Brewery's beers inspired by the pandemic

Problem Child, based at The Wayfarer pub in Parbold, has named its most recent creations Vaccine, Isolation and Social Distance.

And while some people may never want to think of the novel coronavirus again the link hasn’t stopped the beers flying out of the door as the brewery has been running deliveries for bottles, cans and five-litre bag in boxes.

He said: “We’ve got a bit of a theme with all our names, which tend to be old-fashioned, names from a more romantic age for degenerate children, such as Rascal and Scallywag.

“I wanted to keep that but also have something appropriate for the times we are living in with Covid.

“The connection with Isolation is children misbehaving in school getting put in isolation, Social Distance goes with the idea of anti-social behaviour and the latest one Vaccine is because kids get their jabs in schools.

“It’s going well, Isolation has been one of my best sellers during lockdown. I’ve not been brewing as much to make sure I shift it and people seem to go for them when they are themed.”

Vaccine has flavours of orange and caramel while Isolation is more of a traditional malty ale and Social Distance is a dry-hopped beer.

As well as running Problem Child, Jonny is also the bar and cellar manager at The Wayfarer and was looking forward to welcoming drinkers back on Monday.

With pubs restricted to outdoor table service the watering hole had to work out how much space it had and make arrangements to give some shelter from any unhelpful weather.

There is a marquee covering 10 tables and further space in the open air, which means there will be plenty of looking at the sky and hoping as pubs wait for customers to return.

Jonny said: “We’ve got the marquee in what would traditionally be our beer garden, so we’ll be serving in there whatever the weather.

“There are tables at the front and we are also using a bit of a farmer’s field. We will also use our festival area at weekends.

“We’ve now got fingers crossed that we get some good weather. Every landlord will be hoping for the best over the next few weeks.

“It’s definitely exciting and we’re looking forward to it.”

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