Saturday September 13th 2025 To recap from part one, I was in Scotland (Melrose to be precise) on a long enforced weekend due to train disruption. I'd just had my first sighting of the new 2026 Good Beer Guide pages for Borders and Edinburgh. And perhaps most thrillingly of all, FIVE consecutive pints of high quality Scottish cask, a new BRAPA record .... Make that SIX as the Tempest Armadillo is on fine form, as it had been in Alnwick a year ago. I'd also had it at the fi

Friday 12th September 2025 On the eve of my first sighting of the new 2026 edition of the Good Beer Guide, I was 'forced' into a long weekend in Scotland due to a dearth of trains between Newcastle and Edinburgh on the Saturday or Sunday. I set off from York after work, the highlight & lowlight of the journey being my first ever can of Madri. My Air B 'n B was out in the Fountainbridge part of the city, and I was suspicious of it from the get go due to the wealth of Glade plu

Friday 5th September 2025 Greetings from sunny Bath. I'd completed Bristol a day ahead of schedule so needed something else to fill in my final day. It felt like an afterparty .... a Bath-terparty (yep, still not sure it really works). Six central pubs are required, the perfect BRAPA score. I had been here previously in 2012 for the letter 'B' of 'Si's A-Z Aleway Adventures' - the natural pre-cursor to BRAPA. Pubs like the Star, Bell, Raven and Green Tree had impressed-a-

Thursday 4th September 2025 An anti-clockwise tour of Bristol was the plan for my penultimate day down here. Six pubs to go, and if you can work out what 1-6 are, or CS or SS or 'NB Pre-emp' without looking too far into the blog, congratulations, you are a Bristol pub king/queen. Yet again, I failed to reach McDonald's in time for a breakfast muffin. They must've changed the menu at literally the exact same time I arrived. Double cheeseburger and fries for breakfast it was

Wednesday 3rd September 2025 Despite an easy Tuesday being chauffeured around rural Gloucs (thanks once again to Martyn the Family Rug), I slept in too long to be in time for my Sausage and Egg McMuffin. Porridge with Blueberries and a dreadful coffee but a 9/10 Tropicana had to do. Oh, and mydaily Neighbours catch up of course where I could ask pertinent questions like 'why has Elle Robinson got a new face?' and 'did it confuse her Dad so much that he signed up for this yea

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 A chance comment from part 2 hero Maltmeister on seeing my photo of salubrious Cabot Circus last time out made...

Monday 1st September 2025 A new week dawned in cloudy Cabot Circus. 30 pub ticks the aim before I depart back for York on the Saturday...

Sunday 31st August 2025 I didn't surface until 10am on Sunday morning, I needed the sleep having barely stopped since I arrived in...

The Maltmeister wagon chugs south from Henleaze to Bedminster, a Bristol 'burb perilously close to Ashton Gate, home of today's game...

Me, after the annual GBG cross-ticking I've been through the wringer last month I tell ya! A wringer of my own making, but still a...

Approaching 10pm, Friday night in Bristol, 29th August and I'm wondering if I can squeeze three ticks in before closing time. I'd...

Saturday 23rd August 2025 Back in those hazy glory days of 74% GBG completion and warm sunny weather, I decided to bravely go where...

It may've been a brutal churn again this year, but at least there were eleven occasions whilst I was cross-ticking the Good Beer Guide...

Thursday 25th September 2025 Good morning! The CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2026 is officially released today, meaning an end to the embargo...

Saturday 16th August 2025 Another country road with no footpath, another day in North Oxfordshire. After yesterday's outer Bicester...

Friday 15th August 2025 This is a lengthy one (that's what she said!) so apologies, pour yourself a stiff drink. Some BRAPA days really...

Happy (belated) September .... the best (& worst) month in the pub ticking calendar. If you follow me on what the kids probably call...

Thursday 14th August 2025 York to Banbury direct? Didn't even know it was possible. It made the usual Dross Country train journey that...

Saturday 9th August 2025 With an air of inevitability, I was back on the Dross Country trains sitting miles away from Daddy BRAPA despite...

Thursday 7th August 2025 "Wot, no hot chocolate?" #ThirstyThursdays are becoming more elaborate as we reach the business end of the pub...