Thank you to everyone who has carried out surveys of the pubs and clubs in our branch area. Over the last year we have managed to get out to virtually all of them. Special thanks goes to members Roland and Ken who have made it their mission to survey all the outstanding venues on the list, many of them in remote areas.

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 either login to CAMRA’s online pub guide www.whatpub.com on a desktop computer or a smartphone, or you can use the GBG app on a smartphone.  On WhatPub you will find over 35,000 real ale pubs from all over the UK; these are not all Good Beer Guide pubs, merely pubs that serve real ale.  The same pubs can also be viewed on the GBG app or you can just select the Good Beer Guide pubs.  In order to start submitting scores via either WhatPub or the GBG app you need to:-

1.      Login to WhatPub.  To do this you need your membership number and your CAMRA password.  Or, in the GBG app link your CAMRA account by following the ‘Profile’ icon in the bottom right-hand corner.

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.   Try searching the pub name and the town or postcode.  The What Pub web page on a mobile device 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, go to the ‘Submit Beer Scores’ box on the right-hand side of the screen (on the WhatPub desktop version), tap ‘Submit Beer Scores’ on the tab bar underneath the pub photo (on the mobile WhatPub version), or tap ‘Beer Scoring’ immediately above the pub description (in the GBG app).

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 drop down 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 beer name, click ‘submit score’ and your score will be entered into the database.  (You can also optionally include the price per pint and comment on the beer under ‘Advanced options’).

It is as simple as that.  An added bonus is that a record of your scores is kept so you can look back (on either WhatPub or the GBG app) to see the beers you’ve had and how you rated them.

Find out more at https://camra.org.uk/nbss