THE DRIVE to Red Rock Brewery is pleasant and takes the visitor through sun-bathed woodlands and fields.

A wooden sign on a farm gate post provides the only indication that you have arrived at your destination, but the clinking of glass bottles being packed into cardboard boxes gives a clue as to what is going on behind the large wooden barn doors.

Then you step inside the stone building at Higher Humber Farm near Bishopsteignton and the smell of beer being brewed in traditional wooden vats hits you. John Parkes is stirring and checking the ale in this strange alchemy which is beer making.

His daughter Hollie, 23, is pushing bottles through a pneumatic capping machine and his 25-year-old son Lewis is labelling and packing them into boxes ready to ship out.

Red Rock Brewery was set up three years ago almost by chance.

John, 57, was chatting to friends after a round of golf and mentioned how he would like to start a brewery. John has been a keen home brewer for decades and Lewis had been made redundant after working at Teignworthy Brewery at Newton Abbot.

"I was saying how much I would love to start a microbrewery and one of my friends said he would help with the funding," he said. "I am glad he put his money where his mouth is."

Looking for a suitable site he talked to Jeff Lang, a farmer friend of 20 years who breeds sheep on the hills between Bishopsteignton and Kingsteignton, who came up with a small barn.

After spending the summer of 2006 renovating the barn, brewing kit was brought in and the first Red Rock brew was produced in September 2006.

The family-owned and run company has since expanded. It now produces nine different ales, including a Christmas beer and an organic ale. All the beers, like the brewery itself, are named after local landmarks.

"Red Rock is a place where our kids used to go as children to play," John said. "It's a hill with a tree near the River Teign. It also had a nice ring to it. We decided there should be a theme of names and images for our beers."

Back Beach, a light golden ale, is named after the beach looking back towards the port in Teignmouth. Humber Down, a classic brown ale, takes its name from the farm where the brewery is located, while Dark Ness, an award-winning ale, is named after the Ness in Shaldon.

The Break Water, another award-winning beer, is named after the wooden break water groynes along Teignmouth's main front beach.

Meanwhile Rushy Mede, an organic pale ale is named after the clear water spring which supplies the brewery.

John believes having its own spring 200 yards away gives Red Rock beers their own special 'je ne sais quoi'. The water is put through full treatment. Malt comes from Tuckers Maltings in Newton Abbot. No gas is added to the beers to make them fizzy. Red Rock makes about 1,152 pints a week.

"We thought it was a manageable size for us to make a living," he said. "We don't want to go huge. We set up a brewery because we wanted to make beer, rather than as a business. Because we wanted to have a great product, not to become multi-millionaires.

"Straight from the offset we wanted to brew a small quantity, but lots of different beers. We now have nine ales but we already have plans to brew a new one. It will be a strong dark ale. Something around 5.7 per cent ABV. Perfect for the winter."

John was not always a brewer. For most of his career he worked as a primary school teacher at Our Lady and St Patrick in Teignmouth.

He also set up on his own as an ICT training coach but when funding failed to materialise, John went back to teaching.

But beer is his favourite tipple and he has brewed at home for as long as he can remember. After two years he had his chance conversation with his future business partner and the brewery was launched.

Then Hollie, 23, joined John and Lewis to complete the family team.

"I'm the admin donkey and I do the paperwork nobody else wants to do," John jokes. "Lewis brews the beer and Hollie does the telesales.

"We all brew beer though. Lewis used to be the sole master brewer but he has taught me how, and I've taught Hollie.

"It is very much a family-business and very much a three-man job, especially for bottling."

Everything at Red Rock is done by hand from bottling, labelling to capping.

In its short life, Red Rock Brewery has slowly been making a name for itself with beer-aficionados in the West Country and the beers can be found in pubs across Devon.

Red Rock's newest IPA, Lighthouse, was runner up in the bitter class at this year's South Devon CAMRA's beer festival at Newton Abbot Racecourse.

Dark Ness and Break Water have also both won bronze in this Year's Taste of the West while Dark Ness also won an award at the South Devon CAMRA beer festival two years ago.

John said: "We looked to buy another bigger place but we decided to concentrate on increasing the number of our beers. We're bigger than three years ago when we only had a small room. Now we have the whole barn with more space for storage.

"We decided to brew constantly and use our equipment all the time. It's more than enough as a business."

He added: "Business is good at the moment. We've been working with the Co-op since day one. They have been really good to us and have kept us on as a local supplier.

"Now that most of the Plymouth and Devon Co-op stores have been taken over by the national Co-op we can hopefully sell in more stores."

Red Rock's beers used to be found in 20 Devon Co-ops. Now they are in 60.

John has his own theory as to why small and micro breweries are doing so well.

"There is a big rise in the number of microbreweries springing up around the country," he said.

"In Devon there are 28 alone. Competition is tough. If we didn't have a quality product we'd be stuffed. We wouldn't survive.

"I think people are tired of drinking tasteless industrial lager.

"The ethical approach of producing and distributing locally is getting to consumers."

The room we sit in is cold and draughty with bottles clinking together as they're fed through the capping machine and placed into cardboard boxes.

Many of these boxes will go to some of the 87 pubs owned by Exeter-firm Heavitree. Others will stay locally or find their way into beer shops and at food and drink festivals.

"Sometimes I wonder what the hell I'm doing here in this cold room," John said. "It's always cold here. But I have absolutely no regrets. It's better than teaching 30 screaming children."

In his spare time, the former rugby referee still plays a bit of golf or gardening, and he and his partner Holly Hooker spend their time walking Dartmoor or taking their camper van to places like North Devon. He also plays guitar, acoustic guitar on his own and second rhythm guitar when he played with a band. "It's something I'm hoping to get back into," said John. Lewis is in the band Outf!t.