59* (not out) new Good Beer Guide pub ticks for the month of April, meaning I only need one more tomorrow (30th) for it to become my best month of 2026 so far. This takes me onto 3407 out of approx 4500 Good Beer Guide pubs, so I'm 75.7% complete. These are heady times at BRAPA Towers, and no time to rest on those laurels as my birthday BRAPA holiday is imminent. The celebrations have started early in York's excellent Black Horse. Get it in the Guide! Drunk in Derby, earl

Thursday 26th March 2026 2017 was the last time I ticked a pub in Herefordshire. Poor form! I was on holiday with the parents in a remote cottage near Eastnor which had loud owls and an obelisk. I went to Ledbury one evening to 'help' Daddy BRAPA to post a letter, with the view to tick a couple of pubs before Mummy B. wanted us back for a ploughman's tea and vintage Bergerac. "Daaaaad? As Ledbury has a train station, please could we do a couple of villages instead?" I wh

File our next seven pubs under the category 'what might have been'. Had circumstances been different, most could've finished higher. Though I can't imagine in any circs, they'd be in the running for any pub of the year awards. Let's try and find something interesting to say about them ..... Cromwell's Tap House, Shrewsbury In the shadow of one of Shrewsbury's snoozing spires comes this catch-all tap house, trying to evoke some kind of Tudor-esque atmosphere. I might be b

Saturday 7th February 2026 When reflection lad says to his mate "this mobile charger no longer works with my phone!" , then theatrically collapsing face down into the table as you can see above, I feel vindicated. I AM NOT ALONE. I want to hug the lad. 'Hug a Hoodie'. What were all that about Mr Cameron? Never caught on. It is edging 3pm. I've ticked one pub in Atherstone (plus a pre-emptive) and embibed three pints of foaming ale. Oh dear, that sounded very 'Viz'. I'

Thursday 29th January 2026 Note the addition of 'Hot Mango Immunity' shot to kick off the return of #ThirstyThursdays for 2026. I've been circling the man-flu drain for the entirety of this long cruel January. When my Mackem mate John commented last Tuesday that he's ready for spring time, I know it's bad as he's the most Autumnal/Wintry lover I know. Tyne & Wear today. Just the three ticks to do in the 2026 GBG to complete the county. I'm looking to add two south Northum

Saturday 10th January 2026 F.A. Cup third round weekend, the original Daddy BRAPA car day. As a Hull City fan, we've learnt to accept that we'll get a home draw against a fellow long-standing Championship team, and we'll put in an abject performance in front of 6,000 people whilst freezing our bums off. Ain't worth it mate! I called it back in December as the balls were about to be pulled from the hat, look ..... Blackburn at home. You've gotta laugh. It had been moved

Wednesday 10th December 2025 All I've got to show for January 2026 at the time of writing is 11 ticks in the first 16 days, though I'm hoping by the time you read this, Southampton (yesterday) has been semi-productive. Skinny ticking months cause me feelings of anxiety and guilt. Sitting at home thinking about all those times in life where I've been idle when I could've been ticking. Why didn't it occur to me to start this quest at a younger age? Just imagine, I could've c

I want to start this blog with the sad news I learned yesterday evening that Peter 'Pub Curmudgeon' Edwardson has died. I'm so pleased that I met this talismanic #PubMan on three occasions. The first being on 31st March 2018 in one of those 'Sizzling' pubs at Culcheth (Cherry Tree). He'd kindly DM'd me whilst I was in Daresbury's Ring O' Bells offering to drive me to other required ticks at Golborne (Queen Anne) and Lowton (Travellers Rest). Mudgie wields the green Stabilo

Saturday 11th October 2025 Victoria Hotel, Norham (3066 / 5907) Outdoor drinking on the Scottish/Northumbria border in October? Who says the polar ice caps melting is all bad? A friendly pub but with limited space, plus Dad's sudden craving for a smuggled Melton Mowbray pork pie and a fine village green and such warmth, outdoors was a no-brainer and made a mockery of Bath's Coeur de Lion barman who claimed 5th September was the last warm day of 2025. And an excellent Jarl

Thursday 9th October 2025 Before we head to deepest Borders, we'll start with a reassuringly thirsty #ThirstyThursday yielding six ticks across three different parts of the north west. Such is the plethora of pub options available to me in the first month of the new Good Beer Guide year. Pack Horse, Affetside (3057 / 5898) My one Greater Manchester miss of 2025 that's retained its place in the GBG. Truth is I couldn't be arsed to travel up to rural Bolton-Bury just for one

Saturday 27th September 2025 A wise man called RetiredMartin agrees that there's nothing more joyous in life than an early Autumn mop-up of Central London's new Good Beer Guide entries, of which there's always thousands, even if you're an experienced completist like him. And I had the perfect excuse, Watford away with Daddy BRAPA just two days after the official GBG release date. A quick note on why I think C.London's churn is so brutal. Two reasons. Firstly, it doesn't

Thursday 17th July 2025 I'm on an early morning LNER heading north for my first Scottish ticks of the 2024/25 season. I keep forgetting...

Saturday 12th July 2025 It was all aboard the Severn Valley Railway on another scorchio summer Saturday down south, travelling in style...

A gentle 34 pub month was probably the comedown my liver needed after my June Gloucestershire epic (67 pubs in 11 days) as I move on to...

Saturday 24th May 2025 It was a tricky start to our latest BRAPA outing, crossing the Pennines in search of five pub ticks east of...

Sorry for the late release time, I fell asleep after work for far too long and Wales v Belgium has been distracting me. Thursday 22nd May...

Thursday 15th May 2025 I'd made it as far north as Low (& High) Newton-by-the-Sea on my last Northumbrian coastal jaunt, running out of...

Greetings pub lovers, 66 new Good Beer Guide pubs visited in the month of May, smashing the previous record of 55. It takes me up to...

Sunday 4th May 2025 People who wish you a 'Happy Star Wars day' every May 4th need to be shot. It is important we get that straight from...

I've already decided this concept is flawed - ranking the pubs based on social media 'likes'. There are so many variables as to why...