fuller's brewery tour chiswick

Fuller’s Brewery tour in Chiswick, London

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Fullers Brewery in Chiswick, West London is one of London’s finest and most historic breweries, which brewing starting on the site from 1654.

Known around the world for their iconic ‘London Pride’, the Fuller’s Brewery Tour is a unique way go behind the scenes of the Griffin Brewery and understand more about the brewing process as well as see vast quantities of brewing vats old and new.

Better still, the Fuller’s Brewery Tours culminate in a visit to their very own brewery bar, a treasure trove of Fuller’s own beers and ales to try, as well as from other breweries.

The Fuller’s Brewery tour starts off in the newly refurbished and refitted brewery shop which has lots of bottled goodies to buy as well as branded merchandise and your very own opportunity to refill your own ‘growler’ (I’m not sure whether this is the proper term to use in polite British brewing society – it is just the phrase they used when I visited a brewery in New Zealand ).

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From the very onset of the tour, you definitely sense the history all around you – in particular, the guide draws attention to the historic wisteria in their compound, supposedly the oldest in England (another fine example of this can be found in nearby Fulham Palace , approx. a one hour work along the Thames Path from the Fuller’s Brewery).

After donning a high vis jacket (fluorescent, so very on trend – nice!), we explore the museum and watch a short video presented by one of the founding family members, before seeing an epic map of all the pubs owned and managed by Fullers.

Living in West London, we have lots of nice Fullers pub on our doorstep, including The Dove , a historic Hammersmith pub located on the banks of the Thames which we visited after the brewery tour and reputably where ‘Rule, Britannia was written’ by James Thompson.

We then got to walk around the brewing section (big tanks ahoy) and factory floor (although we visited on a Saturday so none of the machinery was being used or brewing staff at work). If you want to see the ‘action’, it is best to take the Fuller’s Brewery tour on a weekday.

One of my personal highlights was seeing the brewer’s handwritten notebooks from over 100 years ago.

One of the most interesting facts which was imparted to us whilst walking through their array of vehicles (each with their own ‘FST’ – Fuller, Smith & Turner – private registration plates) was the deal they have in place with the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company from the USA.

They ship all their wares over to the UK for Fullers to distribute, the bottles are then washed, refilled with Fuller’s goodness, and shipped back to the States, ready for the American market to indulge in their very own ‘West London Wonder’.

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At the end of the Fuller’s Brewery tour, we were then treated to a trip to the brewery bar, where we were allowed to choose what we wanted to drink, with free reign of the bar (served and poured by our tour guide) for approx. 30 mins or so.

There were lots of choices on tap (the Black Cab Stout and Frontier lager are particularly good), with some new additions (for instance Fullers recently acquired Darkstar so one of the taps had this). This was a nice end to the Fullers Brewery tour

Bonus tip – after your tour, head back to the Fuller’s brewery shop to stock up on on whatever you liked most from the bar – they have a fridge / chiller full of bottles.

Or head to the Mawson Arms (the brewery pub where staff meet one Friday every month for 2 hours of free beer). Just to note that if you are doing a tour on Saturday, the pub stops serving food at 5pm.

After the Fuller’s Brewery tour ends, head outside and turn right and continue your walk along the Thames Path – turn left when you hit the Thames and you’ll find several other pubs and bars overlooking the Thames within a ten minute walk including the Old Ship (Young’s), the Black Lion and the Blue Boy.

If you still have a taste for Fuller’s finest, head under Hammersmith Bridge and the first pub you’ll see on the Thames Path (near to the new Riverside Studios) is the Blue Boat, another new-ish Fuller’s pub.

The 2 hour Fuller’s Brewery tour costs £25 per person and you can book online here >

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The Foodie Travel Guide> London> Fullers Brewery Tour

Fuller’s Brewery Tour: Taste London Pride in Chiswick

by The Foodie Travel Guide | Jan 18, 2019

Fuller’s Griffin Brewery, Chiswick, London

Visit the Griffin brewery in Chiswick and take the Fuller’s brewery tour. Have a unique behind-the-scenes look at London’s last remaining family brewery and taste its iconic beer London Pride.

