The Good Beer Guide is the UK’s best-selling beer and pub guide and it continues to represent the best of the best in the brewing and hospitality industry.

With 4500 pubs, bars, and clubs selected by unpaid volunteers up and down the country, this is the best guide for pubgoers interested in being served a good pint of real ale as well as those who wish to find a local near them that is welcoming and has many other benefits that may appeal.

Each entry contains a short description as well as details of regular beers that can be linked to the brewery section to discover local beers, as well as some treasured national favourites.

This guide is compiled by consumers for consumers and is the most independent and complete guide to find good beer.

Getting your copy

Click here to order your copy of the Good Beer Guide 2025 which is released on September 26th.
You have a choice of either The Rovers Return Inn or the Woolpack as the cover. Or why not get one of each!

Save £’s with the Privilege Club subscription.

As a Privilege Club subscriber, you also get delivery up to 2 weeks before release date! You can also order multiple copies for friends and family. Click here to find out more about the Privilege Club

How do pubs (and clubs) get into the Good Beer Guide?

The answer is that it is largely via beer scores submitted by CAMRA members from all over the country. So, if you are a CAMRA member you can send in beer scores, if you’ve ever wondered why your favourite pub isn’t in the Guide, this may well be because you, and others, haven’t entered scores rating the quality of beer there. By beer scoring, you can contribute to the process of selection of pubs that go in the Good Beer Guide.

So how do I score the quality of the beer?

You don’t have to be an ‘expert’ to begin scoring your beer. However, it is not about your personal favourite beer receiving the highest scores!
You may try a beer that isn’t to your normal taste but what you need to consider is the quality of that beer, how well the pub has kept it and served it, and score it according to the general guide below. It is a simple system of a ten point range from 0 to 5, with half points being used if your opinion of the beer falls between two categories.

0 No cask ale available.
1 Poor. Beer is anything from barely drinkable to drinkable with considerable resentment.
2 Average. Competently kept, drinkable pint but doesn’t inspire in any way, not worth moving to another pub but you drink the beer without really noticing.
3 Good. Good beer in good form. You may cancel plans to move to the next pub. You want to stay for another pint and may seek out the beer again.
4 Very Good. Excellent beer in excellent condition. You stay put!
5 Perfect. Probably the best you are ever likely to find. A seasoned drinker will award this score very rarely.

How do I submit my scores?

In order to submit your scores you need to login to CAMRA’s online pub guide WhatPub.com or use the Good Beer Guide app. Here you will find a list of over 35,200 real ale pubs from all over the UK; these are not all Good Beer Guide pubs, merely pubs that serve real ale.

In order to start submitting scores via What Pub you need to:
1. Login. To do this you need your membership number and your CAMRA password.
2. You can then search for your pub by name. Be careful here as there are many pubs in the country which share the same name. My advice is to search by the pub name and the town. The What Pub smart phone web page also gives you the option to search for real ale pubs nearby, very useful if you are in an unfamiliar town.
3. Once you have found your pub a ‘Submit Beer Scores’ box will appear on the left-hand side of the screen (or on the tab bar underneath the pub photo if you are using a smart phone).
4. Simply fill in the date and your score then as you begin typing the brewery name should automatically appear underneath where you are typing. You do not have to enter the name of the beer you are drinking but if you wish to do so once you have entered the brewery name you should be able to click on the arrow in the Beer box and a drop down list of that brewery’s beers should appear. In some cases the beer you are drinking may be new or a one off by the Brewery so may not appear on the list, if this is the case you can simply type in the beer name. Select the correct one click ‘submit score’ and your score will be entered into the database.

It is as simple as that. An added bonus is that it will keep a record of your scores so you can look back to see what beers you have had and how you rated them if you want.

Cheers for your support!