Beer loving friends have executed 40-year pub crawl and sunk 56,000 pints between them
These guys have had a bevvy in every single pub in Wales, the West Midlands, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and more
A group of beer lovers have toasted supping 56,000 pints on a 40-year pub crawl. The Black Country Ale Tairsters marked four decades of blowing the froth off cold ones around the UK on home turf at the Black Country Living Museum’s Bottle & Glass Inn.
Pete Hill, 68, his late dad Joe and 12 pals founded the Tairsters – spelling tasters in their local tongue – in 1984. The gang, with their distinctive beer towel waistcoats, still boast 16 members and have raised more than £35,000 for good causes by asking licensees at each pub they visit for £1.
Pete has visited a remarkable 23,466 watering holes, including pubs in every county and region of the UK.
Astonishingly, the Guinness World Records holder has had a bevvy in every single pub in Wales, the West Midlands, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Shropshire, Northamptonshire, Oxford-shire and Gloucestershire.
He said: “I spent five years visiting all islands off Great Britain with a pub – there were 69 in total – I thought there would only be a couple of dozen!” Pete’s latest challenge is to drink in all the 4,500 pubs listed in the Campaign For Real Ale guidebook.
And his target is to make the Elephant & Castle, also located at the Black Country Living Museum, his 24,000th pub. The author of Beer, There & Everywhere, he has also visited every pub in the UK with Albion in its name due to his love for West Bromwich Albion.
He has a collection of more than 100,000 pieces of memorabilia from his visits – starting with a map of Marston’s pubs across the West Midlands, which set the Tairsters on their epic ale journey.
Pete explained: “Around a dozen of us used to go out every Sunday night to the local pubs, but we got a bit bored of it. There are only so many pubs in the Black Country and when the map came out, it set us on a new adventure.”
Over the years their fundraising has supported a long list of charities including children’s hospitals and air ambulance services. Pete said it was a combination of his love for real ale, pubs, raising money for good causes and exploring different parts of the UK that kept him going.
He said: “I get a kick from visiting places that I’ve never been to before.”
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