Choosing the Champion Beer

It is the revered highlight of the Great British Beer Festival (GGBF), but the Champion Beer of Britain (CBOB) is dogged by as many conspiracy theories as Diana's death on the front page of Daily Express. With this year's event fast approaching The Publican​ has gone behind the scenes to investigate the truth behind the trophy.

With a plethora of winners hailing from the unknown and relatively obscure breweries,CBOB has been criticised in the past for trying to work it's way around the peripheries, with obscure beers that rarely win more than once. The big brands don't necessarily fare better either. Greene King IPA won a gold award in 2004 and was greeted by a resounding chorus of boos from the crowd, from some who felt its success was a sure sign of corporate dominance and others who claimed it was a case of putting in beers specially brewed for the competition.

When the winner of the Champion Beer is announced in August, among the celebrations, there will undoubtedly be some wicked whisperings from those in attendance. Much of the suspicion is generated by the somewhat mysterious way in which the beers are judged. So is it really all above board? Well yes, frankly. Here the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) explains the long and complicated process used to choose a champ.

"When the competition began in 1978, winners were chosen simply by a vote from those attending on what they considered to be the best beer. Nowadays however, things have got a little bit more sophisticated. Most beers are selected through the CAMRA tasting panels. These panels consist of CAMRA volunteers who are trained tasters and sample the beers brewed in their designated region. This process takes several months during which the taster's scores are coordinated by a panel chair and passed onto a regional coordinator with tasting notes.

These scores are then fed upwards to the overall coordinator. The top scoring beers then make it through to the final CBOB judging. With rising numbers of bitter and best bitter classes in recent years, the number of beers in these classes has doubled from seven to 14.

There are two other ways in which a beer can make it to the final. CAMRA members can vote via the monthly newspaper, What's Brewing, where votes are totalled and added to the list. These generally make up one seventh of the votes overall. The third way is to win at a local or regional CAMRA beer festival. However winning one event is not enough to gain automatic entry into the final and many more wins may be required.

On the big day judging is carried out by panels of six or seven CAMRA-trained tasters, brewers, licensees, beer writers and a smattering of personalities. Each panel chooses a one, two and three. All these winners then go to a new panel of judges who do a blind tasting to choose a winner for each class, and then the victorious few go to final judging for the CBOB.

So while brewers can do their best to ensure a place in the final by making their beers available in pubs in the region surrounding the brewery and checking there is an active CAMRA tasting panel in the area, at the end of the day the final judges can only make their decision on what tastes best."

This years' judges include:

* A representative from last year's winning brewery Crouch Vale

* Caroline Nodder, editor of the Publican

* A number of MPs

* Representatives from several BBC radio shows

* Journalists from national newspapers and magazines

The last 10 Champion Beers​

2005 Crouch Vale Brewers Gold

2004 Kelham Island Pale Rider

2003 Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted

2002 Caledonian Deuchars IPA

2001 Oakham JHB

2000 Moorhouse's Black Cat

1999 Timothy Taylor's Landlord

1998 Coniston Bluebird

1997 Mordue Workie Ticket

1996 Woodforde's Wherry

What winning means​

Three past recipients exp-lain what winning the Champion Beer of Britain prize meant for their business

• Caledonian Deuchars IPA - CBOB in 2002

For Steve Crawley, managing director of Caledonian Breweries, the benefits were partly dependant on winning at the right time. "We got a lot out of winning the award but we probably won it at the best possible time. We had the capacity, the appetite to grow and the right structure in place to do that.

"Essentially, the winning only really works for you if you can prove that your beer is good all year round. Once you've won something like that, people are always looking for you to fail. Ultimately it's great to get it. It's hard work, but there are fantastic rewards to be gained by winning."

• Kelham Island Pale Rider - CBOB in 2004

Dave Wickett, owner of Kelham Island, says winning the title has made a fantastic difference to his business. "Everyone you talk to in the industry knows you. Before we were just a Yorkshire brewer - now we're known across the UK.

Being such a small brewery has meant trying to deal with the huge increase in demand has been a problem. "It is frustrating when people ring up and you have to turn away their order because we have run out of beer. But it's not a bad problem. Any brewer would give their right arm to win Champion Beer."

One way of increasing the beer's distribution is to strike a deal with a bigger brewer to brew it under licence. So in 2004 Pale Rider became Pale Island brewed by Essex brewer Ridley's. "They were superb at it - but it didn't last for long," says Dave. Only eight months later Ridley's had been bought and closed by Greene King, ironically the brewer Kelham Island had beaten in the final the year before.

• Greene King IPA - Champion Bitter in 2004

Winning the Gold award in the standard bitter category in 2004 provided a great marketing opportunity for Greene King. Sue Thomas Taylor, marketing director, says: "We believe that real beer needs champions and sometimes needs well-invested brands to take the message out there." Greene King wrote to customers to tell themit had won, sent out a promotional pump-clip and revamping its much-toured exhibition bar.

Sue says: "We've made as much out of it as possible, even down to having it as a introduction to our answering machine messages. Everyone had put so much effort and passion into improving the beer that we were really proud to receive the award."