Good Beer Guide

Ely & District branch has an allocation of five entries in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide. In 2024 the branch decided that in future they will submit three rural pubs and two city pubs for the Guide. A shortlist is drawn up at our December branch meeting. Unless there are reasons to exclude a pub, the shortlist consists of the five current entries, all pubs with a certain beer score level (a National Beer Scoring System average of 3.4 or above with a weight of 2 or more over the previous 12 months) plus any other pubs selected at the meeting. CAMRA members from our branch and from adjoining branches then have until early February to mark those shortlisted pubs that they have visited in the past six months. Marking is primarily online via the link below (members log in using their CAMRA ID). Our February meeting then confirms its five submissions. CAMRA publishes the new Guide in September. https://ely-gbg.camra.org.uk/

Pub of the Year, Cider Pub of the Year and Club of the Year

Ely and District CAMRA chooses a Rural and a City Pub of the Year. Our branch meeting in December draws up a shortlist for both. Committee members then have until our March meeting to visit the pubs. Only committee members who have visited all the pubs on the relevant shortlist can vote in that category. The meeting then decides which of the two winners will be our overall Pub of the Year and represent our branch in the Cambridgeshire round of CAMRA's Pub of the Year competition.

Our Cider Pub of the Year is selected by our Cider Officer. It then represents our branch in the Cambridgeshire round of CAMRA's Cider Pub of the Year competition.

In 2025, for the first time, we chose a Club of the Year. The selection process mirrored our Pub of the Year selection process except that there wasn't a rural/city stage. Our chosen club then represents our branch in the Cambridgeshire round of CAMRA's Club of the Year competition.

In 2025 our City and overall Pub of the Year is the Drayman's Son. Our Rural Pub of the Year is the Carpenters Arms in Soham. Our Cider Pub of the Year is the Drayman's Son. Our Club of the Year is Fordham Royal British Legion Club.