Coming to America

John Keeling gets excited about living the American Dream…

I am off to the World Cup this year. That is the Beer World Cup which this year is being held in Nashville the home of Country music. Now I have a great interest in music and I love Johnny Cash so it would seem I have managed to combine both with my love of beer. A win win as they say.

Now Fuller’s has won gold medals at this event before for Vintage Ale and for ESB. It was certainly one of my proudest moments when I went to the stage to collect them, so whoever wins I will be cheering and shouting for them just like the Americans do for everybody. No cool English reserve for me. 

I fly to New Orleans the week before Nashville and will be spending time with my partner Symone exploring the Big Easy. Now it has to be said that I am a very lucky person because Symone really enjoys all things beer too, so we will be trying the local beer for sure. One of the places I will be looking forward to going is to the Avenue Bar where I hope to have the pleasure of meeting the owner Polly. I am very lucky to be well connected in the beer world and I mentioned that I was going to New Orleans to two beer journalists, Tim Webb and Stephen Beaumont. Independently they both contacted Polly and introduced her to me.

One of the great pleasures of working for Fuller’s is the ability to form those friendships and repay them. So I will be looking forward to inviting Polly to see the brewery in Chiswick. Another pleasure is to share these friendships with other Fuller’s people and that is why I like to take people with me. That is why Fuller’s & Friends was such an important project for me. Anyway, that is my excuse for taking Symone.
After Nashville, the last leg of our trip involves a visit to Chicago. The main reason I am going is to join in the 30th anniversary of the founding of Goose Island. I have a couple of events to attend with my friends at Goose Island, one of which is the launch of their anniversary beer which is a collaboration with Fuller’s and is a tribute to ESB. Now why is it an ESB I hear you ask? Well ESB was the beer that inspired their founder John Hall to start brewing. Fuller’s was one of the first English brewers to export beer to the USA and the first beers were London Pride and ESB. They came as a great revelation to beer lovers in the States because they were used to Budweiser and Coor’s. I am proud to work for the company that inspired the craft beer revolution. 

Why did the craft beer revolution start in the US? Firstly, I think that all their beers were influenced by the German or Continental style of brewing. Which meant that their beers tended towards pseudo lagers. At the time there were two other distinct styles of brewing – the Belgian style and the British style. In particular, the British Ale style greatly influenced the initial burst of American brewers and that is why IPA is the king of the craft beer world. Now, of course, the Belgian style has also come into its own and many would argue that there is now a genuine fourth style, the American.

The British style was quite different to the continental style and that was principally because of two reasons. The first is that British malt is superior and lends itself to producing cask ales. The second is that our yeasts are ale yeasts and produce a much different range of flavours. So you can see why British ales had such an influence on those early founders. In fact, what those brewers were saying was “Up yours Europe, British is best”! Something I can agree with.

Now we all know the success of that craft beer revolution, not just in America but now, around the world. In fact, we at Fuller’s might have helped start this, but the American influence has even now, washed back to us at Fuller’s and that is why we make beers like Wild River.

Did you know?

The first Fuller’s beer in the US was London Pride, which was imported by Jeffrey House, founder of Thames America Trading Company in 1979. ESB followed in 1987.