Year-round activities: beer scoring and reporting

  • members will be encouraged to submit a score for each different beer tried in a pub.
  • Identify pubs to promote to members for scoring. For example: pubs with consistently high or low scores from a small number of members; pubs with a change of licensee; GBG pubs with a wide variation of scores; rural pubs that are infrequently visited, or pubs that need one or two more scores or scorers to be considered as a GBG entry. The Beer Quality Accreditation ratings on the CAMRA website are a quick way of identifying pubs with insufficient scores or poor ratings without having to download scores and run the full NBSS Analysis.
  • Promote scoring through branch meetings, magazine articles, emails, posters, and scoring cards.
  • Optionally, produce regular GBG candidate reports for branch meetings.

October: letting branch members know

  • Let members know that a shortlist of GBG-eligible pubs will be presented at the November meeting. These will be selected based on the scores submitted in the previous 12 months. Scores from all CAMRA members will be used in the analysis.
  • Encourage members to visit and score in those pubs that don’t quite meet GBG eligibility criteria of not enough scores or not enough scorers.

November: GBG nomination meeting

  • A shortlist will be created using the CAMRA NBSS analysis sheet, present a ranked (by confidence) list of pubs, based on the previous 12 month’s scores. A decision on whether to remove pubs with disqualifying factors (e.g. unknown licensee, uncertain future) should be discussed at the meeting.
    • The shortlist should consider the minimum average score, the minimum number of scores, the minimum number of scorers and the spread of scores across the year.
  • Nominations: Review the top scoring pubs, removing any fall under any of these criteria:
    • The pub is closed.
    • There has been a change of ownership, licensee, manager or cellar manager that has caused a decline in quality.
    • Scores have been manipulated.
    • Other concerns mentioned in the Good Beer Guidance and Survey Form issued by CAMRA each year.
  • Encourage members to visit and score the GBG candidates.

December - February: final GBG selection

  • Final GBG selection: Update and present the list, ranked by confidence, using the CAMRA NBSS analysis spreadsheet. Select pubs based on their ranking until the quota is filled or the minimum acceptable score threshold is reached. Pubs may be selected or rejected to ensure a geographic balance based on the distribution of pubs throughout the Branch area. It is suggested that 4 reserves be selected in case of selected pubs being deselected due to no longer meeting the criteria for inclusion before the deadline for changes.

April: review and publish the branch’s GBG selection process

  • Review, if necessary, and approve the GBG selection process for the next year at the Branch AGM.
  • A copy of this Selection Process will be published on the Branch website.

To be considered for entry, a pub must:

  1. Have received a minimum of 10 scores during the previous year.
  2. Have one of the highest average scores for the year which must be 3.0 or greater.
  3. Have been scored in each quarter or the previous six months of the year.
  4. Not have changed owner or management during the previous six months, unless the owner/manager/cellar manager has a good reputation of keeping beer.
  5. Have had its scores checked for inaccurate and/or suspicious scores.