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 decent shouts for a future Guide) is a new BRAPA record as the dearth of actual ticks on certain days give me more capacity to be creative in this area.
45/55 Black Country Ales pubs completed, 449/821 Wetherspoons ticked off.
Raglan Arms, Rugby
Monro's, Liverpool
Fynn's, Worthing
Let's have a look at the seven counties where I made progress in August, with the stats, a bit of commentary and a pub of the month, before we look ahead to September AKA the most exciting month in the pub ticking calendar ......
West Sussex (18 ticks, 8 left, 87.5% complete)
A long weekend in Horsham was the highlight of my August, with plenty of madcap ordnance survey walks and expensive taxis to ensure I got within touching distance of county glory!
I'm hoping to get back to the Chichester area when I stay in Hampshire later this year and I'm wondering if Rudgwick could pair well with rural Surrey. The ridiculously named Warninglid and Fulking are gonna have to prove themselves before I take them seriously, because I like to think I'm not a total slave to this stupid pasttime (!)
Pub of the Month - White Horse, Maplehurst (honourable mention Queen's Head, Barns Green)
41 consecutive years in the GBG at Maplehurst, and I could see why
Painful walk to Barns Green from Billingshurst, but worth the effort even if I did then sit outside with a weird pint!
Surrey (6 ticks, 8 left, 88.57% completion)
I've had a strong end to the season in Surrey which was sitting at 25+ required ticks just a few months ago. I'm indebted to my ole' mate from the COVID era, Ed Wray for driving me around that posh pretty but very rural mid-Surrey Shere area two Saturday's back. BRAPA man of the month and was nice to visit pubs with him without facemasks on or annoying clockwise walking routes around the pub!
I'm not sure what was more surprising that day .... pint after pint of quality Surrey cask ale in 30+ degree heat, or Hull City beating Man Utd 2-0.
Pub of the month - Good Intent, Puttenham
The pub was quite busy but everyone was a vampire so unphotographable
Merseyside (5 ticks, 3 or 4 left, 95.83% completed)
A county I'd pretty much forgotten about all year. A train day with Daddy BRAPA at the beginning of the month brought Scouseland back to respectability and I'm not totally ruling out my Southport duo before the new Guide 'drops' (ugh).
Why '3 or 4' you might be asking? Well I originally thought Mossley Hill's Black Cat was Pi which I visited a few years back, but further investigation by one of my fellow pub tickers (who might be called Jim) reveals it isn't quite the exact same address so yep, if it remains in the '27 Guide I will have need to count it as a brand new tick.
Pub of the month - St Peter's Tavern, Liverpool (honourable mention - Plasterers Arms, Hoylake)
Another county I've neglected over the past twelve months is Leics, our day out here was originally supposed to be a train day to League One hotspot, Leicester itself where I still need four (+ a nailed on pre-emptive thanks to Quinno) but the trains were effed up in two different ways so King Power Daddy BRAPA kindly agreed to convert it into a car day at short notice which in the long term is probably more useful to me, and why he's silver medallist to Ed Wray in the BRAPA person of the month rankings.
Annoyingly, a couple of my remaining pubs open late even on a Saturday so I'm not ruling out an overnighter at some point next season. York to Leicester ain't an easy train route to map out either.
Pub of the month (by a mile cos the other three were quite poor) - Waggon & Horses, Ibstock
My dirty camera lens adds to the fabulously grubby ambience
Cheshire (3 ticks, 7 left, 90% completion)
Despite its imagined northerness, Cheshire is another county I've largely ignored in 2025/26 after really pushing myself here last GBG. Last Sept, I promised myself I'd do either Bunbury or Tilston if they remained in the Guide (both did) so glad I kept that particular BRAPA promise, even if it was a wet walk to a posh Brunning & Price.
Tilston next year combined with a bit of cheeky North Shropshire for sure. And will I EVER make my Widnes debut? I was struck by just how friendly everyone was today, which probably tells you just how much time I've spent in the South East this GBG.
Pub of the month - Ebenezer's Craft Beer Emporium, Nantwich
The ale was Hot Fuzz themed, but neither hot nor fuzzy
Warwickshire (2 ticks, 3 left, 93.75% complete)
No county have I worked consistently harder in the 25/26 season than Warwickshire, one of my most neglected if we rewind to last September. Fenny C. I probably should've done on my Oxfordshire holiday, the outer Nuneaton Everard's I just couldn't be arsed with, and MM ultimately a step too far. It'll be my number one priority if it holds its place. I'm expecting the 'churn' to kick me in the arse in Warwicks, likewise Shrops and Somerset, but we'll see.
Two obscure bus ticks yesterday in the arse-end of nowhere 'twixt Rugby and Northampton near the biggest Royal Mail depot you've ever seen was just about compensation for deciding to miss our victory at Cov. I never got my outer Kettering Saturday done, Stoke Bruerne evades me for another year (but very high on my agenda Brenda), and I know Daventry is the spiritual HQ of the pub ticker cos RetiredMartin said so but it can do one (for now).
Pub of the month - Sheaf, West Haddon
Soggiest tick of 2026 so far?
The huge elephant in my room of course is the soon-to-be-released 2027 Good Beer Guide. The direct debit has been taken, we've even had our first embargo breaking pub of the new season, yup this shit just got real .....
I can't tell you where or I'd be as bad as them wouldn't I? (with thanks to Axholme Rob)
But the good news is, I've been to that particular pub so my 'churn' won't be 100%!
It all makes me very nervous. Time to see, 'where my head is at' ......
Thanks Rachel.
If we follow the pattern of the last two years, I'll receive my 'privilege' copy on Saturday 12th September. Or at least, I'll be on the early train to London and you lot who weren't up and out at 6am will start messaging with 'Si, I've got it!' and I'll be like 'oh cripes, could you be a darling and send me the pages for Hertfordshire / London / Surrey / Essex / Kent / East Sussex please?' (just one county I promise, but just be mindful thank you). And I'll return home drunk 10:30pm praying a little parcel is propped on my doorstep.
I'm really hoping I can avoid a brutal 10%+ churn like the previous two editions, after all I have been better at post & pre-emptives this year as mentioned earlier, and have an overall base of 6,500+ pubs total, but I still feel it has the potential to be pretty harsh.
In the shorter term, the final BRAPA holiday of the year begins tomorrow afternoon/evening and I'm delighted to report that my GBG still has all its pages intact. It won't be a huge tickathon as I'm going somehwere super rural and I'm only there four days, but hopefully I can get some tricky outliers done that get in the Guide most years.
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