Beers, Boats and Boozers, No.79

We left St. Neots and had another glorious day travelling up the Great Ouse.

 The river varies in width as you travel up stream and seems to never very close to habitation. It was as though we were travelling up the Amazon, without the humidity! We hardly saw a soul, or boat as we moved along.

That is until a new navigational danger appeared just before a lock. A pair of swimmers were enjoying themselves and were exploring this part of the river for the first time. They were no problem and kept well clear of us.

As we got closer to Bedford the river narrowed and the trees grew in too. There were plenty of bends to wonder if you were going to meet something coming round the corner, but we didn't, and in truth there was usually enough room for two.

The locks are modern and appear deep, but they have to cope with fluctuating river levels. There is a mixture of gates and guillotines on the locks too.

Just before Bedford is a large marina, and beyond that is a very low footbridge. This prevents the glass fibre cruisers from getting up to Bedford so the narrowboats have it all to themselves. Well almost, as you can see there are several rowing clubs too. There are some visitor moorings on the otherside, with a water point but we liked the idea of being off the footpath and in the sun. It is a big park by the mooring so very pleasant indeed. To access the town it is just across the footbridge.

We did go for a wander about the town and came across the Brewhouse and Kitchen (BHK) in High Street. I had seen these in other places but had never visited before. The BHK is a chain of pubs that were started by two mates in 2011. The idea is that the experience is the thing. Each of the pubs, and there are 22 of them around the country now, has a minibrewery within the pub, for all to see, hear and smell, and each can brew their own recipes along with a core. They also sell other breweries products. They sell food at reasonable prices and run courses such as a brewery visit, help brew a beer, beer tasting and food matching, and now gin tasting too. The Bedford pub has an industrial feel to it with areas sort of separated of from each other. Certainly more baseball than flat cap land. This pub interestingly was converted from a bank to a pub by Weatherspoons but BHK took it over in 2016.

The first BHK was in Portsmouth in 2016 and the chain has grown very quickly since then. I think they are up to 22 in all now. I'm not sure if some of them are franchised concerns. They now also seem to be going along the providing hotel accommodation at the same site where they can. Wetherspoon's have done the same. The concept is a little gimmicky for me, but the food looked good value and there was a good range of beers.

In the pubs literature they say that Intrepid is an American style pale at at 4.2%.  It was from the hand pull so had a nice white head. It had a nice floral aroma and a nice clear golden yellow colour. It tasted lovely too, sweet and fruity but with enough bitterness finish to make it interestingly complex. It was a great drink on a warm day. The name apparently comes about due to a local man Apsley Cheery-Garrard who was an exploring hero. (With a name like that he probably had to travel far away to escape bullying!) He was famously part of the Scott expedition to Antarctica on the Terra Nova 1910 - 1913. There were plenty of others beers to try so I may well explore when I see another one.