New Master Brewer installed

This month we were delighted to welcome our new Master Brewer, Stephen Spencer-Jones, who was elected at the Court meeting which took place on Thursday 12 July.

Stephen has only worked for the one business but that business has had three owners as Courage was purchased by Scottish and Newcastle (S&N) in 1995 and then S&N was bought by Heineken in 2008. Stephen has had many different roles in his 31 year career at Heineken all of which have been in sales and marketing. Stephen's love of pubs is illustrated by the fact that most of the time he was in the on trade managing various sales teams in Kent and Sussex, Wales and the West and then in national sales where his team looked after all the major accounts e.g. Wetherspoons, M&B, Greene King, Marstons, EiG and Stonegate.

When not talking about beer and breweries Stephen is a keen sportsman. He is a trustee of the Berkshire Cricket Foundation and Chairman of Boyne Hill Cricket Club where he and his son are both qualified coaches and are starting a hub for disability cricket.  Stephen has also coached junior football and rugby union teams in Staines and Bracknell where his sons played. He is a member of a shooting syndicate and he and his wife run two racehorse syndicates one of which is called "Barrels of Courage" and owns a horse called "Loose Chips".

Stephen succeeds Paul Wells of Charles Wells whom he thanked, saying: "Paul, on behalf of us all may I congratulate you on the way you have undertaken the role of Master. Thank you for the representative role you have played within the wider Livery this year and thank you for the calm and astute way you have led the Company. Plus may I also thank you for the guidance you have given to me in preparation for the next twelve months."

Also elected at the Court meeting were the Wardens for 2018-19: Simon Theakston DL of T&R Theakston as Upper Warden, Richard Fuller of Fuller, Smith and Turner as Middle Warden and Jonathan Neame DL of Shepherd Neame as Renter Warden.