THE RETURN OF THE GOOD BEER GUIDE SPREADSHEET – PART I – HOW DID GBG23 END UP ?

Yes, it’s a big spreadsheet. My last post full of numbers and coloured lines at the start of the year has got 414 views, and. in the absence of those rants about closed micros and plant pot pours you love, it seems you want to see pointless statistical analyses on the blog.

So here’s the belated GBG23 spreadsheet issue.

A record of failure, as I fell 190 pubs shy of repeating the completion of GBG22, the result of weekends spent with parents, weeks spent in the Baltics and Balkans, and a conversion to the joys of the pint.

Look closely at the county-by-county spreadsheet (alphabetically arranged; none of that “regional” nonsense), and you’ll see the biggest gaps in what we in the North call “the extremities”; Scotland, Wales and the South-West. No visits to Devon, twenty-nine (29) new pubs unticked.

So my year as carnival king, touring my completed GBG triumphantly round the country, was well and truly over as old adversaries like the Pubmeister sped past me. Only 75 remaining for Duncan as the new Guide “dropped” (ugh).

But frankly, you only need to climb Everest once, and while the GBG will always be a Guide to pubby joys, I doubt it will ever again be the Holy Grail.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

11 thoughts on “THE RETURN OF THE GOOD BEER GUIDE SPREADSHEET – PART I – HOW DID GBG23 END UP ?”

  2. Holy Gr-ale surely (which is the name of a micropub somewhere)? Love your statistical analysis, which I enlarge, frame and hang above my bed. I still need 29 – most needed is 5 in Essex- but think 22 of them are in the 2024 Guide. I enjoy trooping round them all year after year, just not as time-critical. Anyway you’ve got a month to go yet…..

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    1. I knew you had posters up in your house, Duncan; I’m thinking of getting mugs done with the spreadsheet on as an income generation scheme.

      For a while in Summer I entertained thoughts of slogging round Scotland and the South-West attempting to finish GBG23 before 31 December before reality prevailed.

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      1. The turnover in much of Scotland is low so a trip every 2 Guides to sweep up is permitted (Rule 43 (b)). Devon frequently has one of the highest turnovers so harder to keep on top of. How many do you need in the 2024 Guide – or will that be the next spreadsheet. PS put me down for 2 mugs.

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      2. It’s a mug’s game.

        The attractions in Scotland, outside of pubs, are so numerous that I’d never want to rush around it in a week so happy to wait till I’ve more time and find Nessie this time.

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