Beers, Boats and Boozers, No.98

Whilst we were up by the Castle in Lincoln we went to have a look around the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. There is lots to see and it is all free too.

Lincolnshire was the home of the construction of agricultural machinery in its day. Here a traction engine drives a thrashing machine.

I distinctly remember road rollers like this when I was a kid. The modern ones do not seem to have the mystic of these old machines.

Because of their expertise in building machinery the War Office turned to them when they created their Land Ship Commission to come up with a design for new equipment. It became the tank, as above. The name tank apparently originated from when the prototypes were being constructed and they were still secret. The workers in the factory were told they were constructing water tanks for Mesopotamia, and the name stuck!

The museum is housed in the old barracks, armoury and stores that were built in 1857. They were decommissioned in 1960.

This photo gives you a good idea how high the castle and cathedral are above the neighbouring countryside. The Brayford Pool is just below.

We had worked up a thirst so sort out another of the pubs in the upper area of Lincoln and came to the Victoria on Union Road. It is right by the west entrance to the castle. It seems to have been here since at least the 1840's and looking at an old map it seems to have been called the Cross Keys in 1887. It has an arch to the front so would have had stabling around the back. It is a good old fashioned pub with two rooms and chatty staff and customers. It is a Batemans pub but has at least half a dozen different beers on hand pull.

I tried a pint from York Brewery. It turns out that they have had a bit of a chequered history. Set up in 1996 they were in the heart of York, near Micklegate. Their 20bbl plant was in old buildings with a new addition to the front. Part of the building was 16th Century and they can claim that Joseph Hansom was born there and he was apprenticed to his grand father who had is joinery business in what were the stables. Joseph was the 'inventor' of the Hanson Cab! It later became a provisions merchants until 1897 and then a furniture place until the brewery was set up. In 2008 the brewery was bought by Mitchell's of Lancaster. They were a family run pub business who had been brewers too until 1999. Things didn't go well for them and come 2018 they went bust and the brewery closed. In steps Black Sheep Brewery to buy them and their four pubs remaining. The run of misfortune continued as in 2019 the landlord of the brewery decided to alter the terms and increase the rent substantially, including repair terms too. This made it untenable for the new concern so they left in June. The beer is now being brewed at the Black Sheep Brewery in Masham until they find new premises in York,

I tried their Guzzler that is a 3.6% session ale. It has a nice colour and thin white head and smells of hops and the normal citrus fruit aromas. It has Challenger and Slovenian grown Celfia hops and pale, crystal malts. As a a session ale it falls between two stools for me. It hasn't go the full on mouthful of flavour of a heavily hopped beer, nor does it have the depth of a malty beer. Drinkable enough but I like a bit more depth myself.