Current Award Methodology

Pub of the Season (PotS)

We will use the 3-month periods below to shortlist and vote for our branch PotS winners:

Spring – February to April
Summer – May to July
Autumn – August to October
Winter – November to January

We will select a shortlist of a maximum of five venues per season in each of two categories – Town and Village – with the shortlists chosen through a combination of public nominations and beer scores recorded in CAMRA’s National Beer Scoring System (NBSS). Scores via Untappd do not go into NBSS, so do not count for CAMRA awards or to qualify for inclusion in the Good Beer Guide.

Venues in Sutton in Ashfield, Kirkby in Ashfield, Mansfield (including Forest Town) and Mansfield Woodhouse will constitute the ‘Town’ category, with venues elsewhere all in the ‘Village’ category.

For PotS nominations, anyone (not just CAMRA members) can nominate a pub at any point in each qualifying period via this form – but only one pub per quarter, not one in each category – supplying a reason for the nomination and valid contact details in order for it to be considered.

Possible reasons for a nomination include (but are not limited to) things like:

a. Introducing real ale to an area or market where none has been available.
b. Ongoing excellence in the quality of real ales and/or ciders on offer.
c. Ongoing excellence of service to customers and/or the local community.
d. Significant increases in the sales of real ales and/or traditional ciders.
e. Excellence in support/promotion of CAMRA and its aims.
f. Significant charitable work.
g. Wonderful beer garden for a pint or two in summer.
h. They run a fantastic beer festival in August.
i. Warming log fires for the cold winter.
j. A new operator or licensee has turned the pub's fortunes around.
k. Started selling beers from a local microbrewery.
l. Started selling real cider/perry.

For beer scores, we will review data and consider excluding scores from individual members who repeatedly score unusually highly, or one venue highly and all other venues poorly or not at all, and exclude scores from relatives of licensees and/or employees voting for their workplaces.

For each PotS period, the committee will use nominations and beer scores to produce Town and Village shortlists. These will then be put to a CAMRA member vote in a 10-day window in the month after the end of each season, advertised via Comms email, on our website and via social media.

Voters can select one venue in each (Town and Village) category, and must record their name and membership number (which will be checked and validated) for their vote to count.

Winners will be announced in the following month, and we will arrange quarterly certificate presentations, which may be combined into our programme of meetings and socials.

If a venue wins a PotS award, it cannot be nominated again in the next four seasons.

Pub of the Year (PotY)

The candidates for branch PotY will comprise the 4 Town and 4 Village PotS winners in the 12 months from November to October - unless there have been significant changes such as closure, no longer serving real ales, or a change in either ownership or standards since winning, in which case they may be excluded and the number of PotY candidates will be reduced without replacement(s).

Branch PotY candidates will NOT go forward to a member vote; instead, they will be visited and assessed against CAMRA’s national judging criteria, with judging undertaken by experienced members of our own and (if possible) other branches, to mitigate any ‘favourite pub’ conscious or unconscious bias – ideally with a representative gender balance of judges.

We will hold a branch ‘expectation-setting’ meeting to explain the standard scoring methodology, also explaining that if a judge is unable to visit all PotY candidate venues, scores for the venues they were able to visit won’t count.

We’ll also have a post-judging ‘moderation’ meeting to compare individual venue/category scores between judges to identify and challenge/seek explanation for any ‘outlier’ scores, and to collate the overall scores. Raw scores will also be ‘converted’ to a rank scoring methodology (which mitigates against individual judges scoring particularly high or low), with that ‘ranking’ result to be compared against the result from ‘raw’ scores.

In the unlikely event of a tie, beer scores could be used as a deciding factor - but with caution due to the potential introduction of further bias, for example, if venues being judged were known to be favourites of one or more judges, or beers in one or more of the venues are known to routinely be scored more highly than beers in others, etc.

There is no minimum period between PotY wins, so consecutive repeat wins are possible, but our ‘4 periods of ineligibility’ PotS rule prevents any pub from making a further PotS shortlist for 12 months, which is likely to reduce the incidence of regular 'back to back' PotY wins by the same venue.

We’ll review the effectiveness of these changes and whether they have the desired effect on an ongoing basis throughout the Winter 2025/26 to Autumn 2026 ‘seasons’ – so effectively throughout their first year of use.

We will also consider introducing further Pub of the Year award categories – such as LocAle PotY, Cider PotY, Micropub PotY – and will also consider further ‘Special Awards’ as appropriate.

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Pub Award Methodology Spring 2024 - Autumn 2025

Pub of the Season (PotS)

Beer scores recorded via WhatPub / Good Beer Guide web apps (both now defunct) to the National Beer Scoring System (NBSS) for the 3-month periods below will determine venues shortlisted for PotS, with the five highest averages qualifying. Scores registered via Untappd do not go into the NBSS.

Spring – February to April scores.
Summer – May to July scores.
Autumn – August to October scores.
Winter – November to January scores.

The committee reviews NBSS data in detail to exclude scenarios such as a single member repeatedly scoring exceptionally highly, or one venue highly and all others poorly or not at all, and scores from family members of licensees for their premises and employees voting for their workplaces.

For each PotS period, the committee will produce Urban and Rural shortlists (with Kirkby, Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse, South Normanton and Sutton making up the Urban category). Those shortlists will be put to a member vote in a 10-day window in the month after the end of the season, to be advertised via a Comms email, on our website and social media.

Voters must record their name and membership number to validate against membership records, and votes may only be cast for venues a voter has visited and for which they have scored one or more beers in that season. You can only select one venue for each category.

Results will be announced in the following month unless there is no clear and deserving recipient identified in a season, in which case the committee may choose not to make an award. We will then present certificates to winners, seeking permission to take and share pictures, with quarterly presentations also potentially being combined into our programme of branch socials.

If a venue wins a PotS, they cannot be nominated again in the next four seasons.

Pub of the Year (PotY)

PotY will also follow the urban and rural split – where each shortlist will comprise the 4 PotS winners for those 12 months unless there have been significant changes such as closure or a change in either ownership or standards since winning. If an in-year PotS venue becomes ineligible for that year’s PotY, we may choose to shortlist the runner-up for the period in which the ineligible venue won (if the substitute hasn’t since won in a subsequent season that year) or to reduce the PotY shortlist for that category.

The PotY shortlist will NOT go forward to a member vote. Instead, all shortlisted venues will be visited and assessed against CAMRA’s national judging criteria, as used at county PotY level, with judging undertaken by experienced members of our own and other branches – preferable since the latter should not have ‘favourite pub’ conscious or unconscious bias.