Joe & Dave Five Minutes with Faram – Goose Eye Brewery

Patrick Whittle
From one brewery to the next. You join me as I talk to Yorkshire based brewery Goose Eye, learn about their family heritage and what hops they love to brew with. So welcome back to our Five Minutes with Faram segment. I’m here at Goose Eye Brewery today, so just to start off a conversation, if you guys could sort of introduce yourselves, your roles here, and anything else you want to say, really

Joe Atkinson
Yeah, I’m Joe. I’m Head Brewer, third generation. Granddad started it. Dad carried it on and I’m not carrying it on myself.

Dave Atkinson
I’m Dave Atkinson, owner of the brewery, part time Brewer when he’s on holiday, and chief tea maker.

Patrick Whittle
So to start our Five minutes for Faram segment, what is your favourite hop?

Joe Atkinson
Mine’s probably Nelson Sauvin,

Patrick Whittle
Why would that be?

Joe Atkinson
Just something different. I mean, I remember when I first got into brewing, like, and the big American hops came out, and I were like this is amazing, trying some and going what is that? And it was Nelson Sauvin and it ‘s just sort of stuck with me since and I love brewing with it as well.

Patrick Whittle
Do a lot of your beers include that hop?

Joe Atkinson
No, none of the core ones do. But any chance I get to do a special or a one off brew. I will always try to sneek it in there.

Dave Atkinson
Probably a little bit boring these days, but it has to be Chinook, just because, I know a lot of people use Chinook now, but this was our first real hop that we brewed with which took us brewery to the next level. So it’s always my favourite, really, for that reason, as well as I love beers with Chinook in

Patrick Whittle
Nice, so what would you say your favourite beer style is, to brew with and to drink?

Joe Atkinson
To brew with, pale ales or blondes, in session strength, and that is probably what I like to drink most, as well.

Dave Atkinson
Me too. Yes, pale, hoppy but not too hoppy. I think things are getting a little bit out of hand with hoppiness now, well, for my palate anyway, but a nice and moderately hop pale, mid strength from between 4% to 4.3%

Patrick Whittle
Very nice. So if you had name that one core beer, one favourite beer what would it be?

Joe Atkinson
Of ours.

Patrick Whittle
Either, you could do one for yours and then one from another brewery, from across the country or across the world really.

Joe Atkinson
Yeah. My favourite of ours is probably Spring Wells. 3.6% but enough flavour that you don’t get bored of it a proper session beer.

Patrick Whittle
What about you?

Dave Atkinson
Chinook, our Chinook is my favourite beer. Just because it’s exactly what I like to drink. Around the world? Ermmmm

Joe Atkinson
You don’t have to pick a wordly

Dave Atkinson
Yeah, I couldn’t tell you one from around the world. There’s so many good beers out there,

Patrick Whittle
Do you find that you guys make beers that you like to drink the best?

Dave Atkinson
100%

I think every Brewer starts brewing to their taste, but saying that, you know, I mean, I don’t drink a lot of our standard best bitter, the Goose Eye bitter, but now the sales on that have just been really, really good.

Patrick Whittle
I guess there’s so many different people, isn’t it? Everyone has their different pallets and that sort of thing to cater for a big range of people. It’s nice to brew what you’d have to drink. You also have to brew what sells as well.

Dave Atkinson
brewed, not brewed because we like our style of beer. It’s brewed for customer satisfaction

Patrick Whittle
Yeah definitely how often do you do one off special beers?

Joe Atkinson
we’ll try and do them once a month, but it’s as and when you gather me, you brew more, if like, you can sell one in two or three weeks. So you can brew one every two or three weeks. But then just gotta make room in your brew, schedule and if you can’t do that you can’t do that.

Patrick Whittle
Yeah, I guess you gotta keep enough space and time, obviously, for your core range and the stuff that sells as well. So when you’re sort of like, do you have a favourite, like, food and beer pairing at all? Like,

I mean, dad will have a pizza.

Do you do any food here in your Taproom? Yeah,

Dave Atkinson
we get a different street food vendor, the first Saturday in every month. So we have a different food come that each month, and they just set up outside. And

Patrick Whittle
That’s ideal, isn’t it? It’s great for you guys, obviously, because you guys can crack on, focusing on the beer, and they can bring great food and that sort of stuff. Happy Day. So what would you say? So let take you out of the brewery. I guess. What would you say your favourite beer destination is.

