Grantham beers are among those supplying a new online ales and snacks delivery service that has just opened to serve much of the district.

The venture has been created by Paul Martin, a former Stamford lad, who now lives in Bourne.

The business Thirst Bourne only operates within 25 miles of Bourne, and all the beers are brewed and delivered in what Paul calls "a bubble of joy."

He said: "But that doesn't mean that we have compromised anything in terms of quality as we are still able to offer award winning beers.

"We will have nearly 50 beers from 11 local producers (Newby Wyke, Brewsters (Grantham), 8 Sail (Heckington), Welland (Spalding), Hopshackle (Deeping), Mile Tree (Peterborough), Nene Valley (Oundle), Grainstore (Oakham), Parish, Round Corner (Melton), KCB (Kings Cliffe).

"We have been tasting all of the beers that we offer so that we could provide a standardised description of the beers and I can confirm that the standard is excellent.

The ThirstBourne website has just gone live and deliveries start in the coming week.

Paul, who grew up in Stamford, lived and worked around the UK until returning to Ryhall and finally settling in Bourne.

He said: "After University, I started my career working in the food manufacturing industry. Coming from a scientific background my career involved focusing on food law and food safety. This included auditing major brands across Europe. Whilst this involved plenty of travel and some great laughs, it unfortunately meant spending a lot of time away from my family.

"I'd become used to living in hotels during the week. I was on first name terms with hotel staff in an Alan Partridge kind of way. Finding myself home during lockdown was a bit of a shock to the system, as the concierge was useless and the table service appalling!

"Lockdown gave me a chance to recalibrate and adjust to the new normal. Part of the new normal was no longer being able to share a quality pint of locally brewed ale in the pub.

"Forced to stay local, I rediscovered the wealth of quality food and drink producers on our doorstep, however, unless you knew a brewer, that quality pint was hard to come by. My aim is to change that in a sustainable way."

He continued: "In my opinion you will not get a better pint than a cask conditioned ale from the hand pump of a decent pub. So if you can, you should go to the pub, as they need your support now more than ever.

"If you can't be in the pub and want a drink at home then the next best thing is a bottle of hand crafted beer, but you can't buy these in supermarkets. Although many of the beers on the supermarket shelf are labelled "craft", you can't make beer at supermarket prices unless you do it on a colossal scale and to me that is about as "crafty" as Coke or Pepsi."

He added: "I have always had a long term goal of working with beer, as I am genuinely fascinated by beer and the brewing process. The obvious conclusion was to set up a locally produced craft beer delivery service - three months later ThirstBourne was ready to launch.

"As for the name ThirstBourne; you can't set up a new business in Bourne without including some kind of "Bourne" pun. So born of thirst, ThirstBourne was born!"

Among the suppliers of ThirstBourne is award-winning Grantham brewery Newby Wyke, which has this year extended its range of bottled beers to include Yamato and Bear Island Extra, to add to the bottles of Queen Elizabeth, which is also supplied to the Royal Navy vessel of the same name.

The brewery also continues to produce a diverse range of ever-changing ales, plus regular favourites, which are supplied to pubs locally and across much of England.

The brewery's Christine March told Nub News: "We wish Paul all the best. It is great to see him distributing local ales and supporting the real ale breweries. We wish him every success. He's very enthusiastic and it's great to see him deliver within a 25 mile radius, as this is vitally important at this time for those who cannot go out."