The observant amongst those who read these things may have noticed that occasionally somewhere in one of the photos there will be lurking a can of Cain’s Bitter. There have been a few times when I been enthused enough to give the can a picture all to itself and last night a can of Cain’s IPA was grabbing centre stage. So you could be forgiven for thinking that in the same way that Keith Floyd liked to have a good glass of red wine to hand when cooking I like to be able to curl my fingers around a can of Cain’s Bitter.

This evening I stopped off at the supermarket to pick up my supper and I went round to the back of the store to collect up my four cans for the evening. It was disconcerting to find the shelf empty. It was not even a case of them running out – the space was filled some other cans and all sign of Cain’s having been sold from there was gone.

I then remembered a headline from The Liverpool Echo a few weeks ago that made some mention of the brewery closing its doors.

For those who don’t know the brewery is in the heart of Liverpool in a great old Victorian building from where they have been making beer for near on a century. There are rumours of an underground lake under the site from where water is pumped to add its special flavour to the beer. Over the years it has been owned by various breweries that have changed their name as the industry has moved on. For the last fifteen years it has been The Cain’s Brewery and I have been making a great effort to ensure they stay in business.

Needless to say part of the weekend will be spent scouring the Wirral for another source of my favourite take home beer.

In the meantime and by way of consolation I have stuffed some slivers of garlic into holes made in a small leg of lamb. This has now been surrounded with potato and is roasting peacefully in the oven. I will be basting it with a tart sauce before eating with relish.