GBG Nominations for 2026 opened on 1st September 2024, please see below....

Good Beer Guide Selection Process

Overview

The GBG Selection Process is essentially continuous, with pubs being visited and scored, nominated, surveyed, and selected on an annual cycle, between March and February of the following year. Each step is explained in detail below.

Visits & Scoring

Pubs in the area will be visited informally by paid-up members during the year. Members are encouraged to submit beer scores to the National Beer Scoring System via WhatPub.com - these will be reviewed, and an average of submitted scores is available upon request (to the PDO) to members at branch meetings.

Nomination

• Any East Norfolk Branch member may Nominate any pub(s) for the Good Beer Guide, using this website, & nominations will be sought by public invitation from September 1st to November 15th.

Please send your nominations to gbg@eastnorfolk.camra.org.uk.
Only the first ten pubs listed on your email will be taken as your nominations..
Your email must include your membership number.

• Any pub in the Branch area may be nominated, and pubs nominated will go forward to the Survey stage, provided they:

• serve real ale in accordance with CAMRA guidelines
  
• have not changed hands in the recent past (subject to exceptions agreed by the Committee)
  
• have been scored on NBSS / WhatPub on a number of separate occasions by a number of different scorers during the year to the close of nominations (both minimums will be determined at the end of the year, based on the total number of NBSS scores)
  
• achieved a minimum average score of 3 points. For details of how to score pubs on NBSS / WhatPub, please visit the NBSS website
  

• Nominations close when surveying begins.
• A list of nominated pubs will be maintained and displayed on this website.
• In the event of insufficient nominations to fill our allocation of places, reference will be made back to the NBSS with the top pubs moving forward to the surveying stage.

Survey

As far as possible, all nominated pubs will be surveyed between 1st December and 31st January, ideally by someone other than members who nominated the pub, to be allocated at the December Open Branch Meeting.

Scrutiny

A sub-committee of five members will be elected at the January Branch Meeting, to make the final selection of pubs.

Any member can stand for election to the sub-committee (known as the Scrutineers), provided they will be available for the Scrutineers Meeting, which will be held as soon as possible after surveying has finished, at a time and venue convenient for all.

All surveys will be reviewed, and an average score from the NBSS will be calculated for each pub. Any scores believed to have been submitted outside the letter and/or spirit of the process may be excluded at this point. The scrutineers will make the final decision as to which pubs are selected, up to the Branch quota, currently 13, using the following criteria:

• Pubs with the highest average score to be selected, subject to other requirements being met.
• A reasonable geographical spread should be achieved, with no significant over- or under-representation.
• Where pubs just above and below the 'cut' have very similar scores, the Scrutineers will use their collective judgement to decide which pubs are to be included in the GBG.
• The Scrutineers will determine the minimum number of scores pubs must have for a valid average to be calculated. This will depend on the total number of scorers participating. Pubs with fewer than this minimum may still be included in the selection at the Scrutineers discretion.

Results

Results will not be announced due to commercial restrictions on publishing but will be available as soon as the Guide is launched, in the September following the selection process.

Pub of the Year Selection Process

All pubs selected for the Good Beer Guide shall move forward for consideration to be scored for our Pub of the Year.

These pubs will be visited on a reasonable endeavours basis and scored on criteria set down by CAMRA head office by a panel of assessors.

The scores will be averaged out & the pub with the highest score shall be deemed to be our Pub of the Year.

Cider Pub of the Year Selection Process

Any pubs thought to be selling Real Cider as defined by CAMRA which are nominated (closing date for nominations is 31st August) by paid-up members will form the shortlist. The shortlist will be examined and whittled down to a maximum of 13 candidates by a selection panel (which ideally consists of the same personnel involved in the GBG selection process taking place that year). The resultant shortlist shall be visited on a reasonable endeavours basis & scored by several assessors, again by criteria set down by CAMRA, and again with the pub achieving the highest average score being awarded the Cider Pub of the Year award.