Beers, Boats and Boozers, No.54.

We headed off to the end of the Trent and Mersey the next day, under bridge No.1, also called Porter's Bridge.

  

The Derwent Mouth Lock is the first/last on the Trent and Mersey and is named after the river that flows in from the left, joining the River Trent coming in from the right and flowing on straight ahead on its way to the Humber.

Weonly had a short trip to do so went to explore the head of navigation at Cavendish Bridge. Named after the Duke of Devonshire's family name, for they built the toll bridge to replace a ferry. The tolls were withdrawn in 1888 and the wooden bridge washed away before the concrete bridge of today appeared in the 1950's. The brewery built for Fletchers in 1815 still stands. It passed to the Eaton family in 1839, then the Offilers Brewery in 1896 before closing in 1923. Now the Shardlow Brewery uses part of the site.

This is the tow path bridge that was erected over the Trent in 2011. It replaced two previous wooden bridges and a concrete bridge. The concrete bridge became unsafe due to crumbling and corrosion that it was demolished in 2003. It took a long time to come up with this on didn't it!

We passed through the open flood gates into the Sawley Cut and moored up at the marina there. We were going home for a while and at the same time were having the boat blacked.

We were able to fit a couple of pubs in before going home however, and I was very pleased to be able to get along to Sawley lock as the Lockeepers Rest isn't open every day. The house was the original lock keepers cottage. When Dave Parrott, the last full time lock keeper here retired in 2014 he was able to purchase the cottage. He and his wife have slowly set about renovations, and at the far end have opened a cafe/teashop/coffee house, and in 2017 at this end opened a micropub, the Lock Keepers Rest. There is limited space inside but it is a grand place on a summer evening.

As can be seen above there are usually four beers on gravity that are served from the back room. Dave is mine host and there is always a good chat going on. He has several ciders in poly pins round the back too.

On the barrel ends I saw Abstract Jungle Brewery and as I had never tried one of their beers I started with them. Abstract was started by Simon King in 2014/2015. This was in Peterbrough and was cooperating with Bexar County Brewery. He has soon expanded sales to such a level that he was looking for his own site and moved out in February 2016 to newly fitted premises at Langley Mill, at the head of the Erewash Canal. That was all up and running by the November, and in the meantime he had been able to use a  Nottingham Brewery plant to keep production going.

This is billed as a session ale at 3.9%. It looked good in the glass but was a little disappointing in taste, maybe I'm not used the American and German hops used!

Nothing ventured I tried another of their beers, a porter called Jackal 4.2%. A nice dark colour but with no head. This was better but still not standing out in any way, despite the use of four malts.

I thought I had not better go back to the boat without finding a more pleasing pint so went to the Blue Monkey Brewery. This was started in 2008 by John Hickling. He had been in It at a big bank but not happy. he threw it all up to learn the brewing trade at 30 and has never looked back. After training he bought the Jarrow Brewery 10bbl plant when it closed down and was off and running  at Ilkeston. By 2009 he was selling to 100 places and had to increase capacity to 40,000 pints a month! By 2010 new premises were required and the move to Giltbrook took place, NW of Nottingham, and can now produce 100,000 pints a month. And the name? Well apparently that came to him in a dream, but apparently it was also the name given to the blue flames above Stanton Iron Works, but Hickling swears it is coincidental. And yes the monkey on the logo is fact a chimpanzee, which is an ape, not a monkey!

Infinity was the Champion Golden Ale of Britain in 2017. It is a pale ale 4.6%brewed with citra hops that give it the citrus fruit flavours. The beer is named after the Infinite Monkey Theorem that states a monkey playing on a typewriter for long enough will certainly type out a well known book (or something like that). Once again I was somewhat underwhelmed by the beer. Perfectly pleasant but not at its best. 

 I think that all the beers tried would have been so much better given a bit of air as when pulled through a hand pull pump with a sparkler attached. This will certainly get a good head on the beer and the air will enhance the aroma and feel in the mouth as well as getting the flavours out. I have never preferred gravity beer. We had a lovely evening of chat and there was plenty of boating talk as it is walking, cycling, or boating as there is little access for cars. Always a good place to visit to find new breweries to try.