Thousand Yard Stare will feature on shelves alongside brewery’s Baby-Faced Assassin IPA from 10th May
Thousand Yard Stare, a new hazy pale ale from Harrogate-based Rooster’s Brewing Company, will make its retail debut in Waitrose this month.
The independent, family-run craft brewery’s latest creation, available in 440ml can with an RRP of £3, will hit the shelves of 186 Waitrose stores nationwide from today (10th May).
Named after the phrase coined to describe the unfocused gaze of a battle-weary soldier, Thousand Yard Stare is a light, full-flavoured, hazy pale ale with an intense tropical fruit nose. It’s a 5.4% ABV beer which, like many of Rooster’s beers, is vegan-friendly and also gluten-free.
Thousand Yard Stare will feature on Waitrose shelves alongside the brewer’s multi-award-winning, flagship IPA, Baby-Faced Assassin, which is available in a recently rebranded 330ml can design to mark its tenth anniversary.
Ian Fozard, director at Rooster’s Brewing Company, said:
“We’re delighted to build on our strong partnership with Waitrose through the launch of this latest exciting beer.
“Thousand Yard Stare was initially conceived and developed over last year’s lockdowns and it represents a number of firsts for us as a brewery, with it being the first time we’ve created a beer in this style and used a Stateside hop called Ekuanot, which is known for bringing a complex array of fruity aromas and flavours to the palate.
“It’s fantastic that Waitrose has moved so quickly to champion this new beer and is testament to the incredible efforts of the whole Rooster’s team in maintaining the brand’s pioneering, forward-thinking approach to brewing beers over what has been a challenging 12 months for everybody.”
Louise Witchell, Waitrose’s buyer for beer and cider, said:
“We’re thrilled to be the first UK retailer to launch this exciting new beer into the Waitrose range, alongside Rooster’s popular Baby-Faced Assassin IPA.
“Rooster’s focus on creating award-winning quality beers makes them a great partner for Waitrose.”
To support the launch of Thousand Yard Stare, Rooster’s tasked beer fans with coming up with a catchy advertising slogan, as part of a social media competition, with BEER. FACE. TASTE., a riff on the government’s HANDS. FACE. SPACE. campaign strapline, eventually crowned the best of a brilliant crop of entries. The winner, Michael Brown from Gateshead, received a unique print of his slogan and the opportunity to see it mocked up and plastered on virtual billboards across New York City.
Thousand Yard Stare is the latest in a series of exciting new releases to come out of the brewery in recent months, with Rooster’s using much of the three lockdown periods to conceive and develop a range of new and exciting beers.
In April, Rooster’s unveiled Wild Wild Life (7.4% ABV), the first bottle-conditioned release from its Barrel-Aged Project, delivering all the rustic and spicy, Belgium-style farmhouse notes you’d expect from a classic saison that has been soured and left to mature in French Pinot Noir barrels for nine months.
The pioneering brewery is also experiencing strong demand for its recently released My Name Is Øl (6.3% ABV, 440ml can), a juicy and upfront IPA brewed using a fast-fermenting Norwegian yeast strain (known as Kveik) that delivers a resinous and moreish hop hit of pine, gooseberry, mango and fresh grapefruit.
The start of the year also saw Rooster’s release Strength In Numbers (7% ABV, 440ml can), a resinous West Coast IPA bursting with piney and citrus fruit hoppiness, balanced against a strong, chewy malt backbone and a moreish bitterness.
All of the above beers are available through Rooster’s online shop.
ENDS
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-of-the-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.
Press release from Make it Matter PR on behalf of Rooster’s Brewing Company
For further information or images, please contact Matt Thompson on matt@makeitmatterpr.com or 07587 418710.