Where is Fuller’s Brewery?

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

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Fuller’s Brewery tour

Fuller’s is a local London-based brewery that also operates over 380 pubs throughout the south of England.

Although Fuller’s beers are available throughout the world, the brewery’s main focus is traditional cask ales that are served in the company’s own pubs, which are based mostly in London and elsewhere in the south of England.

The Fuller’s Brewery has been brewing beer in Chiswick since 1845, although Fuller’s Griffin Brewery started operations back in 1816 and beer has been brewed on this site since the 17th century. Fuller’s was acquired by Asahi in 2019 but they continue to brew beer at the Griffin Brewery.

What to see at Fuller’s Brewery

The brewery tour is a great opportunity to learn about the brewing process and the tour finishes off with a tutored beer tasting where you can try various Fuller’s beers such as their famous London Pride as well as ESB, Oliver’s Island, Honey Dew and Frontier lager.

Visitors to the brewery can see heritage brewing vessels including the oldest, which was installed in 1823. The brewery is also noted for having the United Kingdom’s oldest wisteria plant, which is best seen in May when in full bloom.

The Hock Cellar, where the end-of-tour tasting takes place, is also home to museum displays with artefacts from the brewery’s history.

If you’ve grown up drinking mostly lager or pilsner-style beer, a visit to Fuller’s Brewery is a great way to learn about traditional ale and to develop a greater appreciation for this quintessentially English style of beer.

Visiting Fuller’s Brewery

The Fuller’s Brewery is located by the River Thames in Chiswick in West London. The closest tube stations are Stamford Brook and Turnham Green (both on the District line), which are both around a 15-minute walk away. You can also get here by bus with bus route 190 stopping just a short walk away at the Hogarth Roundabout.

Tours operate Tuesday to Sunday but they do not run on public holidays.

The admission charge is a fairly hefty £25 but that includes tastings and tours are free if you have a valid London Pass .

The brewery tour is restricted to people aged 18 or over.

If the brewery tour has made you thirsty, it’s only a one-minute walk to the closest Fuller’s pub, the Mawson Arms, and there are also some very nice riverside pubs just a short walk from here.

The brewery backs onto the River Thames and there is a lovely riverside walk along Chiswick Mall (although the view of the river is sometimes obscured by houses and tall hedges) that you can take as far as Fulham Palace and Putney Bridge. This walk takes you past several lovely riverside pubs. Nearby points of interest include Hogarth’s House and Emery Walker’s House , which are both around a 6–7-minute walk from the brewery.

The brewery tour takes around two hours and this is followed by a half-hour tasting session.

Free tour of Fuller’s Brewery with the London Pass

The London Pass gives you a free tour of Fuller’s Brewery and entry and over 80 other attractions in and around London.

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db Tours: Fuller’s Brewery, Chiswick

Db’ s phoebe french takes a tour of fuller’s and its historic griffin brewery in chiswick which now exports its beers, including london pride and esb, to 85 different countries..

The brewery:  Fuller’s, or to give it its full name, Fuller, Smith & Turner plc, was established in 1845, but brewing has taken place at the historic south west London site since the late 1600s. The Griffin Brewery itself acquired both its name and emblem in 1816 when it was under the stewardship of brothers Douglas and Henry Thompson.

Later in 1845, founding fathers John Bird Fuller, Henry Smith and John Turner gave their names to the business and descendants from the Fuller and Young families still work at the company, the Smith line having died out.

The wisteria in bloom.

Known for its flagship brews, London Pride, ESB and 1845, Fuller’s owns a total of 190 tenanted and 198 managed pubs and hotels in an area which stretches from Brighton to Bristol, although 174 sites are located inside the M25.

