A BOLTON brewer has helped to save the day for a brewery on the Isle of Man after floods wrecked barrels of bitter.

John Feeney, owner of the Bank Top Brewery off Ashworth Lane, Astley Bridge, was contacted by the Old Laxey Brewing Company after heavy rainfall flooded the brewery earlier this week.

Mr Feeney said: "Apparently there were four inches of rain in four hours, and the river running down the side of the mountain couldn't take it. The brewery was three feet deep in water." So now, Bank Top will be producing Bosuns Bitter for the brewery. And Mr Feeney will be taking the bitter across to the Isle of Man next weekend in a truck to help keep the brewery going.

Bank Top will produce 270 gallons of bitter for the brewery -- which is almost 2,200 pints.

Mr Feeney said: "It's great that my brewery is producing bitter for another brewery. I go over every year for their blues festival and usually take some guest beers with me.

"It's great that we have been able to help them out." And this is not the first time that Bolton's brew has been exported across the water. Casks of the brewery's tipples, Smokestack Lightnin and The Haka beer were shipped to a real ale festival in Boston, USA earlier this year.