Roger Protz - Good Beer Guide 2012: The Complete Guide to the UKs Best Pubs

About the Good Beer Guide

Only the best will do

Beer quality is paramount but food and creature comforts are not ignored

For 39 years, the Good Beer Guide has been underlining CAMRAs work by championing real ale pubs. But its more than a pub guide: the Breweries section makes it a unique publication, listing every brewery in the country and their regular beers, along with tasting notes.

The manner in which the Guide is compiled is made possible only by CAMRAs members. All pubs are regularly surveyed by local CAMRA branches to ensure they meet the high standards required by the Guide and every brewery has a liaison officer appointed by the Campaign, who meets his or her brewery on a regular basis to discuss the companys plans and beer range.

Regular inspections

Unlike most pub guides, where entries are chosen by a small editorial team or are sent in, unchecked, by members of the public, every pub in this guide is the result of regular inspection by CAMRA members, often on a weekly basis. The Guide is unique in offering only full entries, with no unchecked lucky dip sections of pubs sent in at random. The Campaign comprises over 200 branches. Each branch surveys the pubs in its area and monitors not only the quality of the cask beer in each one but also watches out for change of ownership or management that could affect the range of ales on offer.

Democracy rules when CAMRA members meet to choose their pubs for each edition of the Guide. Short lists are drawn up and votes are taken to reduce the list to the required number to meet each branchs allocation. The branches do not relax once they have chosen their entries. They continue to monitor their pubs and if one needs to be replaced for such reasons as closure, change of ownership or poor beer quality then it will be de-listed on both the CAMRA website and in the members newspaper, Whats Brewing.

Not only quality beer

Beer quality, above all, determines the choice of pubs. The Good Beer Guide is concerned about the history and the architecture of pubs and such important creature comforts as food, family and disabled facilities, gardens, special events and even the standard of the toilets. But it has always been our belief that if a publican looks after the real ales in the cellar a task that requires a degree of skill and even passion then the quality of the other facilities should be of an equally high standard.

The Guide has moved with the times:
39 years ago, entries tended to be terse; of the busy street-corner pub variety. Today, the pub has to meet both the competition of high street restaurant chains and a growing tendency to stay at home and watch multi-channel television. As a result, such important matters as pub food need to be detailed. The pub entries in this edition show just how much pub food has improved. There are imaginative menus available, ranging from such staples as bangers & mash and steak & ale pie to European, Asian and Chinese specialities. And a growing number of pubs offer breakfast to help people kick start their working day. But we remain committed to the belief that the aroma and flavour of the beer in the glass is our prime consideration.

Town & country

The Guide also offers a wide cross-section of pubs in all parts of the country. In these pages you will find many delightful pubs in villages and small market towns. We are committed to helping rural pubs survive and CAMRA has argued that such pubs need special support, such as rate relief, to keep them in business. But most people live in towns and cities or visit them for a variety of reasons and we list scores of pubs in such vital hubs of communities. We happen to believe that when one so-called pub guide offers no main entries for Leeds, its both a dereliction of duty and an insult to the people of that city.

Democracy in action:

How one CAMRA branch selects its pub entries

Choosing pubs for the Good Beer Guide is a labour of love. CAMRA members survey, check and most important drink in their local pubs all year round on a weekly and often daily basis. They get to know publicans well, understand the trials and tribulations of running licensed premises, and can help and advise with beer selections where pubs are free of the tie.

Not only are all pubs entered in the Guide free of charge but the entries are up-to-date, checked and re-checked until press day. CAMRA branches attempt to involve as many of their members as possible to ensure that the choice of pubs is a truly democratic process.

The South Herts branch of the campaign is one of the most experienced in the country. It was formed in the early 1970s and has formulated and constantly improved its system of selecting GBG pubs. Its allocation of pubs for the Hertfordshire section of the guide is 27; a small number but one that is the result of painstaking work in surveying all the pubs in the branch area that serve cask beer and whittling that number down to 27, at the same time making sure there is a good geographical spread of entries.

CAMRAs South Herts branch members at the Woodman, Wildhill, presenting the licensee with the 2011 Hertfordshire Pub of the Year award.

South Hertfordshire is divided into four zones: North-east, North-west, West and South. Each zone has a co-ordinator whose role is to allocate pub inspections to branch members and to organise meetings where pubs are voted for. The zone co-ordinators report to a branch co-ordinator. Votes include proxy votes from members who cant attend meetings but vote using the branch website. For the 2012 edition of the Guide, the members chose six pubs in the North East zone, the North West zone (Amwell, Harpenden and Redbourn) had seven pubs while the South zone (Aldenham, Bricket Wood, Colney Heath, London Colney, Potters Crouch and Wildhill) had six pubs. The West zone covers just St Albans, one of the most heavily pubbed towns or cities in England, with 55 hostelries. This large number was reduced to eight for the Guide.

When selections and inspections are complete, the votes are collected by the GBG co-ordinator, who also includes proxy votes from members. The final submissions are forwarded to the regional director, a CAMRA volunteer who compiles and sorts all the entries from Hertfordshire and forwards them to the editorial team.

All CAMRA members can vote for the quality of beer in pubs by using the National Beer Scoring Scheme. The scheme uses a 0-5 scale that can be submitted online. For more information go to www.beer-scoring.org.uk.

You can keep you copy of the Guide up to date by visiting the Good Beer Guide area of the CAMRA website: www.camra.org.uk/gbg. Click on Updates to GBG 2012 where you will find information about changes to pubs and breweries.