12 | Sir Geoff Palmer
Meet the boss There are few figures in brewing or distilling with the kudos and intellectual heft of Sir Geoff Palmer, a titan of the industry and a man with a fascinating back story Written by Richard Bath
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ir Geoff Palmer’s rags to riches story is one of outrageous fate, of unlikely turning points, of unforgettable mentors who changed the course of his life. It’s not all highlights though, he has experienced some toe-curling racism and its bedfellow, rejection. But at its heart, his story is of a little boy called Godfrey who grew up in a tough district of Jamaica’s capital Kingston and then in straitened circumstances in North London but would go on to morph into Sir Geoff, one of the most influential figures in the history of distilling and brewing in this country. His list of achievements is awe-inspiring. He started the world-leading International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University, and saved the industry many millions by his discovery of the revolutionary process of abrasion, which at one stage was used in the production of 60% of beer made in the UK. He also made significant advances in the production of sake, and while in Africa pioneered producing Guinness from
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sorghum, an innovation with far-reaching ramifications for the continent’s farmers and brewers. As if that wasn’t enough, he launched and ran the influential Chivas Regal Academy for twenty years, is an honorary member of the Keepers of the Quaich, and in 1998 became the first European (and fourth person overall) to be honoured with the American Society of Brewing Chemists’ Award of Distinction, considered the Nobel Prize of Brewing. And partly for his contribution to brewing, but also for his work as a prominent anti-racism campaigner, he was knighted in the 2014 New Years Honours. ‘It might look as if I had a plan,’ says the genial 82-yearold, ‘but I didn’t. I let things happen, but somehow I always had direction. I see life in terms of purpose.’ Yet his is a life of decisive moments. The first came in March 1955, when his mother, who had left her son in the care of his eight aunts in Jamaica seven years earlier while she went to work in London as a dressmaker, had sent her 14-year-old son £86 for a one-way plane ticket to the UK.
04/05/2022 11:15:36
