Beers, Boats and Boozers, No.76.

We had a couple of dry days to follow but as we are breaking new ground every mile we had enough to think about.

Marmont Priory Lock was the first obstacle but we soon were up and over with the help of the redoubtable Maureen who has been keeping a watchful eye over proceedings since the route was opened in 1979.

We were now in Well Creek and as we passed through Upwell there were plenty of delightful buildings to look at as we passed in the sun.

A few hours later we were at Salter's Lode Lock and third in the queue for passing out onto the river. There wasn't much water in the river when I looked first, but it was soon our turn and off we went. You can see the inner and outer gates of the canal here. The big ones for the river point out and the smaller ones for the canal point in.

It was evening when we had passed through Salters Lode and a 15 minute passage on the tidal Great Ouse to get to Denver Sluice. We passed through and found a mooring and decided to celebrate at the pub, but when we got there it was shut! The next day we set off up the Great Ouse and the wide open skies and wide open water way was quite a novelty.

Excitement grew as we approached Ely and got our first view of the gorgeous cathedral on the hill.

We thought we were going to be out of luck for a mooring  but managed to slide on here by the footbridge despite having to wind to get the stern of the boat on the quay. We had an explore and found.

The Drayman's Son is not far away from the river, just up Foregate. The micro pub used to be called the Liberty Belle until bought by Andy and Jo Pearson around 2016. They renamed it for Andy's father who was that drayman. Then in 2018 they were looking to sell and along came the three guys from the Three Bling Mice Brewery in Little Downham. All parties knew each other as the pub regularly sold their beer as it tries to stay local. The deed was done. They had 12 beers on draft and 20 ciders, so Helen was happy. The beer is kept in the back room as it act as the climate controlled cellar, and beer is brought to the table.

On the board the beers I tried was said to be from Team Toxic. I can't seem to find much out about this gang, but it seems to be a collaboration between Sue Hayward of the Wean Brewery and  Gary Prescot of Hop Craft Brewery. They seem to be based in Liverpool and often use the local Liverpool Brewery, when they have a space, to try out their innovative brews.

However on the pump clip the beer is credited to the Mission Creep Brewery. This seems to be run by Gazza Prescot and so there is a connection with the two breweries. The plot thickens as there is also a tie with Pixie Spring and Hop Craft Breweries as well as Gary was at Steel City Brewing. Needless there is a wealth of experience here. They have managed to brew the reverse of a pint of Guinness with a white body and a black head called Sinistral!

I tried a pint of the Bend Sinister at 5%. As the beer is gravity and from 'out the back' there was no great head but a lovely coffee colour. The taste was as it said on the tin, a beautiful creamy flavour with dark toasted/roasted barley there too. It slipped down very well but we had tea to head back for, plus there were no cheao beers for our northern pockets in this pub.