Harrogate-based brewery, Rooster’s Brewing Co. is celebrating having won three awards at the North East SIBA Keg Competition.
Easy-Going Assassin, the brewery’s session IPA, added to Rooster’s core range at the start of 2024, scooped a gold medal in the Session Pale Ale category at the awards and will now move forward to the National competition to be judged in Liverpool next year. Taking its name from Rooster’s flagship IPA, Baby-Faced Assassin, the scaled down, 4.3% version of the brewery’s most decorated beer is gluten free as well as being vegan friendly in line with the rest of the brewery’s core range.
Tropical Assassin, a fruited version of Baby-Faced Assassin and another spin-off added to the brewery’s range in January also came out on top in the Speciality IPA category. It too will be heading to Merseyside for the judges’ consideration at SIBA’s annual BeerX event in March 2024 and was also voted to be the third best beer in the entire regional competition.
The keg awards for Tropical Assassin mirror the beer’s success at the North East SIBA Cask Competition held in May. Having won gold in its category, one of six awards Rooster’s walked away with on the day, Tropical Assassin picked up overall bronze in the competition and will to be judged at the National competition next year.
Baby-Faced Assassin, a 6.1% American IPA, was originally a home brew beer created by Tom Fozard, Rooster’s Operations Director, prior to him joining the brewery. The recipe was further developed by his twin brother Oliver (Rooster’s Head Brewer) as it went on to form part of the brewery’s year-round lineup in 2015. In the years since it has gone on to win close to 30 awards, including four at the International Brewing Awards in cask, keg and can, and has become a beer synonymous with the brewery.
Speaking of the brewery’s latest awards success, Tom Fozard said: “I’ve always been immensely proud of the success Baby-Faced Assassin has enjoyed across all package types. To have Easy-Going Assassin and Tropical Assassin follow in its footsteps – both bringing home gold medals – is incredibly rewarding. Our team of brewers should feel extremely proud too; the collective consistency in the quality of their work is there for all to see with award wins like these.”
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Rooster’s Brewing Co. www.roosters.co.uk
For further information, please contact Tom Fozard on tom@roosters.co.uk or 01423 222312
Notes to Editors
About Rooster’s Brewing Company
Rooster’s Brewing Co. has always been an independent, family-run brewery, focussed on creating quality new world pale ales, with an emphasis on flavour and aroma. It was established in 1993 by the pioneering brewer Sean Franklin, who developed a new style of beer that had, up to that point, never been tried in the UK before. At a time when most breweries were taking flavour out, Sean was trying to put more in, using imported flavourful hops from the west coast of America.
His pioneering and innovative approach began to turn heads, with Rooster’s flavour-packed beers standing out in a sea of brown beer – with its flagship pale ale, Yankee, leading the way. The awards began to pour in, with Rooster’s beers winning gold medals at the biggest and most renowned international and national beer awards.
Having won pretty much everything there was to win, in 2011 Sean decided to retire and chose to sell the brewery to Ian Fozard and his sons, Tom and Oliver, in a move that ensured Rooster’s would remain a family-owned brewery.
Ian has had an affinity with beer for over forty years, having been an active member of CAMRA since the 1970s and the founder of Market Town Taverns, which grew into a portfolio of 15 bars and pubs across Yorkshire.
Oliver, who has been brewing professionally since 2000, became the head brewer at Rooster’s, and Tom, also an active brewer, became the company’s commercial director. Oliver was awarded Brewer of the Year in December 2020 by the British Guild of Beer Writers.
In 2018, it became clear that Rooster’s was rapidly outgrowing its site in Knaresborough and in 2019 the decision was made to invest in a new state-of-the-art brewery and taproom. Finding the right location, that offered Rooster’s the opportunity to become part of the fabric of the local community wasn’t easy, but the team were delighted when the perfect space became available at Hornbeam Park in Harrogate. Over the course of 2019 and the early part of January 2020, the company created a bespoke, state-ofthe-art facility that it now calls home, in a move that saw it return to the town where Rooster’s was first started some twenty-seven years earlier.
For further information, please contact Tom Fozard on tom@roosters.co.uk or 01423 222312
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