Pumpkins the size of small cars. That's what's been disturbing the sleep of Rooster's brewer Sam Franklin of late.
"It's a bloody lot of hassle," he says. "Trying to find big pumpkins, trying to purée them and spice the beer. Making a pumpkin beer isn't the easiest project.
"Trying to do something seasonal and interesting turned into a quest to find the biggest pumpkin that would fit through doorways."
He's not wrong. If you're hell bent on creating a five per cent pumpkin-conditioned ale, fermented in and served on tap from pumpkins that weigh up to 700lb, you have to expect a slight logistical challenge.
Giant vegetables
This foray into the strange world of giant vegetables is the latest in the brewer's quest to find the best and most unusual ingredients from which to brew its beers.
The small Yorkshire brewer is one of the most innovative in Britain today. Rooster's has previously brewed with jasmine, chocolate, mint and elderflower, and has also created beers with Turkish Delight, raspberry and mocha aromas.
As Sam says, in beer "any flavour is possible. There's a hop called Liberty that smells just like Elastoplast. It's amazing".
It's fair to say Rooster's takes after US brewers more than British ones. Leghorn, a pale ale which uses Golden Promise malt, Goldings and Cascade hops and has a fruit aroma, won the Gold Medal 'English Summer Ale' Category World Beer Cup Chicago in 2010. The Yorkshire Pale Ale with Styrian Golding hops and a raspberry aroma took the Gold Medal 'English Summer Ale' Category World Beer Cup Seattle in 2006.
"I guess my dad and I are probably dyslexic and a bit mental," explains Sam. "The ideas come from not really worrying about where the boundaries for beer lie."
Sam's dad Sean Franklin founded the brewery in 1993 with wife Alison. The pair had run a seven-barrel brewery before, and Sean had worked for the wine industry, then as a taxi driver before founding Rooster's. Sam joined the team because "I got kicked out of school for smoking dope, which isn't a great way to get into a job. But I'd always loved brewing."
Wine background
It's Rooster's wine industry background that both Sam and Sean believe marks the brewery apart.
"Dad started off as a wine maker, not a brewer," says Sam. "That really changes our whole perspective. We don't start with the idea of making a bitter, or a lager. We always start with a flavour to create. It's turning brewing on its head.
"Most brewers really look at beer as a commodity. We look at it as a sensory product with the same diversity and interest that any wine could have."
Sean agrees: "If all you intend to do, like major brewers do, is exclude all the faults, it's a very negative attitude for how the beer is going to end up. But in marketing terms neutrality is easier to sell."
Aside from putting the finishing touches to the pumpkin ale, and a beer using raw honey from Tasmania, Rooster's is working on its first IPA. It will have 50 kilos of Crystal hops (they usually use seven to eight), which will give low bitterness but high aromatics.
In another nod to the US, there's also a range of whisky cask-aged beers on the way, each from different types, including Caol Ila which Sam says is so smoky it almost tastes of red fruit berries. Each has been aged for a different length of time from six to 18 months. What makes this brewery tick is experimentation.
"Dad made me get one out of the cask at six months as it smelled like burnt kippers," adds Sam.
Collaboration
True to that spirit there's a collaboration with a home brewer Gareth Lester-Olivier on the way too. Around 120 barrels of his Angry Yank beer, the winner of the Judges Choice at the 2010 Craft Beer Festival, will be available through WaverleyTBS from next March.
And despite sitting under the progressive beer duty threshold at 66 barrels a week, Sam is adamant that the brewery will soon grow to 80 barrels, though he won't be around to see it himself.
He is soon to take up a role at the Dead Frog Brewery in Vancouver, Canada, leaving a vacancy for a brewer he describes as needing to be passionate, innovative and in possession of a good sense of humour. Get your applications in now, and you too could be having nightmares about giant pumpkins.
Q&A with Sam Franklin of Rooster's
Best place for a pint round your way?
"I really like North Bar in Leeds. It's as rough as a pub gets but it has a huge range of beers. But I'm curious about the Rake in London. I keep reading about it on Twitter."
What's the best thing to do in Knaresborough on a wet, winter's night?
"Not a lot really. Going to Harrogate is pretty good. So I'd leave. But you can't write that, Knaresborough folk would go crazy! The Mitre pub near the station is good. "
What characters can we find around the brewery?
"We have my dad for starters. He's funny. He just causes chaos everywhere. But I'm not going to tell you how. I would get in awful trouble. There's David, aka Frank Zappa, who has worked here for about 18 months though he's a tree surgeon by trade. Also my mate Dan. I sort of begged him to leave his bakery and join us. Terry, our driver, is our longest suffering employee after seven years. He has the ability to find any pub in the country without the use of a map."
What's the beer you wish you'd brewed?
"I love US brewers such as Russian River, Lost Abbey Brewery or Firestone Walker, which ages all its beers in oak barrels. I love their free-spiritedness. But it has to be Golden Monkey by Victory Brewery. It's perfect. It's the kind of beer you could drink every day but at the same time it is quite special."
What's the future of British beer?
"The English home brewing scene is beginning to kick off. There are some really skilful brewers out there. I'm not sure how many will make it into the industry but it's an exciting thing for the future. Home brewing has been so uncool. The perception is that it's a load of blokes who live with their mothers, single blokes with beards. I think it's changing now. There is a new younger person who is more savvy and looking for something different. The more interesting products we produce, the more we pick up that market I guess. If beer can be cool, we'd love to be."
What do you mean 'if'?
"You're probably right. I think it is. I think beer is interesting and exciting but if we were in the North West of America, we would be a totally different brewery. In the centre of Yorkshire, there's not an age thing, but a sort of tradition thing."
Are you saying Yorkshire can't be cool now?
"Yorkshire definitely can be cool. Just it's maybe a little traditional. But we're not."
Details on Rooster's
Hometown: Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.
Brewing capacity: 100 barrels a week
Regular beers: Yankee (4.3% ABV) Leghorn (4.3% ABV), YPA (Yorkshire Pale Ale, 4.3% ABV),
Specials and Seasonals: Mocha Stout (4.7% ABV), Jasmine IPA (5% ABV) Bangtail (3.7% ABV)
Available from: Rooster's on 01423 865959, or email alison@roosters.co.uk, or SIBA Direct.
Contact
Website: www.roosters.co.uk
Twitter: @RoosterBrewing
Facebook: Rooster's Brewery on Facebook