BRAPA ..... 2023 YEAR END REVIEW

HAPPY NEW YEAR live from BRAPA Towers in York ........

It is time to take a month by month look back at the pubs and counties which made 2023 a vintage BRAPA year.

We'll hand out a few awards to the best (and worst) performers, have a few songs from the BRAPA playlist, so pop the beige snacks in the oven, open your furriest craft can, put on your dirtiest drinking vest, grab your nearest and dearest vegetable mascot, and enjoy. We even have a 'try also' section as a homage to those confusing early 2000's GBGs.

The Stats

563 pubs were ticked in 2023, slightly down on last year's 594 but I'm satisfied. I end the year on 2581. 57.2% of the way towards completion. The dream for a 2043 finish somewhere in the Gloucestershire / West Wales countryside is still on.

The cat is me, the woman with spoon is X/Twitter and other lady is people I know in real life

JANUARY

January dawned like all good January's do on New Year's Day but it was the following day when I banged out my first tick. Leigh's Wetherspoons, Thomas Burke. Glamorous or what? Very nice building and a lovely pint of Brightside. This was my 2,268th pub tick, so even allowing for the September Churn ™ it gives you some idea of my progress.

36 ticks in Jan was a modest start, but it is a notoriously difficult month to go and get a result.

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - Nottinghamshire

PUB OF THE MONTH - Horse & Plough, Bingham

TRY ALSO - Blind Monkey, North Sheffield / Lion, New Basford / Crooked Billet, Worsthorne.

BEST AVOIDED - Tan Hill Inn, Tan Hill

SONG OF THE MONTH - Sincere Engineer - Fireplace

Making Forest Fwends (Tap & Growler, Eastwood)

FEBRUARY

The first BRAPA holiday of the year took me to the sunny pub capital of Norwich. Locals were grumpy husks of human beings, and the beer quality suffered at times (31 seems too many GBG entries for one town/city) but on the whole, it was a cracking week and I got out to some reet dead n alive holes.

Kent was another county I was getting a taste for, starting my tour of the coastline, and who was this coming over the horizon, was it Leicestershire for the first time ever? It was. Greetings Leics!

Artillery Arms, Ramsgate, What a pub!

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - Norfolk

PUB OF THE MONTH - Fat Cat, Norwich

TRY ALSO - Artillery Arms, Ramsgate / Red Lion Hotel, Cromer / New Entertainer, Gorleston / Grove Tavern, Tunbridge Wells.

BEST AVOIDED - Lollard's Pit, Norwich / Split Chimp, Whitley Bay (no solid pooing allowed!)

SONG OF THE MONTH - Titus Andronicus - Give Me Grief

WORST PUB FOOD OF 2023 - Daddy BRAPA's Pork Pie in Lollard's Pit, Norwich

MARCH

Modest March, historically the month where I achieve fewest ticks struck again with a joint bottom 30. However, as the spring lambs and rabbits started frolicking in the BRAPA meadow, I saw an upturn in pub and beer quality (which was nice).

I'd taken Notts as far as I could and resigned on 91% completion, but the Kent push was on, and Lincolnshire ominously loomed into focus like yer pervy Uncle Gaz. A county which would haunt and delight for the rest of the year.

Ship Inn, Deal. What a pub, what an area!

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - Kent

PUB OF THE MONTH - (Green) Berry, Walmer

TRY ALSO - Ship, Deal / Final Whistle & Old Coach House, Southwell / Lord Hop, Nuneaton / Terminus, Conisbrough / Handsome Sam, Whitstable / Crown, Belton.

BEST AVOIDED - Nope, nothing was shite. Parkerville Herne Bay and the King's Arms Haxey were weakest, but I'd still say pop in on the basis you might like them more than I did.

SONG OF THE MONTH - Spanish Love Songs - Kick

APRIL

A record breaking 75 (SEVENTY FIVE) pub month had me calling for a liver transplant by the time May came around. Will I ever beat it? It felt unprecedented, but then again, it was unprecedented, and will remain unprecedented until I beat it. The very definition of unprecedented.

Leicestershire, Lancs, Tyne & Wear and our old mate Kent all did decent bits, but it was a holiday in Salisbury in the final week which really captured my imagination. Some right hellhole towns and villages were experienced, but the beer was generally decent and the people a mixed bag, either hateful but more commonly joyful like these lovely lads below.

