Tendring CAMRA Good Beer Guide Selection Process

Tendring CAMRA maintain two lists of pubs throughout the year. For want of a better name these are known as the "Top list" and the "Watch list". The "Top list" is a list of the pubs that consistently sell good real ale, based on member verbal reports and the national beer scoring system. The "watch list" is a list of the pubs that have either recently started doing real ale (or recently changed hands and sell real ale), or pubs that were on the top list where the quality of the real ale has dropped based on beer scores and member reports. Pubs have to be on the watch list for six months before being eligible to move up to the top list, to ensure beer quality is consistent over a period of time.

In October, after the branch meeting reviews the lists, the Top List becomes the shortlist for selecting our Good Beer Guide pubs. The CAMRA Comms tool is used to inform branch members when voting has opened and when it will close, usually in early December. They are asked to select up to three more pubs than the current branch Good Beer Guide allocation (9 at the time of writing) from the list. Once voting closes the shortlist is sorted by number of votes, and where there is a tie average beer score over 12 months as at close of voting. In general we then submit the top 9 as our Good Beer Guide selections and the next three as our three reserves. The only time this would change is if any of those top 12 close or change hands between close of voting and deadline for submission in March, when we'd remove that pub from the shortlist results and shuffle the remaining pubs up one place.

Last revised: 2018