North Hertfordshire CAMRA Campaign for Real Ale - Real Ale, Real Pubs, Real People

North Hertfordshire CAMRA committee members are drinking beer just the same as you, all across North Hertfordshire. But with over 200 pubs to keep tabs on, we would really need more of our members helping out! The core group (it fluctuates, but there are about 10 of us) simply cannot make it to all the pubs often enough to give them a fair go. To help us decide which pubs in our patch are worth considering for the CAMRA Good Beer Guide we utilise the CAMRA National Beer Scoring System (NBSS) – importantly ALL CAMRA members are eligible to submit scores for any pubs they visit (across the whole of the UK).

This system consists of a 6-point scale that rates a beer on quality. The emphasis on “quality” is important, this the most challenging thing about the system. You need to judge whether the beer is in good form, not whether or not you happen to like the beer (in fact a beer worthy of a 5 could very well be one that you don’t like very much). You need to consider whether or not the pub has kept and served this ale in good condition: is it clear (unless marked otherwise for some unfined beers), does it taste and smell fresh, does it have an appropriate level of carbonation? Sometimes cask ale can taste and smell vinegary (off beer) or taste like damp paper (stale), if it is particularly bad you should let the bar staff know!

Please note that NBSS scores do not form a “linear” scale.  Anything over 2 is good beer, just degrees of ‘goodness’. The CAMRA HQ website has some additional information on the NBSS here.

Finally please keep in mind that we are scoring only the beer itself, not any other aspect of the pub. Please try to be as objective as you can when rating a beer.

Please note we do scrutinise the entries on the database, so don’t try entering a load of 5s for your favourite pub, or 0s for one you’ve been barred from. We will notice!

Entering Scores

You can enter your scores online using our own NBSS website – alternatively, should you have any problems with our site (there are a few “known bugs“) you can use the national NBSS website to register your scores.

For reference, here are the scores themselves:

0.	Undrinkable. No cask ale available or so poor you have to take it back or can’t finish it.
1.	Poor. Beer that is anything from barely drinkable to drinkable with considerable resentment.
2.	Average. Competently kept, drinkable pint but doesn’t inspire in any way, not worth moving to another pub but you drink the beer without really noticing.
3.	Good. Good beer in good form. You may cancel plans to move to the next pub. You want to stay for another pint and may seek out the beer again.
4.	Very Good. Excellent beer in excellent condition.
5.	Perfect. Probably the best you are ever likely to find. A seasoned drinker will award this score very rarely.

Known Bugs

We prefer our members to use the branch’s own website for entering beer scores as this gives us more timely feedback on what people are drinking in our area. However, there are a few known issues with our NBSS site that it is worth being aware of:

1. When logging in if your current post-code doesn’t work try your previous post-code if you have moved recently.
2. Please note that the “Submit Review” form can only be used to enter beer scores for a single date.
3. We suggest that it is safest to add a single beer at a time
   1. Enter Beer
   2. Click “Add Review”
   3. Check the details!
   4. Click “Submit Review”
   5. Click “Confirm”
   6. Return to the Submit Review page to enter another beer
4. Do not use the “Go Back & Amend” button – it probably won’t work as you expect
5. Please omit apostrophes from any text – beer names, pub names, and comments. They will break the submission of your beer scores and you’ll have to start again.

In 2012 we hope to update the system and fix all these issues! But as all work done on these things is on a volunteer basis we cannot guarantee that anyone will have the time.