Joe Atkinson
Bradford

Patrick Whittle
Why is that?

Joe Atkinson
Bradford’s not it’s avoided, like the hype bubble that Leeds and Manchester get throws around there anyway that is accessible, whilst it still kept some absolutely cracking pubs and bars. I mean, they were all totally like, record cafe, corn dollar beer exchange, born fable, fighting cook , yeah, like, there’s loads of them. There’s absolutely not pulling me some as well. But you’ve got everything from, like the old school classic, those that are really modern, like sharp Hillary bar and, like I said, good rate, Chase, escape that hyper bubble and everyone there is just that worth until our little grass. But

Patrick Whittle
is that the same for yourself?

Joe Atkinson
Not much as a basin in Dubai.

Dave Atkinson
I’m a Dales pub. I walk in the Yorkshire Dales quiet pub few pints and bite to eat.

Patrick Whittle
Would you say that way is where your favourite pub is do you have, a favourite pub?

Dave Atkinson
Yeah, yeah, I’d say my favorite pub really, round here is the Turkey in Goose Eye, and that’s in just a hamlet, and it’s just where the brewery originated from, yeah, so it’s always had a connection with Goose Eye, but yeah, just love the pub. It’s just, just a nice village pub. So, yeah, nice walks around it and finishing from a fire. Yeah? Nice pine, the Chinook.

Patrick Whittle
You don’t have to go not a very long journey home.

Dave Atkinson
No no, no, I’m not good travel. Well, I am, if I going on holiday , yeah,

Patrick Whittle
but not, not your day to day, obviously, you to both being brewers, what would you say your sort of favourite item is in the brewery,

Joe Atkinson
In the brewery, following my trust in trusted stirring stick, yeah? Which is just an old broom and it’s got more years of brewing in it than I have and my Grand Dad used it

Patrick Whittle
Passed down, the day it snaps in half will be a sad day.

Joe Atkinson
Yeah, it’s one of them low tech bits of brewing equipment that you couldn’t do without sort of thing. Yeah. What is yours the kettle?

Dave Atkinson
I think it has to be the brew kit. Yeah, I love it. You know, me and my dad brewed on such a basic kit, for so long we’re just, you know, my dad and his his first partner, just made it up out of everything and made him brewed on that for so long and struggled on that for so long. So when I upgraded to this, then, you know, yeah, that’s my favourite

Patrick Whittle
What size is your current brew kit?

Dave Atkinson
20 barrel

Patrick Whittle
When did you get it? Have you had it quite recently?

Dave Atkinson
2017

Patrick Whittle
Okay, yeah okay

Dave Atkinson
Yeah, 20 barrel. Maeschle kit. And it’s a lovely, lovely piece of kit to brew on to be fair. Yeah, I’m out on my cloth, but wiping it all down and polishing it on a Friday,

Patrick Whittle
Yeah it’s nice, it’s big investment you’ve got to take care of it. So when you are brewing do you have any sort of like, favourite music, radio stations, podcasts that you listen to? Or

Joe Atkinson
No you don’t listen. You do. But I do. I might put my headphones on, but it’s very eclectic. Just today we’re country, and tomorrow could be musicals like,

Patrick Whittle
Guess it wants to be sort of high energy stuff. I’d say

Joe Atkinson
No, no, no. Sometimes just want to chill out and concentrate on the brew. But yeah, but yeah, no, not in particular.

Dave Atkinson
Say nothing for me, cause i’m at thatf that age where I’ve got to concentrate, I forget a lot of things

Patrick Whittle
Can’t have like banging rock music or like someone like me, or Maddie talking away on a podcast.

So if you obviously, you guys have had brewing, sort of grown into, if you weren’t in brewing. Do you know what else you’d be doing?

Joe Atkinson
I haven’t got a clue

Dave Atkinson
Before I were a lift engineer, before I come into the brewery with my dad. So whether I’d still be a lift engineer, I don’t know, because I won’t say what my favorite job, but yeah, maybe I’d still be in that.

Patrick Whittle
I guess in some ways, correct me. If I’m wrong, there must be some similarity both physical sort of jobs.