As well as its pub empire, the brewer owns cider and soft drinks producer Cornish Orchards, has a 76% stake in cider and pizza business The Stable, acts as UK distributor for Sierra Nevada, is the UK importer of draught Chimay Gold and imports draught Veltins Pilsener for use at its pubs.

Fuller’s also owns and brews George Gale & Co beers, originally based in Horndean in Hampshire, and in December 2015, it acquired a 51% stake in Nectar Imports, a wholesale drinks company.

While Fuller’s is by no means a small brewer, it brews and bottles its beers and operates its own cask and keg lines on site.

Over 18,000 people visited the brewery in 2017, a number which is rising year-on-year, in part owing to the successful launch of a Saturday tour in December 2016 in addition to its existing Monday to Friday tours.

Tours start from the so-called ‘brewery tap’, the Mawson Arms, a Grade II listed Fuller’s pub adjacent to the brewery. It is named after Thomas Mawson, who in the late 17th century, first began brewing on the site.

The structure:  Upon arrival at the Mawson Arms, we were able to order a drink before a guide arrived to collect the tour party.

The old copper mash tun, last used in 1993.

The first stop is the Hock Cellar, a former store room that was refurbished in December 2016 and which now contains a bar and various items of Fuller’s memorabilia from through the ages.

After donning a high-vis jacket, we were then led outside to gaze at the brewer’s prized wisteria, the oldest such plant in England, which covers the wall opposite. Though sadly lacking its purple blooms on my visit – it was December after all – we were told it is quite a sight to behold in summer, the floral smell wafting through the brewery yard to mix with heady scent of malt.

Our tour guide, Tia Nicholson, then went on to summarise the history of Fuller’s which included us showing the place in the brewery yard which was once used to weigh vehicles to check that no-one had siphoned off any of the beer on board.

Nicholson explained that the structure of the tours change, for instance, parties are often taken to the cask and kegging line first in order that they see it in operation before it closes for the day. Given that I toured the brewery on a Saturday, this wasn’t an option, so we began by taking a look at some pieces of heritage brewing equipment, including the old, copper mash tun last used in 1993 and the old copper, the brewery’s oldest vessel, installed in 1823 and last used in 1984.

We also passed the room housing the two milling machines that have been in use since 1932. Nicholson explained that one of them is used exclusively for milling organic grains for use in Fuller’s Honey Dew ale.

The new, and much larger, mash tuns.

Continuing past the door to the science laboratory and the quality control department where the all-important beer tasting sessions take place, we were shown some of the Fuller’s brewery records, where since the 19th century, brewers have meticulously logged recipes and ingredients used to make their beer.

From the old, we moved onto the new, passing into the room containing the modern mash tuns and copper, all operated by a computerised system housed in a control room. Given that Fuller’s produced a total of 337,000 barrels (a UK barrel is equivalent to 288 imperial pints) last year, it is inevitable that its equipment is on a much larger scale than the pieces that were formerly used.

The mash tuns at Fuller’s, of which there are now two, can hold 9,000kg of grist, while the brewery’s new copper holds 320 barrels (92,160 pints).

Next we were taken to the see the fermentation vessels. Throughout my visit, I was struck by the fact that despite the size of the vessels in use, the Fuller’s brewery site is remarkably contained. This is unsurprising given that it is located on a prime patch of south west London real estate and expansion is not really an option. Nicholson explained that all of the fermentation vats were brought in through the roof due to the space constraints.

For a brewery that gets through 100 tonnes of pale ale malt and racks 10,000 casks a week, Fuller’s has had to think long and hard about how it deals with its waste. It ships excess yeast to Japan for use in whisky production as well as donating some to British spread stalwart, Marmite. The spent grains are used in animal fodder while the local council collects old hops to fertilise flowerbeds.

Coming out into the yard, we were taken past the fleet of lorries, each adorned with griffin, before entering the cask and kegging line.

