Campaign for Real Ale

PUB OF THE YEAR

CAMRA National Pub Of The Year Competition

The Campaign For Real Ale runs the Pub Of The Year (POTY) Competition on a National level via it’s extensive local branch and regional network.

CAMRA branches are invited to submit their nominations to their Regional Director by mid-March 2024. The regional winners are then notified to the National POTY Coordinator by 31st July 2024 by the Regional Director. Super Regional winners are notified to the National POTY Coordinator by 30th September 2024 and go forward to the final round of judging. The National POTY 2024 announcement is then made in January 2025.

Pubs are judged within categories including the 1) Quality and condition of the live beer (real ale), cider and perry; 2) promotion and knowledge of real ale; 3) Cleanliness and staff hygiene; 4) Community Focus; 5) Service and Welcome; 6) Style, Décor, Atmosphere; 7) Sympathy with CAMRA aims; & 8) Overall Impression and Value.

Plymouth CAMRA Pub Of The Year Competitions

With over 460 pubs and clubs in our branch area, both within the large city of Plymouth and the surrounding Devon countryside, we run a City POTY, a Rural POTY, and a Cider and Perry POTY competition, as well as a Club Of The Year (COTY) Competition.

In December each year, we invite Plymouth CAMRA members only to submit their choice of up to three pubs serving live beer (real ale), plus a pub serving real cider, and a club serving live beer. The pub with the most votes in the City, and the pub with the most votes in the Rural area, are joined by the highest beer scoring average pubs in those areas, plus the top two cider and top two clubs as voted by Branch Members, so that we have a short list of Branch finalists (two in the City, two Rural, two cider and two clubs). Only those pubs and clubs listed on the branch Pub Guide are eligible.

These eight finalists will then be judged to the National CAMRA criteria to find our Branch Pubs of The Year. We would dearly love one of our branch pubs to win at a Regional or even at a National POTY Award.

The Pub Of The Year - Detailed Guidance is available here.

POTY Voting and Judging Forms

You MUST be a member of Plymouth Branch of CAMRA in order to access and download the forms. Please sign in with your membership number and your password. If you do not know your password, please navigate to the My Membership area within the National CAMRA Members website, or follow this link PASSWORD RESET This is an instant self-service password reset, with no input from CAMRA Head Office staff.

Please click on this link to have access to our Pub Of The Year Voting and Judging Forms – only Plymouth CAMRA branch members can download the actual forms .

Voting Forms

Plymouth CAMRA members can download the Voting Forms for the first phase of the competition here, when voting opens. These will be available in MS Word and Adobe Document formats from 1st December until Friday 29th December 2023. You MUST sign in with your CAMRA Membership Number and your password in order to download the forms. Voting forms MUST be returned to either the postal address or be emailed to the address also shown on the form by 1800 on Friday 29th December 2023. The eight POTY Finalists will be announced on the official Plymouth CAMRA Facebook Page from 1st January 2024. Please remember to include your name AND CAMRA membership number for your votes to count; ineligible and/or missing details will be excluded. The Pub Of The Year Voting and Judging Forms can be downloaded here.

Judging Forms

Judging Forms will be available to download in MS Word and Adobe Document formats from Monday 1st January 2024 for Plymouth CAMRA members only. Judges do not have to visit all eight pubs in the final; however, judges must visit both pubs in a category for their judging scores to count, ie both City pubs or both Rural pubs, etc. Judging will close at 2359 on Wednesday 31st January 2024.

Previous Branch POTY Winners

Please click here to view our Previous Pub Of The Year Winners.