The following information outlines the process Forth Valley CAMRA branch use to select pubs for the Good Beer Guide.

- Forth Valley Branch is allocated a set number of entries we can have in the guide. Currently it is 3 for West Lothian pubs in our region (Linlithgow, Uphall, Bathgate and Winchburgh) and 16 for rest of our area.

- The Branch uses beer scores from CAMRA members, submitted via the National Beer Scoring System (NBSS) as the primary identifier for selection.

- We exclude any pubs that have recently opened or changed ownership in current year. This is down to too short a period to judge its merits.

- We further exclude any pubs that have had scores from less than 6 people or have had repeated scores of zero, indicating no beer available.

- In December our Pubs’ Officer generates two spreadsheets: one for West Lothian pubs in our area and one for pubs in the rest of our area, displaying the average beer scores awarded to these pubs over the previous 12 months. The pubs are ranked in order from top to bottom.

- We convene a meeting, open to all CAMRA members, when GBG selection is intimated as being the main item on the agenda.

- Only current CAMRA members are allowed to attend this meeting and all agree to confidentiality until the guide comes out.

- During the meeting, the relative merits of each potential selection is discussed. Factors affecting the final choice may include zero scores, recent changes in ownership/management where new owner/manager has had no previous Real Ale experience in other pubs and recent trends in scores. Entries up to the allocations are then agreed upon by members at the meeting, with votes if required.

- One or more reserves are selected in case of subsequent closure of, or other relevant change to, any selected pub.

- The final selection of pubs will not be made public until the publication of the GBG later in the year.

This explains why it is important for all members to score all their Real beers throughout the year so every pub has an opportunity to be considered for inclusion in the guide.

Details on How to score Beers are located here. NBSS