of which is company owned, the remaining three quarters is on long term contract to individual growers.

An early view of the Bulmers Cider Co.

And this short history is from H.P. Bulmers Wikipedia page:

Using apples from the orchard at his father’s rectory and an old stone press on the farm next door, Percy Bulmer made the first cider, upon which the family fortune would be made.
In 1889, his elder brother Fred (Edward Frederick Bulmer), coming down from King’s College, Cambridge, turned down the offer of a post as tutor to the children of the King of Siam to join Percy in his fledgling cider business.
With a £1,760 loan from their father, the brothers bought an 8 acres (3.2 ha) field just outside the city and built their first cider mill. It was little more than a barn compared to the huge modern stainless-steel computer-controlled cider-making plant that has grown up on a 75 acres (30.4 ha) site nearby.
Cider-making was then an unpredictable activity, the natural fermentation process being achieved by yeast contained within apples; meant that the cider often became sour. It was a college friend of Fred’s, Dr Herbert Durham, who, in the 1890s, isolated a wild yeast to create the first pure cider yeast culture, which would ensure that fermentations were consistent. This was the start of commercial cider-making.
Bulmers was first granted the Royal Warrant in 1911 and continues today as ‘Cider Maker to Her Majesty the Queen.’ It was incorporated as a private company on 27 June 1918. It described its cider as “The White Wine of England”.

H.P. Bulmer’s in the early 20th century.

Beer Birthday: Logan Plant

January 27, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 46th birthday of Logan Plant, founder and brewmaster of Beavertown Brewery, which he started in 2011. I met Logan first at the Firestone-Walker Invitational Beer Festival a few years ago and have run into a couple of times since both there and at the RateBeer Best Festival. He’s a very friendly and talented person and his beer is great, and it’s always been a pleasure to hang out with him. Please join me in wishing Logan a very happy birthday.

At the Firestone-Walker Invitational in 2017.

With Jeremy Marshall, from Lagunitas, and me at the RateBeer Best Awards show in January 2017.

With Matt Brynildson at the Firestone-Walker Invitational in 2017.

With me, Matt Brynildson and another F-W brewer at the Firestone-Walker Invitational in 2016.

Historic Beer Birthday: Samuel Whitbread II

January 18, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Samuel Whitbread II (January 18, 1764-July 6, 1815). Despite being the son of Whitbread Brewery founder Samuel Whitbread, he is most remember for being a politician. According to Wikipedia:

Whitbread was born in Cardington, Bedfordshire, the son of the brewer Samuel Whitbread. He was educated at Eton College, Christ Church, Oxford and St John’s College, Cambridge, after which he embarked on a European ‘Grand Tour’, visiting Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Prussia, France and Italy. He returned to England in May 1786 and joined his father’s successful brewing business.

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“Samuel Whitbread Esqr. M.P.” by Samuel William Reynolds after John Opie, 1804. This is the painting’s description. “A fine full length, seated portrait of the brewer, philanthropist and Whig politician Samuel Whitbread (1758-1815). He sits at his desk, wearing a dark suit and hessian boots, before an open window, his hand resting on a piece of paper. In the background is a draped curtain and on the floor is a pile of books.”

For over two decades he was a Member of Parliament:

Whitbread was elected Member of Parliament for Bedford in 1790, a post he held for twenty-three years. Whitbread was a reformer — a champion of religious and civil rights, for the abolition of slavery, and a proponent of a national education system. He was a close friend and colleague of Charles James Fox. After Fox’s death, Whitbread took over the leadership of the Whigs, and in 1805 led the campaign to have Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, removed from office.
Whitbread admired Napoleon and his reforms in France and Europe. He hoped that many of Napoleon’s reforms would be implemented in Britain. Throughout the Peninsular War he played down French defeats convinced that sooner or later Napoleon would triumph, and he did all he could to bring about a withdrawal of Britain from the continent. When Napoleon abdicated in 1814 he was devastated. Whitbread began to suffer from depression, and on the morning of 6 July 1815, he committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor.

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This portrait of Whitbread was done in 1806.

Bedfordshire Genealogy and History has a fuller biography of Samuel Whitbread 2nd:

