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BRAPA - The Chain Gang
The embargo shackles were off, as I headed back to Chester for the second time in under a month. Â It was raceday again. Â I do know how to pick 'em! Â There was a certain symmetry here, not just due to...
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BRAPA - The Exchange of Shakey Wakey
Wakefield is one of those towns which you only get the full atmospheric benefit of in driving rain on a grim September Monday evening, where 99.9% of commuters just want to get back through their front...
View ArticleBRAPA Special - The Archives (399-409)
Well, who'd ha' thought it? (as a Rochester pub once said to me).All my moaning about the cross-ticking of the Good Beer Guide leaving me in a bad position, and yet I've still managed to find eleven...
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BRAPA - Day Out With Thomas (East Lancs Diesel Special)
"Concessionary" - that's me!It was the Birthday weekend of original BRAPA patron Tom Irvin, and it seemed only right to let him be in the driving seat (not literally, that would be terrifying) for this...
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BRAPA - At The Sign of the Bay Horse, Oxenhope
Last time I found myself on a Bronte Express leaving Keighley's bus station, I was off to Stanbury in the depths of January with only Kate Bush and Emily Bronte's ghost for company. Â Today, it was...
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BRAPA - September Review / October Preview (2017)
Boars' Head, Newchurch.The month began on the 1st (as it so often does) with me crying big salty tears of bitterness over the new edition of the 'Good Beer Guide', as I realised I'd "lost" 178 pubs....
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BRAPA - The Lucky Black Cat of Chesham
Twog v Twild, live from Harrow .... there can only be one winner.Time to dust down (wipe clean? Â no, that sounds wrong) the Good Beer Guide and head down to London as part of the monthly trip to...
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BRAPA - The Archives (406-409) - York, Trossachs, Wakefield & Burnley
So yes, I accidentally deleted my ramblings on these pubs two weeks ago, so I've had to re-write from scratch. Â Soul destroying and fun in equal measures......406. Â Brew York, York14th July 2016 and a...
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BRAPA - Birkby's Magic Rock & The Corner of Huddersfield
I'm always happy to come pubbing in Huddersfield, probably one of the most underrated beer towns in the UK which doesn't seem to get a mention when people are waxing lyrical about Norwich, Derby,...
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BRAPA - The Wonderful Witch of Warwick
Saturday saw the first of two 'BRAPA Mystery Tours', designed at giving Dad something back from his generous chauffeuring, and leaving him in suspense as to where we were going for as long as...
View ArticleBRAPA Special - Glossary 2017/18
A few readers of my blog (especially those dodgy foreigners and lager fans) have suggested it might be useful to provide a Glossary of commonly used themes / terms in the world of the British Real Ale...
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BRAPA - Micro Mayhem in Brighouse and Halifax
11th October is, of course, "National Micropub Day"It's not really but you are hopefully gullible enough to have believed me so on a wet Wednesday evening, I set off in search of my 5th last West...
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BRAPA - Striking it Rich in Norwich
10am Delirium Tremens and a tricky crossword could only mean one thing. Me and Dad were with our old football friends Ben and Christine as we navigated the flat Fenlands from Peterborough to Norwich...
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BRAPA - I'm Only Here(fordshire) for the Beer
Mum and Dad made their annual mistake of inviting their son on holiday with them, which must have become clear a week before when he (that is I, Si) presented them with the following "demand"...
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BRAPA - Worcestershire Force
It was morning on day three of the holiday, with Dad still determined that we could get up onto the Malverns from our cottage. Problem was, it was a foggy morning and although we finally did get high...
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BRAPA - A Battle of the Hills : Malvern v Richmond
If one beacon of light had shone on our damp squib of a Thursday in Great Malvern, it was venturing into the railway station where Dad noted "you can get directly to Paddington from here!", knowing I...
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BRAPA - Everybody Needs Good Neighbours
I'd slept in! 5 episodes of Neighbours, 2 Podcasts, I hadn't got to sleep til 2am, despite the abrupt finish to pub ticking in Richmond the night before.It was 9:30am, I was supposed to have been on a...
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BRAPA Hallowe'en Special - All(Hallows)Greave
Meanwhile in Hull ......It is that spooky time of year once again where the pint of ale draws closer to the veil between life and death, pubs bring out their dead old folk, and black pubcats heads are...
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BRAPA - October Review / November Preview (2017)
The Obelisk, Herefordshire (I don't know why, it just is)Good evening weary travellers,Only two months left of the pub ticking calendar year, where has it gone?39 pubs visited in the month (plus one...
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BRAPA - A Wibbly Wobbly Weekend in Yorkshire
The weekend started like all good weekends tend to do, on a Friday evening. As the train chugged happily out of L**ds towards the moody Interchange of Bradford, you'd never have known by my fellow...
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