My colleague Ken Don, who has died aged 80, was a passionate real ale brewer who played a key role in saving Maris Otter, considered the finest variety of malting barley. He spent most of his career at the Young’s Ram Brewery in Wandsworth, south London, where the ruling Young family was committed to cask-conditioned beer.
Ken was born in Alloa, in Clackmannanshire, the son of Ian Don, who worked in a local glass factory, and his wife, Margaret (nee Cook). He was educated at Alloa academy and trained as a brewer at Alloa Brewery, where the main product was Skol lager. Keen to broaden his skills, he went on the brewing and distilling course at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
As a fully accredited brewer, he worked at breweries in Burton upon Trent, Watford and Wrexham before joining Young’s in 1980; he spent the rest of his career there. In 1969 he married Dorothy Dunbar, who worked as an administrator at BP’s plant at Grangemouth, and they had three daughters. After the family moved to London, Ken maintained his Scottish roots by taking a keen interest in both rugby and Motherwell football club.
As head brewer at Wandsworth, he enthusiastically upheld Young’s support for cask ale at a time when many other brewers were developing pasteurised and artificially carbonated keg beers. The Young’s Ram Brewery was fiercely traditional. It delivered beer to local pubs by horse-drawn drays and produced Bitter, Special Bitter and the seasonal Winter Warmer using the finest ingredients – Maris Otter barley and Fuggles and Goldings hops.
Ken was shocked to learn in 1989 that seed merchants and farmers were de-listing Maris Otter. They were replacing it with “high yielding” new varieties that grew more to the acre. He joined with a handful of other brewers to offer contracts to farmers to continue to grow Maris Otter. They felt its rich biscuit aroma and flavour were essential to the character of their beers.
They were successful. Banham seed merchants in Norfolk and Warminster Maltings in Wiltshire bought the rights to Maris Otter and it is now used by scores of British brewers and exported to 20 countries.
Ken faced a new challenge in 2006 when Young’s brewery closed. John Young, the chairman who had driven its success, had died and there were no members of the family who wanted to continue brewing.
Young’s became a pub company, owning more than 200 outlets and it still needed beer. The Young’s ales were transferred to Charles Wells’s brewery in Bedford, where Ken spent a month treating the local water and training his yeast culture to work in Wells’s enclosed conical fermenters, which were quite different from the open vessels at the Ram.
The Bedford versions were greeted with enthusiasm by Young’s demanding drinkers. They gather in Young’s pubs every December to taste the new version of Winter Warmer and compare it to previous vintages.
After Ken retired, the beers moved again, to Banks’s Brewery in Wolverhampton, which is due to close. Marston’s Brewery in Burton will be their next home, where they will honour Ken’s great contribution to traditional beer.
Ken is survived by Dorothy and their daughters, Karen, Lesley and Susan.