Samuel Whitbread, the son of the brewer Samuel Whitbread, and Harriet Hayton, was born in Cardington, Bedfordshire in 1758. His mother died when he was a child and his father took great care over his only son. When Samuel was sent to Eton he was accompanied by his own private tutor. Samuel continued his education at Christ Church, Oxford and St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he met his lifelong friend, Charles Grey.
After university Samuel Whitbread sent his son on a tour of Europe, under the guidance of the historian, William Coxe. This included visits to Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Prussia, France and Italy. When Samuel returned in May 1786, he joined his father running the extremely successful family brewing business.
In 1789 Samuel Whitbread married Elizabeth Grey, the sister of Charles Grey. The two men were deeply interested in politics. Grey was already MP for Northumberland and in 1790 Whitbread was elected MP for Bedford. In the House of Commons, Whitbread and Grey became followers of Charles Fox, the leader of the Radical Whigs.
Whitbread soon emerged in Parliament as a powerful critic of the Tory Prime Minister, William Pitt. A passionate supporter of reform, Whitbread argued for an extension of religious and civil rights, an end to the slave-trade, and the establishment of a national education system.
In April 1792, Whitbread joined with a group of pro-reform Whigs to form the Friends of the People. Three peers (Lord Porchester, Lord Lauderdale and Lord Buchan) and twenty-eight Whig MPs joined the group. Other leading members included Charles Grey, Richard Sheridan, Major John Cartwright, Lord John Russell,George Tierney, and Thomas Erskine. The main objective of the the society was to obtain “a more equal representation of the people in Parliament” and “to secure to the people a more frequent exercise of their right of electing their representatives”. Charles Fox was opposed to the formation of this group as he feared it would lead to a split the Whig Party.
On 30th April 1792, Charles Grey introduced a petition in favour of constitutional reform. He argued that the reform of the parliamentary system would remove public complaints and “restore the tranquillity of the nation”. He also stressed that the Friends of the People would not become involved in any activities that would “promote public disturbances”. Although Charles Fox had refused to join the Friends of the People, in the debate that followed, he supported Grey’s proposals. When the vote was taken, Grey’s proposals were defeated by 256 to 91 votes.
In 1793 Samuel Whitbread toured the country making speeches on the need for parliamentary reform. He encouraged people to sign petitions at his meetings and when he returned to London they were presented to Parliament. Whitbread also campaigned on behalf of agricultural labourers. In the economic depression of 1795, Whitbread advocated the payment of higher wages. When Whitbread introduced his minimum wage bill to the House of Commons in December 1795 it was opposed by William Pitt and his Tory government and was easily defeated.
Whitbread was a strong supporter of a negotiated peace with France and supported Fox’s calls to send a government minister to Paris. Whitbread argued for Catholic Emancipation and opposed the act for the suppression of rebellion in Ireland. His friend, Samuel Romilly, said that Whitbread was “the promoter of every liberal scheme for improving the condition of mankind, the zealous advocate of the oppressed, and the undaunted opposer of every species of corruption and ill-administration.”
In 1807 Samuel Whitbread proposed a new Poor Law. His scheme not only involved an increase in the financial help given to the poor, but the establishment of a free educational system. Whitbread proposed that every child between the ages of seven and fourteen who was unable to pay, should receive two years’ free education. The measure was seen as too radical and was easily defeated in the House of Commons.
Whitbread refused to be disillusioned by his constant defeats and during the next few years he made more speeches in the House of Commons than any other member. Sometimes his attacks on George III and his ministers were considered to be too harsh, even by his closest political friends.
Unable to persuade Parliament to accept his ideas, Whitbread used his considerable fortune (his father, Samuel Whitbread had died in 1796) to support good causes. Whitbread gave generous financial help to establish schools for the poor. An advocate of the monitorial system developed by Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster, he helped fund the Royal Lancasterian Society that had the objective of establishing schools that were not controlled by the Church of England.
When the Whigs gained power in 1806, Whitbread expected the Prime Minister, Lord Grenville, to offer him a place in his government. He was deeply disappointed when this did not happen. Some claimed it was because Whitbread was too radical. Others suggested it was due to snobbery and the aristocrats in the party disapproved of a tradesman entering the cabinet.
After this rejection, Whitbread consoled himself with his involvement in the Drury Lane Theatre. In 1809 the theatre was destroyed by fire. Already over £500,000 in debt, the theatre was in danger of going out of business. Whitbread became chairman of the committee set up to rebuild the theatre. With the help of his political friends, Whitbread managed to raise the necessary funds and the Drury Lane Theatre was reopened on 10th October, 1812.
In 1815 Whitbread began to suffer from depression. Over the years he had been upset by the way he was portrayed by the political cartoonists such as, James Gillray and George Cruikshank. He also began to worry about the brewery business and the way he was treated in the House of Commons. After one debate in June he told his wife: “They are hissing me. I am become an object of universal abhorrence.” On the morning of 6th June 1815, Samuel Whitbread committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor.

And if that’s not enough, the “Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 61” also includes a biography and Encyclopedia.com has an overview of the company, as does AIM25.

This is a political cartoon featuring Samuel Whitbread entitled “The Brewer and the Thistle.” It was drawn by James Sayers, and published by Hannah Humphrey, June 26, 1805. The people in the cartoon include Charles James Fox (1749-1806), James Maitland Lauderdale (1759-1839), William Wilberforce (1759-1833), Sir Home Riggs Popham (1762-1820), Samuel Whitbread (1758-1815) and Henry Dundas Melville (1742-1811). While I’m sure you need to be a historian specializing in this period of British history, the Royal Collection Trust gives this description. “Whitbeard in costume of beer casks, attacks thistle with Melville’s head. (r) alehouse; Fox and Launderdale (in tartan) laugh. Wilberforce leans out of window dressed as Puritan. (l) blunderbuss fired at sign of St. Vicent.”

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Finally, here’s the Whitbread Brewery on Chiswell Street in London as it appeared around 1900.

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