Saturday 29th August 2026 Yes it IS still August in BRAPA-land. What of it? Leave me alone! I'm trying my best! There's a Daddy in the Fox The first thing Daddy BRAPA had said to me on our annual Foxtures Fixtures* day a couple of months previously was "NO". I'd asked him how bothered he was about Coventry away. Fine with me. Having been there lots recently in the Championship, we decided an NFFD (Non Football Football Day**) made more sense. *Dad and I go to the Fox I

Happy November folks, 70 Good Beer Guide ticks in the month of October represents my best return of the year so far. And so it should be with a week in Bath and a brand new GBG in my possession. I've only bettered 70 four times in BRAPA history. 77 is the record. It moves me on to 75.4% completion. 'Only' 1104 to go! Which was incidentally the year in which St Cuthbert was reburied. No evidence that the lad was a zombie, but makes you wonder doesn't it? I also managed

Saturday 22nd August 2026 Modern day songstress Raye may've recently scooped the Mercury prize, but it is #PubMan Ed Wray who puts himself within scooping range of the BRAPA year end prize by helping me achieve SIX awkward rural Surrey ticks on a sunny Saturday eight weeks previous. This isn't so much a tale of 'Where is my Husband?' as 'Where isn't my Cauliflower?' SEE, I'm still down with the kids. Groovy baby, groovy. Up at 5am, and aboard the 6:10am train to King's Cro

Thursday 20th August 2026 From my default position in Manchester Piccalilli station, leaning over the balcony squinting at train times having just bought posh snacks in M&S, I am forced to reflect that 2025/26 hasn't been a vintage year for Cheshire BRAPA. After an excellent 2024/25, I'd basically forgotten that the county existed. It isn't always the most appealing. In parts, a snooty snothole WAG orientated shellacy french-tip-manicure-wipe-away-the residue dining pub of

Saturday 15th August 2026 If I drew a basic graph representing today's pub/beer quality versus time, it would be linear. You know what, I will! I've got the day off as I'm resting my liver post-Somerset on this driest of #ThirstyThursdays. Leicester by train was our original plan. Four ticks and a nailed on Bass only pre-emptive promised a great day. Maybe a cheeky bus trip to somewhere on the outskirts too? I hear Wigston is beautiful this time of year, I could even co

Saturday 8th August 2026 Angmering station was the staging post for the final day of my long weekend in West Sussex. It involved a change at Ford ..... Ford would pee me off by including a pub in the 2027 GBG for the first time since 2008. Sadly, I didn't have any insider knowledge but to think there are beer bellied Sussex men and women out there who knew this fact pains me. Ford also boasts the best named historical West Sussex GBG entry in the 'Shakey Doo' due to a Luft

Friday 7th August 2026 Coming at you live from Horsham, day two of my long weekend in West Sussex began with a quest to buy a birthday card, which I decided to combine with an early morning pre-emptive 'Spoons. Swan Walk shopping centre felt like a particularly challenging escape room, but having found a desultory shelf of cards in M&S, escape I did. A giant game of snakes 'n ladders isn't compulsory on the way into 'Spoons, but as pub ticking feels like that at times (the sn

Wednesday 5th August 2026 Heritage Pub 101 It started with the purchase of six Lidl eggs as the sun sets on a balmy summer's evening just outside Horsham town centre. Because if I can't have my breakfast eggs how could I possible face the tough pub agenda I'd set myself? Back in May 2025, after a successful birthday week in Chichester coincided with Hull City's Championship survival at Pompey on the final day of the season, I'd promised myself that during 2026 I'd get mysel

Welcome back to this rundown of the 34 (THIRTY FOUR) pubs which made the 2027 edition of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide (best book in history, sorry God), but when I visited them, I had no green Stabilo to wield. In this blog, we'll have a look at the final 11 (ELEVEN) and how likely I thought they were to make the good book. Don your V.R. BRAPA headset which was sent to you in the post. Your unscrupulous human cauliflower chauffeur has dumped you in Liverpool City Centre, so tha

Eleven more pre-emptive pubs which have happily made it into the Good Beer Guide 2027. To make this a more immersive experience for yourself, pop on the BRAPA VR headset that you should've received through the post. You are stood on the side of the road in Somerset, say Bridgewater, where an unscrupulous human cauliflower picks you up to drive you around the pubs. He'll drop you in London Paddington for marmalade sandwiches by teatime. Tap One, Taunton (visited 17/6/26) The