The excellent Three Crowns, Chippenham

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - Wiltshire

PUB OF THE MONTH - Chapel at Whitehouse Street, Middlesbrough

TRY ALSO - Three Crowns, Chippenham / Three Brewers, Corsham / Horseshoe, Ebbesbourne Wake / Duke of York, Salisbury / Black Swan, Shepshed / Woodlands, Silverdale (despite being vaguely sinister!) / British Lion, Devizes.

WORST PUB EXPERIENCE OF THE YEAR - Swan, Enford. Where the landlady grassed me up for taking photo of handpumps, landlord stomped over, told me it was ILLEGAL, and was generally quite terse and rude, only to disappear, never to be seen again. Even weirder, landlady then had little joke with me about a breezy door, and the younger barmaid was one of the loveliest people I encountered all week. Overcompensating? Great pint too. But a bizarre place, and Pewsey was also odd. Aliens? Stonehenge? Porton Down? Culture of paranoia?

SONG OF THE MONTH - Lovely Eggs - Don't Look At Me (I Don't Like It)

Look how innocent it looks?

MAY

There is something strangely life affirming about walking through the backstreets of Gravesend in the rain on your birthday to a Dickensian classic that looks like this ......

The new King got coronated, Kent continued to do well by me apart from shit beer whenever you got within sniffing distance of Gillingham, and 43 new pubs was a decent return for a month on the back of that bruising April.

Leicestershire made subtle progress, and East Sussex showed some quality with a trip to Hastings, which must be up there as one of my top 5 pub towns of the year.

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - Kent

PUB OF THE MONTH - Halfway House, Brenchley

TRY ALSO - New Plough Inn / Hinckley, Raglan Arms, Staplehurst / Jenny Lind, Hastings / Dolphin, Hastings / First In Last Out, Hastings / Louis Armstrong, Dover

BEST AVOIDED - Horseshoe & Castle, Cooling

SONG OF THE MONTH - Bombshell Rocks - Where We Gather

Louis Armstrong, Dover : a pub so magical and cobweb clad, I thought it was shut twice!

JUNE

Summer was here, and a sun-fuelled energised BRAPA sprang into life for 48 more ticks.

Lincs, Norfolk and Suffolk were the yokel yummies who most inspired me. The quality of beer, people and pubs was the best it had been since March. Tip top.

UNWISE ROAD WALK OF THE YEAR - Marston to Fulbeck, Lincs

BRAPA Guest Star of the Year - Steve Gray of Suffolk

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - Suffolk

PUB OF THE MONTH - Black Horse, Thetford

TRY ALSO - Star, Wenhaston / Leather Bottle, Pleshey / Royal Oak, Snitterby / Racehorse Inn, Westhall / Green Dragon, Bungay / Red Herring, Great Yarmouth.

BEST AVOIDED - Blue Pig, Grantham

SONG OF THE MONTH - The Men They Couldn't Hang - Industrial Town

Basic, straight from the jug morris dancing fun in Pleshey thanks to Simon and Daddy Dewhurst

July

45 more ticks kept the momentum going through July, but if my Kent challenge was winding down at 87% completion, East Sussex was coming to prominence. But it was Kent that produced the most magical pub of the year .....

BRAPA pub of the year - Red Lion, Snargate

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - East Sussex

PUB OF THE MONTH - Red Lion, Snargate

TRY ALSO - Ypres Castle Inn, Rye / Rutland Arms, Grimsby / Bull's Head, Boreham Street / Plough Wollaston / Jolly Fisherman, Hastings

BEST AVOID - New Inn, Westfield

SONG OF THE MONTH - Street Dogs - The Comeback Zone

BRAPA Person of the Year - Daddy BRAPA (pictured here being a top hipster at Halton Turner, Birmingham)

AUGUST

I'm always happy to take the 'hit' in the month of August, after all, with all those evil holiday twilds, twummies and twaddies stinkin' out every public space going, I'm quite happy to work through it and wait til September to take my next holiday.

37 ticks wasn't a bad outcome. Lincs really was making a push for glory now, we had a Kingdom of Fife debut which would offer a stark warning about Scottish beer quality before I hit Tayside the following month.

