Good Beer Guide 2026

CAMRA's Good Beer Guide (GBG) is the definitive guidebook to pubs that serve great cask beer across the UK​.

Each year the guide is rewritten, with the featured pubs being re-selected and re-surveyed by local CAMRA branch members.

It is the complete book for beer lovers and for anyone wanting to experience the UK’s finest pubs.

The guide also includes information on every real ale brewery across the country, including a list and tasting notes of their regular beers.

CAMRA’s online pub guide camra.org.uk/pubs can also help because beer quality is indicated by the ‘3 Pints’ symbols that CAMRA members can see when logged in.

Pubs and clubs that serve really excellent pints, and serve them consistently well, can be potential candidates for the GBG. To help identify them, CAMRA members score their pints whenever they have the opportunity. Their scores help local branches determine candidates for the Guide, and these can change year on year because the standards are high. Serving live cask beer requires skill in the cellar and attention by bar staff all the time.

How do we select our pubs?

After visiting a local pub, CAMRA members submit a beer score to reflect the quality the real ale they have been drinking. This is done using CAMRA's National Beer Scoring System (NBSS), which rates the quality of a real ale from 'Undrinkable' to 'Excellent' in accordance with the following table:

You can find out more on CAMRA's National Beer Scoring System webpage.

At the end of the year all the real pubs in the branch are ranked according to quality of the real ale they have served during the year. The best are then selected to feature in the next edition of the GBG.

This is an independent process, so landlords cannot ask nor can they pay to be featured in the guide.

Is your pub or local missing from the Guide?

The branch has a limited number of entries and there is fierce competition to get into the GBG, with more potential candidates than there are spaces.

There might be a number of reasons why your pub has not been featured.

  • The quality of the real ale, served during the year, is not sufficient for the pub to be considered as a candidate.
  • Not enough CAMRA members have submitted scores.
  • Not enough beer scores have been submitted.

Ordering the Good Beer Guide.

You can order your copy of the Good Beer Guide at CAMRA's online shop .