OK, let’s start the annual review posts with pubs, it’s all you’re here for. I’ll cover “LIFE” next. THE STATS Five hundred and sixty (560) different pubs, though barely two hundred pubs new GBG entries. I will do a GBG spreadsheet post soon so the professional tickers can laugh at it. With responsibilities to frail… Continue reading THE 2024 RETIRED MARTIN PUB AWARDS
Tag: Beer
SILK IN A GLASS. THE BEER HOUSE IN HILLSBOROUGH
December 2024. Sheffield. Mrs RM had kindly stayed with mum for a couple of days while I drove the boys home and got depressed at the Etihad. There’s one sure-fire way to cheer Retired Martin up, and it comes in two cardboard containers from Sang Lung in Hillsborough. And the 15 minutes it takes Sang… Continue reading SILK IN A GLASS. THE BEER HOUSE IN HILLSBOROUGH
(OVER)DUE A DEUCHARS. THE SIX BELLS, COVENT GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE
December 2024. Cambridge. Yes, another Covent Garden, this one tucked away between Fenners and the GBG pubs off Mill Road. Keep walking past the Six Bells and you’ll end up at that pub CAMRA used to run and the Live & Let Live, so why would a plain looking backstreet Greene King pub detain you… Continue reading (OVER)DUE A DEUCHARS. THE SIX BELLS, COVENT GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE
A PINT OF HARVEY’S OLD IN THE LAMB
November 2024. Eastbourne. Eastbourne is a surprisingly large seaside town (pop. 101,000), as you’ll notice from the train and a walk through the dreadful shopping street to the sea. It can seem a bit under-pubbed for those 101,000 souls, and hadn’t troubled the Beer Guide till this years two beer shop newbies (be patient, be… Continue reading A PINT OF HARVEY’S OLD IN THE LAMB
HALLELUJAH ! SPOONS KEEP CASK ALIVE IN EASTBOURNE
November 2024. Eastbourne. A few days down in Rye with Mrs RM to give us both respite from child/parent duties, and allow me to get a couple of bits of pink marker in a GBG that’s feeling unloved. Just under the hour to Eastbourne with a couple of new (and, Spoiler : controversial) entries, but… Continue reading HALLELUJAH ! SPOONS KEEP CASK ALIVE IN EASTBOURNE
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 67 – KINGDOM OF FIFE
Well, my spreadsheet says just “Fife“, but the GBG is insistent on the Kingdom, and the GBG is definitive when it comes to county names. It only took three trips up the A1 and over the Firth of Forth to tick Fife, a county most folks will only know from St Andrews and the chippy… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 67 – KINGDOM OF FIFE
OCTOBER ’24 STOCKTAKE + NOVEMBER PREVIEW
Any month that starts (in Lincoln) with Paul Mudge, Sheffield Hatter and the Southworths, and ends with Lizzy McAlpine singing “Soccer Practice” can’t all be bad, but in-between came three weeks of elderly parent traumas which saw Mrs RM and I confined to Waterbeach (again). Not all bad, but a house about 10 degrees too… Continue reading OCTOBER ’24 STOCKTAKE + NOVEMBER PREVIEW
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY NO. 66 – HIGHLANDS AND WESTERN ISLES
Definitely not a “county”, more a random collection of tourist-friendly hills and lakes, overseen by a benevolent creature who occasionally emerges to pick inaccessible GBG entries out of a hat on the riverbank near Inverness. My first five picks will delight the tourist as much as the beer connoisseur. John O’Groats Brewery Tap Well, this… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY NO. 66 – HIGHLANDS AND WESTERN ISLES
THEY ALSO SERVED, WHO ONLY DROVE PUB LEGENDS AROUND SOUTH YORKSHIRE
October 2024. South Yorkshire. For a second week in a row I get to be DES to one of the pub ticking legends around Greater Rotherham’s rich collection of new Guide entries. While “pints only” BRAPA‘s initial target was a conservative half dozen, “strictly halves unless it’s Doom Bar” Ian aka Alfie had loftier ambitions;… Continue reading THEY ALSO SERVED, WHO ONLY DROVE PUB LEGENDS AROUND SOUTH YORKSHIRE
SMELLS LIKE ARMPIT
Mrs RM is very keen for you to know the house is looking better than it did a week ago; By the time the pubs open, it might be habitable, which is ironic as I shall be out at the pub, shan’t I ? She’s particularly pleased with her work on the fireplace; In case… Continue reading SMELLS LIKE ARMPIT