Dave Atkinson
Yeah, probably, it’s physical and everything’s got to be done, right

Patrick Whittle
Yeah, exactly. And I guess you guys will have your set recipes for your core stuff, especially, so you’ve got to be on it, having to make sure, monitoring, making sure the amounts of quantities are correct

Dave Atkinson
Yeah, and we try not to change any raw materials. Stick with the same supplies, as long as the quality is there. Yeah, you stick with them because, you know, you’re not chopping and changing, and you’re not chopping and changing your beers. So, yeah, I thing is you’ve got to be on the ball

Patrick Whittle
Lovely stuff. So I was going ask that, who got you into brewing? I guess that’d be your father and your grand father. Do you have any any other inspirations outside of the family? Or?

Dave Atkinson
No, not really. I mean, obviously we, you know, we’re from Timothy Taylor’s land. So, you know, Timmothy Taylor’s is always in you’ve been brought up by Timothy Talyor’s , really, so, and if I’m honest, when I were young, before I joined my dad, I didn’t know really about any other breweries, apart from Timothy Taylor’s.

Patrick Whittle
Oh, really, have you had a chance to get out the brewery much to many, like beer festivals or many other breweries.

Dave Atkinson
Yeah, I try to go around. I don’t go to many breweries, but, you know, beer festivals I try, I’ve been to quite a few. Don’t go to so many now. It just sort of most places and and when he come into brewery, you know, probably known about more breweries than I did when I came into the brewery, yeah,

Joe Atkinson
A little bit. We were still the same for me. We had a good relationship with Taylor’s, didn’t we? Timothy Taylor;’s , I got to know few lads there and you pick up stuff there. And so they’re a good business to follow, in certain sense, a lot bigger than us. But they have good practices and stuff like that.

Patrick Whittle
So yeah, and that’s really important is this sort of maintain quality of your beer. It’s good. The nice bit about the brewing industry is everyone does talk to each other, and you share the knowledge, because everyone almost wants to help each other out, yeah, even though your competition in some way, you’re sort pf helping each other out.

Dave Atkinson
We do all time, you know, with our neighbors, you know, somebody’s got a cask washer broke, or somebody’s run out some malt, or somebody’s run out some hops, yeah, every now and then there’s always someone on the phone.

Patrick Whittle
definitely. It’s a good, good sort of relationship to have. So outside of brewing, do you have any sort of hobbies or interests, or

Joe Atkinson
Rugby

Dave Atkinson
I suppose Rugby.

Joe Atkinson
Climbing as well

Patrick Whittle
What actually climbing a mountain, or?

Joe Atkinson
Bit lower than that, and we like dog don’t we

Patrick Whittle
So, just a few sort of quick fire questions just to finish. And so what was the last beer you brewed? What have you been brewing today?

Joe Atkinson
Pommies revenge, one of the core recipes. It’s from 1985

Patrick Whittle
A grandad special is it?

Joe Atkinson
Yeah, it was brewed it when Australian lager started flooding the market. So it was an answer back that you can carry on drinking cask ale, so you don’t have to move to them. But it’s one of the earliest, from what I’ve learned online, it’s one of the earliest versions of the golden ale from a micro brewery.

Patrick Whittle
Is that saying you carry on brewing? Do you think? Yeah,

Dave Atkinson
yeah. And it’s brewed all English shops, traditional hops. Yeah, no. So it’s, it’s a good core beer that stuck with us, and, you know, and it’s nice that we’re brewing, you know, with a recipe back from 1980s

Patrick Whittle
Yeah, nice little bit of heritage. Isn’t, yeah, have you changed the recipe at all? Tweets it at all? Or is

Dave Atkinson
it might have had the odd tweak, but not massively,

Patrick Whittle
kept it very much said, I guess, very nice. So what would you say, Fuggles or Golding?

Dave Atkinson
Yeah, Goldings for me

Patrick Whittle
Do you brew it a lot?

Dave Atkinson
Yeah, we use Fuggles and Goldens. I think Goldings for me, that’s just a little bit more mellow.

Patrick Whittle
There we go. So final question, what’s next for you guys in the industry?

Dave Atkinson
Retire, haha, no carry on making the great beer.

Dave Atkinson
We keep thinking that we don’t do any small pack, so we’ll keep thinking about small pack, but it’s more at same. Really, more of the same we’re gonna do.

Joe Atkinson
No grand ambition to get massive and grow.

Dave Atkinson
If we grow, yeah, great

Joe Atkinson
But most of our sales have been organic, yeah

Dave Atkinson
We’re not too bothered about getting big Well, you know, we don’t want to take over the world

Joe Atkinson
Just supply it with great beer.

Patrick Whittle
Very nice. So that concludes our Five Minutes with Faram Segement. So thank you very much, guys