Awards for excellence! We all would like one for our own field. If you are an actor it is an Oscar or a BAFTA. If you are a musician it is a Grammy. If you brew beer it is CBOB!

The Champion Beer of Britain contest is run by CAMRA annually with the final judging and presentation made at the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) each August.

Do you know how the best actor Oscar is picked? Most people don’t. The same is true of CBOB. In five minutes time you’ll know. (About CBOB not the Oscars)

The nominations are received in a variety of ways. Firstly there are trained CAMRA tasting panels who meet regularly all round the country. These trained imbibers compare many beers judging which they feel merit being put through to the next round. Secondly there is your local festival favourite. Many festivals have a beer of the festival voted for by the drinkers. Also many regions have a beer of the year from local brewers. Finally there is the chance for all CAMRA members to nominate a beer through What’s Brewing, the CAMRA newspaper.

It is worth pointing out that all old ales, barley wines, stouts and porters have their own separate competition called the Champion Winter Beer of Britain (WBOB) held at the National Winter Ales Festival.

At this point there are many hundreds of nominations. These have to be reduced to a number that can be judged all at one time. To do this all the nominations are looked at to see which beers have had most success, i.e. which beers have come to the attention of the organiser through more than one of the methods mentioned above. This process gets the numbers of beers down to a reasonable amount in each category. The categories are : milds, bitters, best bitters, strong bitters, bottle conditioned beers and speciality beers. The last two, however, do not go through to the final round.

This brings us to the big day. On the opening Tuesday of the festival the final tasting panels gather. Each category has its own panel comprising of two CAMRA tasters, two or three representatives from the brewing industry and one or two members of the press, making a total of six members per panel. These panels award gold, silver and bronze awards.

Then comes the finale! Each Gold medal winner then goes into the final round. This is judged by a new panel comprising of two very experienced CAMRA tasters, a member of the beer press and a public figure usually from the world of sport or show business. Once again this panel awards gold silver and bronze. All this judging will have taken place by about two p.m.

For about forty-five minutes this is kept secret until the awards are announced to a waiting audience of press and trade (and for the first time this year, season ticket holders as well.) The winner hears the result at the same time as everyone else.

Another thing that will make the competition even more exciting this year is a CBOB bar where all the beers that made it into the final rounds will be served alongside each other allowing you to decide if you agree with the panels of judges.

Last year Bluebird Bitter from the Coniston brewery won. Who will it be this year?