Pub of the Season (PotS)

Beer scores recorded via WhatPub / Good Beer Guide web apps to the National Beer Scoring System (NBSS) for the 3-month periods below will determine venues shortlisted for PotS, with the five highest averages qualifying. Scores registered via Untappd do not go into the NBSS.

- Spring – February to April scores.
- Summer – May to July scores.
- Autumn – August to October scores.
- Winter – November to January scores.

The committee reviews NBSS data in detail to exclude scenarios such as a single member repeatedly scoring exceptionally highly, or one venue highly and all others poorly or not at all, and scores from family members of licensees for their premises and employees voting for their workplaces.

For each PotS period, the committee will produce Urban and Rural shortlists (with Kirkby, Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse, South Normanton and Sutton making up the Urban category). Those shortlists will be put to a member vote in a 10-day window in the month after the end of the season, to be advertised via a Comms email, on our website and social media.

Voters must record their name and membership number to validate against membership records, and votes may only be cast for venues a voter has visited and for which they have scored one or more beers in that season. You can only select one venue for each category.

Results will be announced in the following month unless there is no clear and deserving recipient identified in a season, in which case the committee may choose not to make an award. We will then present certificates to winners, seeking permission to take and share pictures, with quarterly presentations also potentially being combined into our programme of branch socials.

If a venue wins a PotS, they cannot be nominated again in the next three seasons.

Pub of the Year (PotY)

PotY will also follow the urban and rural split – where each shortlist will comprise the 4 PotS winners for those 12 months unless there have been significant changes such as closure or a change in either ownership or standards since winning. If an in-year PotS venue becomes ineligible for that year’s PotY, we may choose to shortlist the runner-up for the period in which the ineligible venue won (if the substitute hasn’t since won in a subsequent season that year) or to reduce the PotY shortlist for that category.

The PotY shortlist will NOT go forward to a member vote. Instead, all shortlisted venues will be visited and assessed against CAMRA’s national judging criteria, as used at county PotY level, with judging undertaken by experienced members of our own and other branches – preferable since the latter should not have ‘favourite pub’ conscious or unconscious bias.

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Previous Winners

Spring 2024 Urban PotS - Brown Cow, Mansfield

We presented our Spring 2024 Urban Pub of the Season award to The Brown Cow, Mansfield on July 14th, during our AGM, which they kindly agreed to host after our planned Prior’s Well venue closed.

Our chair, Karl, is pictured presenting the award to Kieran Lakin, accompanied by the Landlord Jonathan ‘Jono’ Taylor. Kieran is a supervisor and has worked there for 6 years, originally starting as a glass collector. He now does both cellar and bar work, and has ambitions to become a brewer.

It’s been a very busy season for the pub as April saw their first post-Covid beer festival, with CAMRA volunteers staffing an upstairs stillage where an extra 8 cask ales and 4 real ciders were served as part of the 25+ beers and 8 ciders on offer during the event.

 

Spring 2024 Rural PotS - Market Inn, Huthwaite

On Wednesday 17th July, the committee went along to present the award to the landlord Gary, who can be seen photographed with the branch chair Karl and manageress Kerry. Gary worked at the Pavilion for a while before looking for a pub of his own. He finally decided to take on the Market and has been the owner for two years.

Over time, Huthwaite has seen a decline in pub numbers from over ten to just two, with the recent closure of the Peacock Hotel over the road. It had been a real ale desert for years but The Market is now a place where a quality beer can be found seven days a week.

You’ll often find ales from Shiny, Ossett and more recently, Lenton Lane. Complimenting these are two changing craft ales as well as keg lagers and bitters. A range of small batch spirits are also kept.

Formerly a club, the pub features a front bar area complete with pool table and large screen TV. A smaller room is off to the right of the bar and a beer garden sits to the side.

Gary has further plans for the pub, hoping to eventually extend the number of hand pumps on the bar as well as improvements to both the interior and exterior. The future is bright for the Market Inn.