Please visit Pubs and score their beer
All CAMRA members are encouraged to visit any pub in Milton Keynes or North Bucks, sample their real ales and then score them.
Why is this important? Our Branch decides our entries in each year's edition of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide entirely on the scores for real ale that are given by CAMRA members (subject to a minimum number of scores and individual scorers).
Past these minima, the larger the number of scores a pub has, the more statistically reliable is their average score, so we like to see as many scores as possible for as many of the branch pub as possible over a wide time frame to get a good view of the quality and consistency of the beer on offer.
Scoring uses a scale between 0 and 5 (in half point increments) that rates beer quality. The emphasis on “quality” is important, you need to judge whether the beer is in good form, not whether or not you happen to like the beer (in fact a beer worthy of a 5 could very well be one that you are not personally a huge fan of).
You need to consider whether or not the pub has kept and served the ale in good condition. Click here for some guidance you could download and take with you: Beer scoring advice
If a beer is particularly bad you should let the bar staff know, but scoring poor quality is as important as scoring high quality so that we get the full picture of how a pub performs over time.
If no real ale is available, score the pub a 0. This won't impact the overall scores but will allow us to get a feel for availability across the branch (important as some pubs may only have it available as weekends if turnover is low during the week)
Please note that beer scores do not form a “linear” scale. Anything over 2 is good beer, the remaining scores illustrate degrees of ‘goodness’. The CAMRA HQ website has some additional information on the National Beer Scoring System and how the associated data may be used and analysed by branches. We do scrutinise the entries on the database, so please don’t try entering a load of 5s for your favourite pub, or 0s for one you’ve been barred from. We will notice and spurious scoring will be voided where appropriate.
Please keep in mind that you are scoring only the beer itself, not any other aspect of the pub. Please try to be as objective as you can when rating a beer.
To enter your scores online use CAMRA’s WhatPub website.
Log in using your CAMRA membership ID and main CAMRA password.
Search for a pub, view its details page and enter the score for your beer from the form or via the link (depending on whether you are accessing a desktop or mobile version of the page)
Alternatively, you can score from the GBG online portal if you subscribe to it.
Whichever way you chose to enter your scores, we thank you for making the effort, it has a direct impact on the branch’s GBG entries each year.