Good Beer Guide
Ely & District branch has an allocation of five entries in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide. The aim of the selection process is to ensure that the entries represent the very best places from which to buy real ale in our area. 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, taking into account the voting, beer scoring and the views of those present. CAMRA publishes the new Guide in September. The proportion of 'city' to 'rural' pubs will vary from year to year according to the result of beer scoring, voting and branch deliberation. https://ely-gbg.camra.org.uk/

Pub of the Year, Cider Pub of the Year and Club of the Year
Ely & District CAMRA chooses a Rural and a City Pub of the Year and also an overall 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.

2026 Pub/Club of the Year Winners
City Pub: West End House, Ely.
Rural Pub: Carpenters Arms, Soham.
Cider Pub: Drayman's Son, Ely.
Club: Royal British Legion, Fordham.
Overall Branch Pub of the Year: West End House, Ely