Head brewer retires from flagship Northampton brewery after 16 years

The head brewer of a flagship Northampton brewery has retired after eight years in charge and 16 years at the company.

John Smith, who worked at Phipps NBC in Kingswell Street, has made his mark on the company’s long history after brewing an estimated four million pints over his 16 years.

Alaric Neville managing director of Phipps NBC said: “John was a dedicated, focused and diligent man, who took every brew very seriously and never cut corners. His goals were always consistency, clarity and authenticity, making each brew to the same high standard as the last.

“John was not a microbrewer, he was a master brewer.”

Arriving at 7am every morning to start the day, Alaric says this is a “well worn phase but John was old school”. John began his career at Ruddles Langham Brewery, in West Sussex, in 1987.

“This was a time when a pint of ‘ruddles county’ or ‘best bitter' was considered among the best beers in Britain, and not just a cheap sub-brand beer,” said Alaric.

This brewery was closed in late 1998 and John was made redundant. After a couple of years in Corby, John was brought back into the brewing industry by his former boss, who started up his own microbrewery and trained John in the art of traditional British ales.

With John’s new boss’ link to Phipps, it was this that led him to the job when the search was on for a partner to rebrew the “legendary Phipps IPA”. For six years after the launch in 2008, it was John who physically brewed all of the revived Phipps ales at Grainstore – IPA, Ratliffe's Stout, Diamond and Red Star.

However, with the capacity stretched at the time, the decision was made to bring all Phipps brewing back to Northampton in 2014 – and John brought the 1884 Albion Brewery back to life as a living brewery once more. As well as bringing back some traditional Phipps brews, he also added his own, including ‘midsummer meadow’, ‘beckets ale’, and ‘black star’.

Alaric said: “John was a man of few words. All of us at Phipps have come to admire and respect him and on the occasions he let his hair down, it was a privilege to be in his company.

“As managing director, I have had my fair share of problems with staff, but with John I always knew he was taking care of his part of the business. I will miss that rock.”

Another of John’s great achievements is passing on his decades worth of experience to his Northampton-born apprentice, Ed Garner – as he wanted to ensure there was continuity in the brewing now he has finally retired.

A party was thrown for John by Phipps’ staff, shareholders and directors to see him off, where he was presented with a Bassett-Lowke model of a Northampton brewery steam wagon as a parting gift. John also took the opportunity to show off his Phipps tattoos, which Alaric says is “a permanent reminder of the last 16 years of a long and industrious career in an industry he loved”.