By: Brian Woodman
For the past six years, Two Roads Brewing Company in Stratford, Connecticut has manufactured a distinctive pumpkin ale with label art inspired by the classic 1968 horror film Rosemary’s Baby. It is called, of course, Roadsmary’s Baby and it has already hit stores in anticipation of the Halloween season.
“Unlike other Pumpkin beers, we age Roadsmary’s Baby in Rum barrels, which contributes notes of rum and vanilla to compliment the ‘pumpkin pie’ spices we add to the brew,” said Phil Markowski, master brewer for the company. “We brew the beer with actual pumpkin as an ingredient along with the usual malted barley and hops. We add cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice to the brew to provide the spice character you taste in the finished beer. We then age a portion of the beer in freshly emptied rum barrels that we source from a rum distillery in Jamaica.”
He added that the company’s creative director considered the Halloween and horror motifs for the film’s poster to be one of the most recognizable ever. The company has also released variations of the product.
“We release Roadsmary’s Other Baby every year,’ said Markowski. “When we make the normal version of Roadsmary’s, we actually blend the batches so the Rum character is diluted slightly. Other Baby is our ‘director’s cut’, meaning it’s the non-blended batch directly from the barrel! We also released Roadsmary’s Stepchild in 2017 which was a lambic-style version of the brew. We took Roadsmary’s Baby and soured it in barrels for 18 months before it was bottled!”
Erin Lynch, a marketing associate for the company, said it even offers a contest in conjunction with the official release of the product in October – the Annual Roadsmary’s Baby Horror Film Competition, which it will hold for the second year.
“Filmmakers are welcome to create a short horror film for this competition,” she said. “The film must include a Two Roads Keychain, pin and a Roadsmary’s Baby Beer! On Friday October 18th at Two Roads Brewery the Screening party kicks off at 5:00 PM and for $10.00 at the door you can check out all the films submitted and find out who won First, Second and Third Place! First place wins a $500 cash prize and the top three films all get shown at our Annual Pumpkin Festival. Our Pumpkin festival then takes place on Saturday October 19th from 4:00 – 9:00 PM.”
The festival includes pumpkin-themed activities, a costume contest, a screening of the 1968 horror classic ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and a demo from Monster Makeup Artist, Tyler Green (FX’s Face Off).
More information on the contest may be found here.
