Beers, Boats and Boozer, No.96

We continued heading up the Witham after one night with a deadline to arrive in Lincoln.

We passed through Bardney and stopped at the lock for water and to dump the rubbish. In the winter of 2019/2020. The area behind me was completely underwater as they suffered terrible flooding.

We carried on to our favourite mooring on the Witham, the pontoon at Fiskerton Fen Reserve. We were pleased to see no boats moored to share our peace and quiet. We went for a walk round the nature reserve. This is the bird hide with a look like a Bronze Age hut as a Bronze Age axe head was found here. The resereve is new as the pits were formed by the removal of clay for bank work between 2002 and 2004, and then allowed to flood.

The next day was not so pleasant, but we didn't get wet. We continued up to Stamp End lock that was constructed in 1808 along with river improvements and has the guillotine gate at the up end. We again stopped for a top up of water and then didn't go much further.

We moored behind the nearest boat in the photo. It is right next to a road, but only seems to be busy morning and evening rush hours and certainly didn't keep us awake over night. There is little footfall. There are rings and a gate in the fence to access the town that is a short walk away.

The reason reason we were in Lincoln was to meet up with our daughter over the weekend and for us all to sample a few pubs and museums etc. Our first was the Strugglers Inn up by the castle. It is a great real pub with lots of different beers on at any one time. There is no TV's or music and just an old fashioned pub. It is known on the Ghost circuit as it is said the a ghost dog is seen. It is also said that people watch hangings in the castle tower from the pub. I did find a newspaper article from 1883 where a man was found hanging in the hayloft around a week after the act. The place was obviousy a place for n'er do wells in the past with people being apprehended there following assaults, robbery etc etc. It is now a good place for a chat and we took advantage in the late afternoon. 

See also B,B,B No. 40 and 52.

Titanic is a Burslem beer with a story. Kieth Bott started out as an apprentice brewer at the Stoke Brewery. Years later in 1985 with his brother Dave they bought the place and started brewing 7 barrels at a time. They are now up to over four million pits a year! I have only once had a bad pint and that was at a beer festival where it wasn't/couldn't be kept properly. It seems an odd name for a brewery about as far away from any seaside as you can get. It is actually named for Edward John Smith who canme from Stoke on Trent and was the Captain of the Titanic on that maiden voyage and went down with his fated ship. 

I tried the Chocolate and Vanilla Stout at 4.5%. Titanic's beers are always worth a try and do not disappoint. The chocoate and vanillas came with a lovely dark beer with a creamy head that took ages to settle. Bringing it up to the nose you certainly got what was advertised, a bar of chocolate! It was a great pint and would have been up there with my top beers if it had been thicker in the mouth! I'm not really sure how else to describe this but it just feels like a mouthful when it is right. I loved the sweetness and smoothness of it. You couldn't drink it all night though as you would be really bloated, like eating too much chocolate!