Fuller’s Brewery Tour: Taste London Pride in Chiswick

Taste Fuller’s full range of beer at the Griffin Brewery in Chiswick

One of the World’s Top 10 Brewery Tours

Walk into a London pub and one of the names you’ll see at the bar is London Pride, Fuller’s best selling beer.

Every single drop of the 30 different beers created by Britain’s largest family brewer, now exported to 72 countries, is produced at Fuller’s London riverside brewery in Chiswick.

An imposing red brick building, it still speaks of a time when beer was stored in wooden barrels and horses transported them to the local pub. On the tour, your guide will point out a place in the brewery yard where they used to weigh vehicles to make sure that no-one had siphoned off any of the beer on board.

Have a Pint at The Mawsons Arms

Fuller, Smith and Turner began brewing here in 1845. The brewery was actually founded in the late 17th century by a man named Thomas Mawson.

A testament to this is the oldest wisteria plant in the UK. It covers the front of the brewery building and is one of two specimens brought back in 1816 by plant hunters to China. It has since thrived and looks magnificent when it’s in full bloom in May.

If you arrive early for the brewery tour, you can have a quick pint in brewery tap, The Mawsons Arms pub, a Grade II listed property which is conveniently located next door.

Tour London’s Oldest Brewery

As soon as you step inside the brewery building a sweet, biscuity smell hits you. Surrounded by shiny copper heritage vessels, it’s as though time has stood still.

We saw the old copper mash tun last used in 1993 and the old copper, the brewery’s oldest vessel which was installed in 1823. Our guide explained that although most of these vessels aren’t used any more, the brewing process hasn’t really changed.

Brewing beer is essentially similar to baking a cake. All beers have the same basic ingredients of barley, hops, water and yeast but depending upon the variety of malts and hops, very different flavours can be created.

See Modern Day Brewing in Action

On the upper level, modern day brewing takes over and the temperature rises as you stand in front of two vast computer-controlled stainless steel kettles.

Each one is capable of holding 320 barrels of liquid. What strikes you most is that it’s so quiet. Of the brewery’s 400 workforce, only 15 people are directly involved in the brewing process.

Fuller’s are proudly British sourcing all of the barley used in its production from the UK as well as 95% of the 40 different varieties of hops used. On the tour, you taste different malts, smell the hops and learn about each stage of the brewing process. 

The brewery uses 100 tonnes of pale ale malt and racks 10,000 casks a week. We saw the huge fermentation vessels and learnt that it cleverly exports its excess yeast to Japan where it’s used in whisky production. Back in Britain, the yeast is an important ingredient in one of our national treasures, Marmite.

End Your Fuller’s Brewery Tour With a Tutored Beer Tasting

The tour continues past the fleet of  delivery lorries and the cask and kegging line before ending with a tasting session in the Hock Cellar.

It houses the bar but also a museum full of Fuller’s memorabilia. During WWII the cellar was used as an air-raid shelter.

With no limit on the drinking, you can taste Fuller’s CAMRA award-winning traditional cask beers – London Pride, ESB and Chiswick. Uniquely, Fuller’s is the only brewer to have won CAMRA’S Champion Beer of Britain award on four occasions with these three different beers.

For a lighter drink, try Oliver’s Island (named after the island in the Thames), with its citrusy addition of orange peel; Honey Dew that’s made using Brazilian organic honey; and Frontier, their craft lager which has quickly become their 2nd best selling beer.

Visit Fuller’s Brewery Shop

Don’t miss popping into the large and well-stocked Brewery Shop.

It has an extensive selection of beers but also wines and spirits. As the owner of the Cornish Orchards, there’s cider, too. The shop is open to all regardless of whether you have done the Fuller’s tour.

Go on a Riverside Pub Crawl

After your tour, walk along the River Thames Path to Hammersmith. Elegant Georgian houses once inhabited by artists and writers, stand tall overlooking the river. 

It’s an area rich in English Heritage Blue plaques.  Poet Alexander Pope and artist Eric Ravilious both lived here. Further along, there’s the William Morris Society with its small museum dedicated to this famous Victorian artist and designer.

A walk in the opposite direction will take you to Kew Bridge where you can go for afternoon tea at The Botanical restaurant in Kew Gardens.

Have a Pint in The Dove

After your culture fix, seek out The Dove pub for another pint. It was a coffee house in the 18th century but it’s now a Fuller’s pub serving their beers, excellent food and English wine produced at Chapel Down Winery.

Book a table on the terrace and end your beer day out watching the rowing boats glide along the River Thames with the backdrop of Hammersmith Bridge in the distance. This stretch of river is famous for the Boat Race, the annual March rowing contest between crews from Oxford and Cambridge universities.

The Dove is one of nearly 400 managed and tenanted pubs, inns and hotels owned by Fuller’s in London and across the south of England. Many offer boutique bedrooms. These include The Mad Hatter hotel which is conveniently located close to London’s top foodie destination, Borough Market.

Hammersmith Bridge and the River Thames

Where is Fuller’s Brewery?

Fuller’s Griffin Brewery, Chiswick Lane South, London W4 2QB