BRAPA
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Saturday 11th July 2026 A Simon Dewhurst Essex car day is always one of the highlights of the BRAPA calendar, and being part of our 'Summer-of-fun', (no football to spoil the pubbing) Daddy BRAPA came along for the ride, his first time meeting Simon. A breakfast slice of fruit cake was the only deviation from the usual morning routine of air fryer croissant as we made our way down to London using…
Thursday 9th July 2026 The squashy nature of the above photo suggests I definitely wasn't able to stretch across a two-seater on the 8:18 York to King's Cross Grand Central service. What my neighbour made of Colin Jnr. I cannot recall. With 19 ticks remaining, Surrey was in a unique BRAPA position of being a county that requires serious attention, but is also easily achievable without the need for…
Friday 3rd July 2026 There are lessons you must learn in life as a pub ticker, many of them from the school of hard knocks in the North East. Never sniff a Geordie's finger, you don't know where it's been. Don't stroke the station cat with the Ocelot markings, it's probably feral with giant claws and fangs ..... And don't trust any real ale served in a Coors glass ..... Newton Aycliffe twice in…
Wednesday 24th June 2026 We've all had pints of Tribute like that, haven't we? Outside of Luton's Great Northern, somewhere near Llanelli with even more L's, and a curiously good one in the weird Seven Red Roses in Lower Earley near Reading, it ain't a beer I'd choose. I'd escaped to Cornwall for the final day of my Summerset Special ..... With a temperature of 28 degrees (5-6 cooler than…
Tuesday 23rd June 2026 Day three of The Heatwave™, and today it was hiking up to 33-35 degrees and the BBC breakfast news had whipped me into a state of paranoid terror, like I'd literally melt if I spent one minute exposed to the sun. I took a train up to Weston-super-Mare once again. No ticks remain in the town, but it has a more useful bus service than Taunton. I sit outside a shut station cafe…
Monday 22nd June 2026 Immunity shot. Water. You can tell we've reached day seven Is he still writing about bloody Somerset? Well yes I am. WSM felt less of a scrote hole this Monday morning than it had on Saturday afternoon. Although any cool coastal breeze I'd been praying to take the edge off this heatwave™ is negligible. Topless hairy leather skin types looking like human crocodile handbags…
33 Good Beer Guide ticks for the month of July is a typically modest return during this tricky month of zero holidays and a blank Saturday. Elaborate #ThirstyThursdays were required just to keep my often sweaty head above water. York Tap sweaty head above water It's that dangerous time of year where I feel like I'm making good progress, but lurking in the back of my mind is that a mere six weeks…
Sunday 21st June 2026 The much anticipated evil heatwave ™ was finally upon us, and my knight in shining armour is TheFamilyRug, or Martyn as his loved ones know him. Being a Gwent man (though a former Somersetonian), I'd initially assumed he wouldn't wanna be arsed with coming all the way down to Taunton .... but that's where his MiL lives, and today is her birthday bash. And he's allowed to…
Saturday 20th June 2026 With seven GBG pubs, only Belfast can boast more required BRAPA ticks than Weston-super-Mare in a single location. My long overdue WSM trip had been high on the agenda all week, so I'm glad I'd lasted until day five. It'd prove the most angsty day of the hols, but a six tick outcome was a good result. Today was the final day before the evil heatwave hits the UK, lasting…
Friday 16th June 2026 'Twas time to crack on and make hay whilst the sun shines (but not too much). With the looming evil heatwave due to kick in on Sunday, and Friday's generous pub opening hours, I had to go the 'full rural shebang' today. The bus driver laughs at me for mispronouncing 'Curry Rivel' as 'Rivell, it is in fact 'Rival'. Who knew? The B3168 is unsafe for walking, so I instead head…
Thursday 18th June 2026 Minehead. Sounds a shithole on paper, but as you can see, it isn't. Well not out on the coast anyway. I'd taken the early bus up from Taunton, which had taken an age but never mind. Asked the driver for a ticket to 'Maidenhead' (FFS!) so he thinks I'm a dork. Was hoping to find a little breakfast café, even if it is just for a coffee. But nothing is open, so I have a…
