Family-owned Harrogate brewery still staying true to its roots and winning awards 30 years after it was founded

The internationally award-winning Roosters brewery has risen from a corrugated metal building on the outskirts of Knaresborough to a £850,000 state-of-the-art brewery and taproom at Hornbeam Park in Harrogate without skipping a beat.

To kick the celebrations off, Roosters Brewing Co has published a 56-page magazine that dives into the brewery’s history, as well allowing readers to get to know the team.

"It's been designed for pub goers and craft beer enthusiasts to pick up and thumb through over a pint or two," said Tom Fozard, Roosters' commercial director

"In total 4000 copies have been printed and are being distributed to independent pubs, bars and beer shops across the north of England."

Still in love with creating great new beers three decades later – as well as capitalising on its popular favourites including Yankee and Baby Faced Assassin – Roosters is still fiercely independent and proudly family-run.

Its collection of awards dates way back to the mid-1990’s and is still getting bigger each year.

Recent success came in the shape of gold medal wins at both the 2021 International Brewing Awards for Thousand Yard Stare (silver) and Baby-Faced Assassin (bronze),

But this is a Harrogate success story which hasn't forgotten its roots.

The Fozard family first entered the story in 2011 when Ian Fozard, a vastly experienced pub owner, sold his Market Town Taverns group (famed for Harrogate's Old Bell Tavern) in order to fund sons Oliver and Tom when the brewery's original Harrogate owner decided to retire.

That man was legendary craft beer pioneer Sean Franklin.

A Harrogate man whose background was in wine, Franklin took the principles he learned with the grape and applied them to the humble hop, launching Roosters in 1993.

His eureka moment came during a trip to the USA to sample New World wines when he fell in love with the citrus-driven hops grown there, in particular, Cascade.

It’s fair to say that Roosters is still building on that moment 30 years later.