Fuller’s has invested heavily in robotic aids for its packing and distribution lines. It not only puts its own beer into casks and kegs, but also that of other brewers that is due to be served up at its pubs and hotels. The original robot, called ‘Les’ after its former chief engineer, is capable of filling 280 kegs in an hour.

Les was joined by ‘Brendan’ and ‘Richard’ last year on the cask line, and all three robots have substantially reduced the manpower needed to operate both lines.

While the route taken does vary, all tours end back in the Hock Cellar where guests are invited to sample beer at the bar.

The beers: After the tour, a selection of beers are available fresh from the brewery. London Pride, ESB and HSB (a George Gale & Co beer) are available on draught along with seasonal beers.

Behind the pumps, keg beers are available on tap including Montana Red rye red ale, Wild River pale ale and Frontier.

During my visit I tried the London Pride Unfiltered, introduced in February last year, with the aim of recreating the flavours of the London Pride original using the same hops (Northdown, Challenger, Target and Goldings) and transferring them into a keg beer. While I commend the idea, the extra CO2 and lower temperature of the keg version masked the flavours I associate with the original.

Other beers on offer include Oliver’s Island, Seafarers Ale, Honey Dew, Fuller’s IPA and Black Cab Stout though it is worth checking before visiting if you would like to sample a particular beer in the range. All beers, together with merchandise, are available at the brewery shop. 

The local transport:  According to Fuller’s website, the closest tube station to the brewery is Turnham Green, a 20-minute walk away. On my trip, however, we alighted from Stamford Brook, a stop further up the district line, which also worked well.

If driving, Fuller’s advise that parking around the brewery site is limited but there are a few parking metres in Chiswick Lane South.

The cost:  Tours cost £20 (£18.52 + £1.48 booking fee) and can be booked online here  for parties up to 15.

Gift vouchers are available and can be redeemed when booking under the ‘discount code’ section.

There is a 10% discount given to group bookings for 15 or more people. Military or police groups receive a 15% discount.

The availability:  Fuller’s offer five tours every day from Monday through to Saturday, plus an additional two tours on Fridays, usually working out at 32 tours per week.

Tours are held at 11am, 12 noon, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm (plus 10am and 4pm on Fridays). The brewery also offers bespoke tours at different times which can be arranged by contacting Fuller’s at [email protected].

Group bookings are also available and party size is limited to 45 people, made up of three groups of 15, at any one time.

Who to know:  While you cannot request a tour guide, at least for the standard tours, if you are lucky enough to have Tia Nicholson, you will find yourself in safe hands. She joined Fuller’s in 2012 and after covering a tour for a colleague one day, subsequently found herself regularly called upon to show visitors around the brewery. Aside from her tour guide duties, she also runs Fuller’s online shop.

John Bass, also part of the brewery tour team, is also worth seeking out, and if not conducting tours, can usually be found helping man the brewery shop.

Don’t leave without:  taking a look at the Fuller’s ‘museum’ in the Hock Cellar. Among the items on display is the full set of Fuller’s Vintage ales – the 1997, the oldest and first bottle to be produced, is now worth over £500. Also in the collection are items relating to the Fuller’s Fire Brigade, formed during the Second World War to protect the brewery during the Blitz, and a beer dispensing machine from the days when beer effectively formed part of the staff wages.

Last word:  While the Fuller’s brewery tour is on the expensive side, I felt it was worth the money. The experience was polished and well-rehearsed in the sense that information was not simply regurgitated, but tailored to the mood and interests of the group in question.

This comes as no surprise – John Bass told me that he estimates that Fuller’s have been running these tours for at least 25 years. It is no wonder they have got it off to a fine art.

While the Saturday tours are ideal for workers, it is worth stating that the machinery and brewery equipment does not run over the weekend. If you are wanting to see the brewery in action, I would advise choosing a weekday slot. That said, I did not feel that it detracted from the experience and it did mean that we were able to hear the tour guide without the clamour of the keg line.