Pub Staff of the Year Award - Duke of Wellington, Leasingham

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - Lincolnshire

PUB OF THE MONTH - Grapes, Slingsby

TRY ALSO - Admiral Benbow, Chapel St Leonards, Black Bull, Donington

BEST AVOIDED - Auld Hoose, Kinghorn

SONG OF THE MONTH - Craig Finn - Birds Trapped in an Airport

September

A brand new GBG plopped on my doormat to signify the dawning of a new BRAPA era - the highlight of a wonderful September, which yielded a fab 61 ticks (my joint 4th best ever tally).

My holiday in Dundee wasn't far behind, a really positive week even if the beer in more rural outposts sometimes flattered to deceive .......

Bad Beer of the Year Even Though I Fancied Barmaid so Felt Bad Saying it Award - Airlie Arms Hotel, Kirriemuir

Most Knackering Walk of the Year Award - Drovers Arms, Memus

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - Tayside

PUB OF THE MONTH - Blue Boar, Leicester

TRY ALSO - Albert Tavern, Freuchie / Phoenix & Speedwell Tavern, Dundee / Three Horseshoes, Barholm / Dave's Pie & Ales, Kirkstall

BEST AVOIDED - Whey Pat Tavern, St Andrews

SONG OF THE MONTH - Jeff Rosenstock - HEAD

Surprisingly Popular Photo on X/Twitter of the Year Award - Albert Tavern, Freuchie

October

With that new GBG now firmly in my grasp (I received it a week later than some other longer in the tooth (but still young if you squint) tickers, boooo!), my ticking options were unlimited with all four Yorkshire quadrants back in focus, leading to a fantastic 52 pub month, not bad considering I only had half a week off work.

King & Miller, Deepcar, Sheffield

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - West Midlands

PUB OF THE MONTH - Pretty Bricks, Walsall

TRY ALSO - King & Miller, Deepcar / Shirkers Rest, New Cross / Turner's Old Star, Wapping / Halfway House, Birkenshaw (+ just about everything in and around Walsall)

BEST AVOIDED - George Inn, Southwark

SONG OF THE MONTH - John Zacherley - Dinner With Drac

BRAPA 'Difficult Pour of the Year Caused by Alleged Cellar Ghost' Award - Walsall Arms, Walsall

Guest Non-Colin Mascot of The Year Award - Naughty Little Cousin Pumpy (Black Horse, Northfield)

November

Keeping up the strong recent form, 49 pubs was another great return helped in the main by a debut holiday to the oft neglected hidden gem of a county if you ignore Corby ..... Northamptonshire. With my Yorkshire mop up going great guns, County Durham got a bit of much needed attention, and county of the year Lincolnshire continued to amaze, baffle and bore in equal measures.

The Perfect Pub Scene? Dad and Col enjoy the Bridge Inn, Kingwinsford

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - Northamptonshire

PUB OF THE MONTH - Alexandra Arms, Kettering

TRY ALSO - New Inn, Abthorpe / Red Lion, North Bitchburn / Albion, Northampton / Rushden Historical Transport ThingiemiJig, Rushden / Bird in Hand, Wordsley

BEST AVOIDED - Stanley Jefferson, Bishop Auckland

SONG OF THE MONTH - Dance Hall Crashers - Shelley

Grumpiest Pub Cat of Year Award - Thomas, Rushden

December

I'm not a big fan of December from a pub ticking perspective. Busy, fractious, fractured, and to get out of it alive with a joint record yearly low of 30 ticks going into the New Year felt like an achievement.

Bringing Tank Tops back for 2024. Maybe. Queen's Arms, Litton

COUNTY OF THE MONTH - North Yorkshire

PUB OF THE MONTH - Rockliffe Arms, Whitley Bay

TRY ALSO - Bay Horse, Masham / Crown Hotel, Middlesmoor / Queen's Arms, Litton / Red Lion Inn, Stickford.

BEST AVOIDED - Pickled Parson, Sedgefield

SONG OF THE MONTH - The Pogues - Rain Street

Last tick of the year - Half Moon, Melton Mowbray (pub of the day and a great quality Bass - Pedro wishes it was Plum Porter)

And there we have it! Take a breath.

Sincere drunken moment - a big thanks to all those of you who have helped me get from A to B, met me in a pub, or just kept my morale up with your likes, reposts, funny weird random obscure X/Twitter comments etc. It does make a difference when I'm walking down a pissy Lincolnshire lane.

See you in a few days for more of the same. Devon, Northumberland, Merseyside, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester & Lancashire are the counties mostly on mind for 2024 so look out for those, plus a couple of surprise packages.

Have a great 2024 and keep on pubbing, Si