THE former lead singer with The Draymin is focusing on different notes these days – especially those with a hint of hazelnut and coffee.

From crafting great songs with the Rosyth band Fraser Penman has now switched his focus to making great beer, to the point that his home is now a registered brewery!

The Caledonian Craft Beer Merchant in Dunfermline will soon be selling 120 bottles of his ale, including a Las Vegas-inspired IPA with a touch of coffee, and there's interest from other outlets too.

The dad-of-two said: "My dream is to take over a pub. That's the ultimate target. A brewery / pub. I don't see why I can't do it.

"I'd always thought if I could just get my beer on the shelf, that would be a proud moment, but now that's going to happen I need a new dream!"

A mechanical engineer, his offshore job on the oil rigs inspired the names for his North Sea Brewery and the first four beers, Rig Pig, Fog Horn, North Sea Tiger and Floating Jail.

Fraser, 37, explained: "Rig Pig is an American IPA. I'm a rig pig, everyone that works on a rig is a rig pig, there's a wee story on the back of each bottle.

"Fog Horn is the golden coffee IPA. If the fog comes in when you're on a rig, you try and sleep in a cabin that you're sharing with two or three other guys and all you can hear is that fog horn, so you never get any sleep.

"That's when you need your coffee fix to get you through the day. I'd been to Las Vegas tried a Morning Joe IPA that had coffee in it.

"I thought I'd try something like it, played around and came up with an IPA that has hazelnut and coffee notes.

"It's got a really nice kick. I'm proud of it and the feedback has been good."

He continued: "There are offshore workers lucky enough to work abroad, in the sunshine, whereas those that work in the North Sea are called the North Sea Tigers.

"And Floating Jail is the nickname for a rig. You get really poor wifi, sometimes you've nothing to do, often the TV doesn't work, so the joke is it's worse than the actual jail.

"Plus it rhymes with pale ale!"

Fraser credits Brewdog for kick-starting the huge growth and interest in craft beer and a DIY job set him on his way.

He explained: "I like drinking Punk IPA so I wondered how easy it was to make. It's just like when Gordon Ramsay makes a beautiful beef wellington on the TV, you want to try making it.

"Brewdog actually give out the recipes so I thought I'd have a crack and it tasted spot on."

Fraser added: "I'd started getting into brewing about three years ago.

"Last summer I really nailed these four recipes and my mates said I should start making and selling them."

He used downtime on the rigs to jot down ideas for beer names and recipes and everything started to flow when he received his licence and the "surprisingly easy" go-ahead from HMRC to turn his house into a registered brewery.

He's honed his craft to consistently produce quality beer and said: "For me it's passion over profit. It is a business and needs to make money but it has to be perfect first and if that's right it should turn into a profitable business later.

"I just want it to be locally popular and hopefully have it in a bar so people can try it on draught."

The Draymin's farewell gig in Dunfermline September 2015 brought to an end a decade in which they played at T in the Park, RockNess and the South by Southwest festival in Texas, attracted an army of fans and interest from recording giants EMI.

Recently Fraser turned back the clock to livestream some of their tracks to lift the lockdown gloom and hasn't given up on music.

He explained: "I'm doing the Fraser Penman Project. I don't gig but I've got a recording studio in the loft so my son Ollie, who's seven, and I have written a song called Coronavirus!

"Music's on the back burner for now, I've got a few songs but just not had the time.

"I also run his Rosyth 2013 football team and I've got an allotment as well. I'm non-stop.

"It's probably because I sit around all the time at work that I'm so keen to be busy when I'm home!"