Wednesday 17th June 2026 A 'Deft' manoeuvre across the 'Tone' (thanks!) and once again I'm in a hedgerow on an OS path in rural Somerset .... To find a small cluster of pubs opening at 12 noon on a Wednesday felt like an achievement in itself, and as the crow flies I wasn't too far from Taunton which was good news because England's World Cup campaign kicked off against Croatia this evening and I…
Tuesday 16th June 2026 With 90 (NINETY) pubs to tick, Somerset was easily my most neglected county in this crazy quest to tick the Good Beer Guide in its entirety. For context, West Wales sits in second place with a mere 60 (SIXTY). I'd ticked 12 pubs down here to date, but one of those is walkable from Bristol City's ground. The other 11 were all in Bath which if we're being honest, is…
Sunday 14th June 2026 Hi all, getting this one out early before our inevitable Vigintennial / Vicennial / Bidecennial disappointment against the Argies. Probably with FIFA input, who knows? For a second consecutive weekend, it was up to the North Yorkshire / County Durham borderlands by car courtesy of BRAPA #PubMan of the decade Daddy BRAPA, or Bernard Gerald as he used to be known pre-2014.…
Saturday 6th June 2026 Daddy BRAPA's bare leg and the remnants of a flask of coffee. It could only be a summer car day, and the only surprise is that isn't Lincolnshire. Approaching the business end of the pub ticking season (final quarter) and I've not touched County Durham (or Merseyside, Cheshire or Leicestershire for that matter). This pleases me. It means I'm not panicking about going too far…
Thursday 4th June 2026 Not often you have the opportunity to spread your wings on the 8:18am Grand Central from York to London, but the seat booked next to me (Carol Casey, aged 61, from Ashington) phoned in sick following surgery complications to fix a hernia, so Dudley Duck capitalised. Regarding Surrey, I was not a happy chap. 24 ticks remain, placing it in the unacceptable bracket. And whilst…
Saturday 30th May 2026 Encouraged by my recent Aberdeenshire exploits, I head back up to Jockland in optimistic mood for what I hope would be a day of high quality beers + pubs. This will be my last Scottish trip for quite some time, as I have bigger fish to fry. Those fish being Wales, East Anglia and the South West. Riddled with parasites before cooking. But BRAPA history tells me that Edinburgh…
Saturday 23rd May 2026, 7:20pm A poignant moment. Or as poignant as any moment can be sitting in a hot car on level one of Beaconsfield railway station multi-store carpark, munching a previously cool-bagged cheese & tomato sandwich and guzzling down a litre of weak orange squash in companionable silence with Daddy BRAPA. Dad turns 80 next year, and granted he's the youngest 79 year old on the…
Thursday 21st May 2026 Oi oi! With 22 pubs still to tick, Essex was teetering on the brink of BRAPA unrespectability so today's aim was to bring it dahn below 20, with another trip to come in mid-July which'll make it look half decent. This is a far cry from my 2021 'full greening' of the county (Bures Hamlet, Woodforde Wherry, never forget) , and although Essex isn't the 'churniest' of counties,…
Saturday 16th May 2026 Look, there's a train over there if you squint. The tip of South Cumbria was the setting for my second consecutive week in Lancs. A Daddy BRAPA car day no less. We'd have all round better pub experiences than the Blackpool coast provided last time out. The journey over t'hills was dominated by Wemberley chat after our shock win at Meewaw the previous Monday. But who will we…
Word up pub lovers, Ding dong the Humph is dead, and I'm hoping this illicit photo I took on Saturday didn't hasten his demise ..... It has been a successful month here at BRAPA Towers with 61 Good Beer Guide pubs visited in the month of June, plus 8 pre/post-emptives. This moves me onto 78.26% GBG completion, and most thrillingly (for me) is 978 pubs remaining, under 1,000 for the first time. I'm…
Saturday 9th May 2026 Blackpool Winter Gardens minus the drunk punks slumped in the streets with their 2 litre bottles of cider always looks a bit naked to me, but it felt a necessary pilgrimage and Daddy BRAPA humoured me. Besdies, we had to wait until noon for our first pub to open so no point taking the northerly 'Fleetwood Fairy' tram just yet. I was still recovering from that long old week in…
Good evening from BRAPA Towers, I'm not sure I can justify devoting my full attention to Spain (the Man City of World Cup football) versus Cape Verde (the Rotherham of World Cup football). So I've got it on mute with the music by The Dead South on my iPhone because I can't be bothered to turn my stereo on. Here are my four favourite pubs from my recent* holiday to Aberdeen & beyond. *six weeks ago…