Finally, I should mention that the bottling plant is not part of the tour. This does seem a shame given that it is an integral part of the operation and it is notable that Fuller’s bottles its own beers (as well as that of others including Chapel Down’s Curious Drinks brand) on site, rather than using an outside party. I do, however, appreciate that groups of people traipsing through what is a mammoth operation is not practical, nor does it probably comply with health and safety standards.

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

Editor’s note: the cost of the tour was paid for by the author.

One response to “ db Tours: Fuller’s Brewery, Chiswick”

Such a great and historic location, this was also essentially the closest local brewery to the residence and office of late legendary beer writer Michael Jackson, whose home was in Hammersmith and he considered the Andover Arms (a Fuller’s pub) his local. When Michael so sadly passed away unexpectedly in 2007, the Fuller’s ownership hosted a wonderful small private gathering in the Hock Cellar, of his family and friends who attended his memorial service that day. They created a wall of photos and looping video from “The Beer Hunter”, and provided a warm and thoughtful atmosphere that gently befitted the circumstance and will remain forever in my memory. It was my third and last time to the brewery, and my first without Michael except in spirit. The Turner family and brewer John Keeling were some of the most respectful people that I’ve ever met in the entire worldwide beer industry, a wonderful testament to the company. A group of perhaps 25 of us walked along the river path after the reception there at Fuller’s to the Andover Arms and toasted Michael with pints of ESB and Chiswick Bitter. Long live Fuller’s!

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Visit A Brewery

Brewery Tours and Information

What goes into making Fuller’s ales taste so good? Just how much has brewing changed? How do we continue to thrive in an ever-changing world? You’ll discover the answers to these questions and the secrets of our success when you visit the Griffin Brewery.

Immortalised in the name of one of our famous ales, 1845 is a year that will forever be Fuller’s. It was then that the partnership papers of Fuller, Smith & Turner were officially signed, marking the start of something very special for London’s brewery scene.

The Griffin Brewery Chiswick Lane South London W4 2QB

Tel: 020 8996 2662

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Fuller’s brewery, Chiswick tour

• Thread starter Wapping
• Start date Jan 13, 2024

• Jan 13, 2024

Nice 'n' Fat

Well-known member.

I thought it was always soft southern shandy drinking poofs ?  

Nice 'n' Fat said: I thought it was always soft southern shandy drinking poofs ? Click to expand...

Interesting how the beer has been marketed as a different style of beer over the years Pale Ale Original Ale Premium ale and now, like many other bitter ales, it's an Amber Ale.  

I must be a shandy drinking poof then, even though I’m from the north. tried Radler in bavaria, apparently that’s German for shandy. What a refreshing drink.  

wessie said: Interesting how the beer has been marketed as a different style of beer over the years Pale Ale Original Ale Premium ale and now, like many other bitter ales, it's an Amber Ale. Click to expand...

Active member

Shepherd Neame Brewery

The Sun Inn Pub In Faversham - Home

Still got a pulse.

Ex-Call Centre Chimp

I don't belong here, i don't belong anywhere..

Do they do an alcohol free lager?  

Ex-Call Centre Chimp said: Do they do an alcohol free lager? Click to expand...

Then I may well pay them a visit some time. Slainté.  

Ex-Call Centre Chimp said: Then I may well pay them a visit some time. Slainté. Click to expand...

Posh Pete said: Noted for the next trip to that there London town. The best bitter made in England imho. Click to expand...

PembsGSA said: London Pride is up there as one of my favorite real ales... shudder to think how many barrels I've drunk over the years.... I wonder if I qualify for a badge Click to expand...

So much better now Engineer is on ignore

London Pride is my ale of choice. The strengths however differ between from the pump or in a can. Any idea why Richard ?  

Oldrat said: London Pride is my ale of choice. The strengths however differ between from the pump or in a can. Any idea why Richard ? Click to expand...

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