£6.40 a pint (not sure even Colin cost that much!)
Good evening all.
Just a quick one because I fell asleep after a virtual trip to Dresden (don't ask), haven't had my tea yet and wanted to bang this out as close to 9pm as possible.
43 new Good Beer Guide ticks for May, which although nowhere near the liver shattering record breaking 75 pubs of April, I'm still happy with because I didn't have any time off work. Having said that, three Bank Hols helped greatly.
This takes me up 2508 for the current GBG, that is 55.73% completion. I've worked out I'll roughly need to reach 2700 before the next GBG 'drops' (on my doormat) to consider it a successful year which is a touch ambitious, but of course, I can blame the crazy churn of 2022/23 (which I don't like to talk about).
It has been a great month for Kent:
A better statistician than me (he's called Jim Brunt) will tell you I'm at 85.3% Kentish completion. Rainham looks deaded (technical term), Edenbridge are moving to another premises down the same street, and although I've got no June plans for Kent, July should see a renewed push to glory.
East Sussex (23.8% completion so far, I deserve tarring and feathering for that) is next to Kent, and I'll be trying to get stuck into that a bit more too after Hastings proved to be my favourite pub town in May. Rare to get stuff by the coast producing top quality so that was a nice surprise.
Daddy B. - First In, Last Out, Hastings (not quite literally - think he was Second In, First Out)
My other main county of note in May has been Leicestershire.
52.4% completion now, hurrah, finally over the 50% mark but I won't sleep easy until I pass 70% so I'm going to keep plugging away on alternate #ThirstyThursdays although so many of them don't flippin' open til 4 or 5pm, I might need to start considering overnighters or Saturdays.
Leicester City have been relegated too (hurrah! No offence Foxes, just good for BRAPA), so is there really any point doing Leicester itself until my Hull City go there next season?
Couple of special shouts outs. Colin the Cauliflower had a 100% record for May, although he didn't emerge from my bag in every pub (he got buried underneath a pile of dirty clothes in South Croydon's Crown & Sceptre for example), but the likes of Oscar the Owl, Brekkie the Sheep and Pedro never got a look in.
Also big thanks to the Man of Kent Richard Pitcher. Great chap, our day around rural Kent was just as good as the Hastings one and allowed Daddy BRAPA to be la chauffee rather than la chauffeur which I'm sure is a beer with a gnome on it if you think about it.
Halfway House, Brenchley - pub of the year material
We'll end with a few more May pubs that deserve honourable mentions and I have photos readily available for:
New Plough Inn, Hinckley
Louis Armstrong, Dover
Black Horse, Aylestone, Leicester
Jenny Lind, Hastings
Carpenters Arms, Coldred
Holiday coming up at the end of June in a particularly inhospitable land. Whilst Sussex, Lincs, Essex are also on the agenda, plus hopefully a couple more cheeky Leics trips as well, might even get back into Notts which has sort of run out of steam on 90.1% so let's aim for a minimum of 51 pubs, try to keep on track.
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