Beer scoring has changed to Beer Rating from June 2026

It's something that every member can do - it’s quick, it’s easy, it’s really valuable, and it involves enjoying the fantastic variety of beers available. Simply log in to CAMRA Pubs on the main CAMRA website, familiarise yourself with the beer rating system and away you go!

Find out about rating beers

Beer ratings are very important in deciding on nominations for the Good Beer Guide. CAMRA members can rate the beers they drink in pubs and clubs on CAMRA Pubs:

Remember, it's about the skill of the pub, not your personal flavour preferences. You are scoring the beer served in the pub, not the brewery or whether you like the beer.

Excellent
Exceptional and clear (if intended to be) with fantastic aromas, flavours and ideal carbonation. Superb! You tell your friends and compliment the cellar manager.

Very Good
Satisfying and well-kept with a great appearance, good carbonation and enticing aromas and flavours. You consider having another and may cancel plans to move to another pub.

Good
Nice appearance, good carbonation, aromas and flavour. Pleasant but not memorable. You're happy to have another but might consider something else.

Acceptable
Unremarkable and ordinary, with no noteworthy characteristics. You're unlikely to have another unless it is all there is and there isn’t another pub to go to.

Poor
Noticeably imperfect. Drinkable with resentment, but you politely ask for a replacement.

Undrinkable
Unpleasant to drink, likely with a disgusting taste, incorrect appearance and off/foul aroma. You politely ask for it to be replaced and consider asking the publican to take it off.

Sometimes a beer may be reaching the end of the barrel, or the staff may have forgotten to pull the line through for the first pint of the day. Give them the benefit of the doubt and the chance to make amends. In a good pub they should be able to recognise that the beer should not have been served and offer to replace your pint. If it is replaced, the advice is not to score a poor or undrinkable pint

It is always worth politely talking with the staff about beer quality, especially if the landlord or manager is around. Polite feedback should always be helpful.

Complement them on a great pint, but if you think things could be better it's worth talking about that too. Use your judgement and offer feedback when you feel it may help. Be prepared to accept that you may be wrong and learn from it. Some unfined and specialty beers may be intentionally cloudy, for example. Always be polite!

Wyre Forest CAMRA encourages all members to put in plenty of beer ratings to identify where the very best beer is to be found. It assists with deciding which pubs go into the Good Beer Guide at the Branch annual meeting in February, using ratings from 1 January to 31 December each year.

The Wyre Forest CAMRA Beer Scoring Competition

The top half a dozen or more scorers during the year from 1 January are rewarded with bottles of beer, kindly donated by local breweries and members.

For pubs in the Wyre Forest Branch area you’ll collect ONE point for each beer scored on a visit, and TEN points for each additional pub or club. The top six scorers are rewarded with BEER at the February AGM.

It’s that easy!

Here’s where to find all the information you need:

Find out about rating beers here

Register or change your CAMRA Password on the Sign in button here

Rate your beers on CAMRA Pubs

Here are a few things to consider when evaluating a beer:

1. Look
Assess the colour, clarity and the foam of the pint. Golden ales should appear bright and clear while darker beers, such as stouts and porters, possess a richer colour and often a thick, creamy head. As a general rule of thumb it’s best to base your view on whether it looks appealing. If it’s got bits in it, or looks or tastes flat (no head) it’s looking like a duffer. Some beers are meant to be cloudy such as wheat beers. Unfined beers can have a haze, but not always. In either case they should not be marked down on clarity and assessed on all the other attributes.

2. Smell
Smell is an important part of the drinking experience. Take a short sniff of your drink to assess the aroma. If it’s immediately repulsive – smelling of vinegar, sulphur, cabbage or chemicals – then it’s a fair bet that the pint you have is undrinkable or poor.

3. Taste
Take a sip and let it flow around your mouth before swallowing. Beers can have many taste sensations. The intensity of the flavours and the finish (the ‘aftertaste’) make up the whole taste. Give your taste buds a few seconds to register all the differing sensations. Has the pub kept the beer well enough to allow the flavour to come through?

4. Mouthfeel
How does it ‘feel’ in the mouth? Most well-kept beers will have a light carbonation and feel ‘alive’. Well, they are! They should be served at cellar temperature – that means cool, not cold. Ales that are warm tend to be flat, and ones that are too cold tend to be too lively. Flat beers can also indicate that the beer s at the end of the barrel – this is a natural part of the cycle of the beer's lifespan and a good publican will be happy to check if you suspect a beer is at the bottom’and replace it with a n alternative pint.

With thousands of ales to choose from, everyone has their own personal favourites and things that they don't like, so please try to give an honest account of how well-kept a particular beer is. If you aren't sure then try to do your scoring based on beers that you know that you normally like when they are in good condition.

Good Beer Guide

Wyre Forest CAMRA uses beer ratings to identify where the best beer is served, and is being served consistently very well. The pubs serving the consistently highest quality beers are considered for inclusion in the Good Beer Guide so that a visitor to the area can find a pub serving consistently really good beer.

The Good Beer Guide is published in September each year. Nominations for the Guide are submitted by the Branch in early March.

In the Wyre Forest Branch area, ratings submitted from 1 January to 31 December each year from many CAMRA members are used, both from the local branch and visiting members. Typically over 2,500 ratings are received from around 130 individual members, which gives high confidence in identifying the establishments consistently serving the very best kept and very well presented beers.

The quality of presentation of beers locally has risen noticeably over the past few years. Competition for the 13 allocated places in the Guide locally is intense.