I'm waving the white flag early on September pub ticking, knowing for certain that there will be no more BRAPA activity between now and 11:59pm on Wednesday. A useful analogy would be a cricket umpire calling time shortly before tea on the final day of the county championship season. The five wickets required for victory in the final session isn't an insurmountable ask But an ultimately pointless exercise for a beleaguered team finishing runners up in every competition ever

34 pre-emptives have come good for me in the 2027 Good Beer Guide. Triple my usual figure. Helping this year's #CruelChurn to be less #Cruel. My increased mindfulness around pre-emptives (particularly Wetherspoons, Black Country Ales pubs and those rating 3* on the CAMRA website) seems to have paid off. Could I have done more? Of course, but it gives me hope going into the 2026/27 ticking season. So let's look at the first twelve in question, with a photo I took at the ti

The 2027 Good Beer Guide is official out today. No more embargoed 'secret ticks', no more GBG heebie-jeebies (for the next twelve months anyway). The shackles are off and I can start the new pub ticking season with a positivity not experienced since 2023. Incognito at Manchester's Bulls Head last Thursday (didn't work, landlady thought I was on drugs) So what was the damage? Well, I'll be starting the 2027 Good Beer Guide on 3,323 (73.8% of the Guide completed). My final tick

Saturday 1st August 2026 The Daddy BRAPA close season of summer fun continued in Merseyside, hopping on the Merseyrail at Liverpool Central for our annual trip across (under?) the river...... Merseyside LOVES a Wetherspoons more than most areas (there's a lazy joke in there about unemployed 'Spoons punters / Scousers / Woolybacks which I'm definitely not going to make cos I'm nice and NOT lazy). A 'Spoons in every port. And Hoylake, possibly a one time port, had a pre-empti

Thursday 30th July 2026 Sometimes in this unforgiving game, you have to accept minimal pub ticks in a day if you're going to achieve those true rural classics. If they appear in the Good Beer Guide every single year, it'll still be more worthwhile than a day where you fire off six 'here today, gone tomorrow' Bristol micropubs. Arriving in Birmingham just shy of 10am, there was ample opportunity before my Moor Street connexion to suck up one of my (many) remaining pre-emptive

Saturday 25th July 2026 Pub ticks in four counties on the same day? What IS this insanity? Surely it ain't possbile?!?! Well, when Daddy's at the wheel, anything is possible ..... #DaddyAtTheWheel North Northamptonshire is pushing the outer limits of what I'd reasonably expect of Dad on a chauffeur day. An 11am opener made it easier to sell. Verified by three independent sources (the holy trinity of Facebook, Dr Google and CAMRA), I'm still a bit twitchy regardless. So fa

Thursday 23rd July 2026 Welcome to my 500th Wix Blog. It doesn't seem long ago since I was in Newport Wetherspoons in South Wales struggling to upload photos onto rubbish Blogger and decided I needed to move platforms. An eleventh hour change to my plans for this particular #ThirstyThursday helped me to keep my July numbers to a respectable level following a zero tick Knaresborough outing the previous Saturday. Hertfordshire had been my original plan, but my 'key' pub in Ste

Greetings from BRAPA Towers. 'Tis a stormy Sunday evening in York, 37* Good Beer Guide ticks in the month of August (plus a few more tomorrow) moves me onto 79.9% completion, with only 904 to go before I achieve glory and need to come up with a new hobby. A more modest total than I'd been expecting, but I must be honest it is getting harder to now to get the full daily 5-6 pub quota in as I creep up to 80%. On the upside, 19 new pre/post-emptives (most of which felt like de

Thursday 16th July 2026 I thought I'd finally cracked the DrossCountry morning train trauma, I really did! A 6:40am service starting at York (not the evil north east) is two trains stuck together meaning I could spread myself across an almost empty carriage. BLISS. I even texted Daddy BRAPA "this train is the future for Saturday trips to Brum!" It was calmness and relaxation all the way to Derby, when the guards start rushing up and down like maniacs. One eventually abrup

Saturday 11th July 2026 A Simon Dewhurst Essex car day is always one of the highlights of the BRAPA calendar, and being part of our 'Summer-of-fun', (no football to spoil the pubbing) Daddy BRAPA came along for the ride, his first time meeting Simon. A breakfast slice of fruit cake was the only deviation from the usual morning routine of air fryer croissant as we made our way down to London using the train tickets originally destined for our Wembley date in May, but revised d