The basis of Hinckley & Bosworth's Good Beer Guide entries and POTY, CPOTY and COTY awards

You are probably aware of the ‘Good Beer Guide’, CAMRA’s flagship publication which lists the best pubs in the UK. But what you may not know is how those pubs are selected to appear in the Guide. The answer is that it is largely via beer scores submitted by CAMRA members from all over the country.

So, if you are a CAMRA member you can send in beer scores, if you’ve ever wondered why your favourite pub isn’t in the Guide, this may well be because you, and others, haven’t entered scores rating the quality of beer there. By beer scoring, you can contribute to the process of selection of pubs that go in the Good Beer Guide.

So how do I score the quality of the beer?

You don’t have to be an ‘expert’ to begin scoring your beer. However, it is not about your personal favourite beer receiving the highest scores! You may try a beer that isn’t to your normal taste but what you need to consider is the quality of that beer, how well the pub has kept it and served it and score it according to the general guide below. It is a simple 0 to 5 point system, with half points being used if your opinion of the beer falls between two categories.

• 0 No cask ale available
  
  
• 1 Poor. Beer is anything from barely drinkable to drinkable with considerable resentment
  
  
• 2 Average. Competently kept, drinkable pint but doesn’t inspire in any way, not worth moving to another pub but you drink the beer without really noticing
  
  
• 3 Good. Good beer in good form. You may cancel plans to move to the next pub. You want to stay for another pint and may seek out the beer again
  
  
• 4 Very Good. Excellent beer in excellent condition. You stay put!
  
  
• 5 Perfect. Probably the best you are ever likely to find. A seasoned drinker will award this score very rarely
  

How do I submit my scores?

In order to submit your scores, you need to login to CAMRA’s online guide to Pubs,details and scoring either on a computer or by smart phone. Here you will find a list of over 55,000 pubs from all over the UK. In order to start submitting scores via the CAMRA Pub Guide you need to:

1. Login. To do this you need your membership number and your CAMRA password

2. You can then search for your pub by name. Be careful here as there are many pubs in the country which share the same name. The advice is to search by the pub name and the town or postcode. The smart phone web page also gives you the option to search for real ale pubs nearby, very useful if you are in an unfamiliar town.

3. Once you have found your pub a ‘Submit Beer Scores’ box will appear on the righthand side of the screen (or on the tab bar underneath the pub photo if you are using a smart phone)

4. Simply fill in the date and your score then as you begin typing the brewery name should automatically appear underneath where you are typing. You do not have to enter the name of the beer you are drinking but if you wish to do so once you have entered the brewery name you should be able to click on the arrow in the beer box and a dropdown list of that brewery’s beers should appear. In some cases, the beer you are drinking may be new or a one off by the brewery so may not appear on the list, if this is the case you can simply type in the beer name. Select the correct one click ‘submit score’ and your score will be entered into the database. It is as simple as that. An added bonus is that it will keep a record of your scores so you can look back to see what beers you have had and how you rated them if you want.

The above information was provided by Sonia James-Henry and originally appeared in Mersey Ale. Thanks to Sonia and magazine editor John Armstrong for giving permission for it to be used by other branches.

For further information please see CAMRA NBSS

Process for determining the Hinckley & Bosworth entries for the Good Beer Guide 2026

Process for determining the Hinckley & Bosworth POTY, COTY and CPOTY 2025