BRAPA MONTH END REVIEW - JANUARY 2023

Greetings pub fans,

Just a brief (by my standards) look back on a month dominated by Nottinghamshire progress, extensive blog writing and that age old January problem, unreliable pub opening hours.

36 new ticks is a modest total by recent standards, but considering I took no holidays and I'm cutting back to fortnightly on the #ThirstyThursdays, I'm pleased it is even that high. 27.67 is the January average.

Kicking off 2023 in the very 'grand' Thomas Burke 'Spoons in Leigh

2303/4500 (51.18% completion) is my current total of 2023 GBG ticks. Frustratingly, still some way off the 2464 I was up to at the end of the 2022 edition. Could this be the first year I actually go 'backwards' in terms of progress? Perhaps. But I'm trying to counteract this by getting a foothold in unchartered territories - Norfolk, Lincs, Leics, Dumfries & Galloway, maybe Wiltshire, maybe the Sussex's, all in a bid to put in finger in the dyke of 'churn'!

Nottinghamshire has been the January high spot. 18 of my 36 ticks have been done here. You can mentally colour in Mansfield, Rainworth, Sutton and Kirkby now for an even greener picture!

Great quality beer, great pubs, the micros are a cut above, and the people have above average friendliness. Loving Notts.

Making friends in Eastwood's excellent Tap & Growler

True, I might have to slide into Leicestershire for the first time since BRAPA began if I'm to continue my Notts progress, stuff like East Leake and Granby demand it. Watch this space.

My overall highlight of January has actually been achieved not in a pub, but at BRAPA Towers itself. A monumental epic blog catch up. 135 pubs reviewed.

I was stuck in Bradford's Boar & Fable on 26th October 2022 when 2023 blogging commenced on 4th Jan, but now I'm only 15 pubs away from being full caught up. A great personal achievement when you think that between 1st October - 12th December last year, I ticked an obscene 172 pubs!

Blogging hat on, complimentary olive, and off we go!

My big gripe of the month has been pubs failing to update their winter hours online, especially those with active Facebook pages (which almost every pub I've visited this month does). Sure, they're adept at telling us that there is a quiz on tonight, four blokes called Nigel all in their pub at the same time, Mary has brought her cute new puppy in, plus the #FoodPorn all over their page.

You know what I think? I reckon they forget that they are businesses and get caught up in the whole 'posts for likes & LOLs' culture. I think we all appreciate pubs reduce their hours during January, probably more so in the current climate, many close for a week or two. But please let us know. We aren't all villagers who live 50 yards from your front door and can toddle around the corner, see the chalkboard outside, and toddle off back home again and crack open a can of Guinness instead. Do the basics!

It is a minority, most are very good, but it still happens more than it should. Imagine if your local hairdresser, butcher, baker or candlestick maker didn't keep their advertised hours? Why should pubs be any different?

Anyway, rant over. Do you want to see my five favourites for the month? Course you do.

1. Ginger Giraffe, Underwood

Their house beer was the best beer I had all month, two great chaps in charge, and EXCELLENT communicators re their varying opening hours on Facebook

2. Crooked Billet, Worsthorne

Proper community village hub with central corridor, multi rooms, friendly Lancs folk, and free beetroot!

3. Horse & Plough, Bingham

Beautifully serene, bare boarded unpretentious boozer with amazing Bass & Castle Rock, just a lovely place to be

4. Dog & Gun, East Butterwick

Remote, slightly quirky proper boozer on banks of Trent over in Lincs - had a quality that was hard to put your finger on!

5. Dandy Cock, Kirkby in Ashfield

I was a little but drunk, might've fallen asleep, might've taken me an hour to drink most of my pint, but everyone was in a similarly jolly state. Great stuff!

There were a few low points in January like the total lack of cask at Brigg's Black Bull, how bad Posthouse in Orrel was on every level, and how bad the beer was in the famous Tan Hill Inn, but it is all good fun really isn't it? Oh, and that's a point. Pubs were BUSY. Like nearly everywhere I went. Like all month! Don't believe everything you see on the news.

Right, that was my attempt at a brief blog so I'll leave it there. In February I'm expecting a slight upturn in numbers with my first mini-break of the year coming soon, in Norwich, I've done 16 GBG pubs their previously, 15 to go! 31 seems a lot. Some folk tell me I'll love it, and some tell me will be a crashing disappointment, so I'm intrigued to see how I find the standard.

Back for another blog tomorrow, and then Feb ticking begins on Saturday in Kent.

Cheers for reading, Si