End of an Era

It was touching to receive a personal invitation to the retirement luncheon for Giles Dennis, formerly Head Brewer of JW Lees. The great and the good of British Brewing were there, along with licensees, brewery colleagues, malt and hops suppliers, beer writers, friends and many others whom Giles had just wanted to be there.

We started off with beer of course. As this was held in the new Crowne Plaza Hotel which Lees supply, a temporary bar was set up with Lees Bitter - reracked that morning - being liberally dispensed. It was good to chat to so many people from around the country, many of them ex brewers with funny tales to tell. If nothing else the brewing industry is full of funny anecdotes and delightful people. Lunch was steak and ale pie and beer, wine and speeches flowed. We presented Giles with an appropriate special award from our local CAMRA Branch and I was asked to speak on behalf of CAMRA, which despite several pints of bitter and glasses of Rothschild Pinot Noir, I managed to do. Giles in his response to the Chairman's kind remarks about him, included a very positive mention of CAMRA's role which is gratifying. It earned a round of applause from industry people who actually know what they are talking about.

Our table included beer writers Barrie Pepper, Arthur Taylor, the British Brewing Insitute and Lees Head Cellarman and the Head of Technical Services. It was a good afternoon in good company.