Good Beer Guide Selection
Every pint you score helps shape the Good Beer Guide. Here is how our branch chooses its entries, and how you can play your part.
The Good Beer Guide (GBG) is CAMRA’s annual guide to the best pubs in the UK, published every autumn. It covers thousands of pubs hand-picked by CAMRA members across the country, selected solely on the quality of the cask ale they serve. No advertising or payment is involved. First published in 1974, it is the longest-running independent pub guide in the UK and remains the most trusted recommendation a pub can receive.
You can buy the latest edition from the CAMRA bookshop, or use the Good Beer Guide app to find recommended pubs near you wherever you are.
Beer scoring and Good Beer Guide entry
Like many CAMRA branches, we use the data compiled from beer scores submitted by members over the course of the year to help choose which pubs go in the Good Beer Guide. That means every branch member has a real opportunity to contribute to the selection.
We follow CAMRA’s National Beer Scoring System (NBSS), which asks you to rate the condition of your pint, in other words how well it has been kept at the pub. From January 2026 the system uses a set of named ratings rather than a number scale, with no half marks, and a separate option for when no cask beer is available. The ratings, and the reaction each one is meant to capture, are set out below.
Behind the scenes each rating still carries a value from 0 to 5, so average scores can be calculated and analysed for every pub. There is now also a separate “no cask beer available” option, kept apart from the ratings, for visits where there was no cask ale on at all.
Even with shared descriptions to guide us, beer scoring stays personal. A pint that is “Good” to one drinker might be “Acceptable” to another, so it matters that we gather as many scores as possible to even things out.
We also apply minimum criteria for each pub, covering both the number of scores and the number of different people submitting them. To be considered for the Good Beer Guide, a pub must meet those minimums and rank towards the top of the league table for average scores.
How the selection works
Throughout the year
Scores collated
Average scores per pub are gathered and reviewed quarterly at branch meetings.
January
First GBG meeting
The Branch GBG Coordinator hosts the first meeting, reviewing every pub that has met the selection criteria to produce a recommended short list.
February
Final meeting
Members revisit short-listed pubs, then a final meeting agrees the recommended list submitted for publication in next year’s guide.
Your scores also choose our Pub of the Year
Good Beer scores do more than shape the Good Beer Guide. They are also the starting point for our branch awards. Our Pub of the Year begins with the same year-round scores you submit, alongside proposals from members, which together let us draw up a shortlist of the pubs serving the most consistently excellent cask ale.
As a branch we then adopt CAMRA’s national Pub of the Year approach to choose the winner: shortlisted pubs are surveyed against the national judging criteria, so the decision is impartial, consistent and based on more than the beer alone. The criteria assess eight areas, with the quality of the beer and three other essentials counting double.
Counts double
The essentials
Quality and condition of the beer, promotion and knowledge of the product, cleanliness and hygiene, and community focus.
Counts once
The whole experience
Service and welcome; style, decor and atmosphere; sympathy with CAMRA’s aims; and overall impression and value.
The result
Our branch winner
The pub that comes out on top becomes our Pub of the Year and goes forward to the Cheshire and regional rounds of the national competition.
Our Club of the Year and Cider Pub of the Year are chosen in the same spirit, with the Cider Pub of the Year recognising a venue that champions real cider and perry. Because we have fewer clubs and venues that regularly offer a wide range of real cider and perry, those shortlists lean more on the first-hand knowledge and scores of active branch members.
This is why your scores matter. Every pint you score, and every update that keeps a pub or club’s details current, helps make sure recognition goes where it is deserved. If your local serves a great pint, the surest way to get it the credit it is due is to score it regularly and let us know.
The Good Beer Here Scheme
Each year, the South Cheshire Branch is allocated just 13 slots in the Good Beer Guide, yet our branch area has over 130 real ale pubs. That means even a pub serving consistently excellent cask ale can miss out simply because there are far more candidates than available places.
The South Cheshire CAMRA Good Beer Here Scheme recognises those pubs that are delivering great quality cask ale but have narrowly missed a GBG place. When you see the sign, you can walk in knowing you’re in a pub that takes real ale seriously. Sit back and enjoy a great pint.
And remember, the best way to help any of these pubs reach the next Good Beer Guide is to score your beer when you visit. The more Good Beer scores a pub receives, from as many different members as possible, the stronger its case when selection time comes around. Every score you submit on the CAMRA website counts!
Keep an eye out for this sign
How to submit your scores
CAMRA members can submit scores online via the National CAMRA website, where you can rate any pub you have visited across the UK. You will need your membership number (your username) and password to log in, together with the pub name and location, the date of your visit, your rating and, if you wish, the name of the beer.
We always need more scores
We encourage everyone to score their beer whenever they visit a pub, and to let us have those scores. This matters even more for our rural pubs. The area we cover is huge, and there will always be deserving pubs we struggle to reach or that get overlooked because their regulars do not submit scores. If you have ever wondered why a pub is in the guide, or why it is not, scoring it is how you make a difference. If you think your local belongs in the guide, send us your scores and put it on our radar.