Bolton CAMRA

Introduction

● Maintaining details of pubs and clubs in the Branch Area on WhatPub
● Providing entries to CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide
● Campaigning against the closures of pubs and clubs
● Lobbying politicians
● Promoting our local breweries
● Presenting Pub and Club Awards
● Organising Bolton Beer and Cider Week
● Producing and distributing Bolton Beer Breaks magazine
● Developing local Pub Guides and Ale Trails
● Running regular social events
● Volunteering at local and national beer festivals

You can help by becoming a member. Or think aboutvolunteering, even a few minutes a week can help. Contact us to find out how or come along to our Branch Meetings. Most of all enjoy and celebrate your real ale, cider and perry!

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Branch Meeting

Branch meeting on Thursday 2nd July 2026 at the Northern Monkey Brewery Tap on Chorley Street, Bolton at 8pm. The Bar will be open from 7.30pm

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Future Meetings

TBC

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Branch Socials

All social events are now listed here

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Bolton Pub / Cider & Club of the Year 2026 Winners

Pub of the Year 2026

Bank Top Ale House, Church Street, Horwich

Cider Pub of the Year 2026

B33R@33, Lee Lane, Horwich

Club of the Year 2026

Bolton Ukrainian Social Club, Castle Street, Bolton

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Bolton Pubs

The photographs above show the Bolton pubs which are in the 2026 Good Beer Guide. The Guide is available from the CAMRA online shop here. CAMRA members get a discount on the cover price. General information on Bolton pubs and clubs is available on CAMRA’s national website here where you can search for a pub, search a location or simply click on Nearby Pubs if you want to find out which pubs are close to your current location.

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Bolton Beer & Cider Week – 3rd – 12th July 2026

The Bolton Beer & Cider Week will be returning between 3rd and 12th July 2026. Details will be appearing on the Bolton Beer & Cider Week page as we get closer to the event.

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Beer Scoring Changes

There are tens of thousands of pubs across the country serving cask beers, and many of those serve really good pints. 

For lovers of a decent pint, it’s important to be able to find them. CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide has been the ‘bible’ for finding the very best ones since 1974 and continues to be relied upon by tens of thousands of people. CAMRA’s online pub guide camra.org.uk/pubs can also help because beer quality is indicated by the ‘3 Pints’ symbols that CAMRA members can see when logged in. 

Pubs and clubs that serve really excellent pints, and serve them consistently well, can be potential candidates for the Good Beer Guide. To help identify them, CAMRA members score their pints whenever they have the opportunity. Their scores help local branches determine candidates for the Guide, and these can change year on year because the standards are high. Serving live cask beer requires skill in the cellar and attention by bar staff all the time. Competition for a place is stiff because only 4,500 places are available. 

Up until now, the scoring system has used a numbering system of 0 to 5. But there are problems with this. It requires memorising the criteria for each score and using them consistently, but memories can be variable. Some people genuinely struggle with numbers, so they don’t take part. It becomes open to individual interpretation with resulting inconsistency between scorers. There’s also the potential for individual bias and a reluctance to ‘award’ high scores.

We all know when we are drinking a good pint that’s been well-kept, and we also know when a pint is very good or excellent – who cannot resist telling everyone else about it! And likewise, a pint that is simply OK or, hopefully not often, undrinkable. 

So, to make things easier for everyone, a new intuitive ratings system is being introduced, which is more descriptive of the beer being drunk. Each of the new ratings has a description and a likely reaction to help you pin down the most appropriate rating. Ratings can be recorded on CAMRA’s online pub guide camra.org.uk/pubs by all CAMRA members so start rating your beer now.

The new ratings and descriptions and your likely reaction to being served a pint of this quality are: 

The number of members scoring beers has been steadily increasing as has the number of pubs and beers being scored. I hope you find the new system easier to use and that you too can get involved in choosing our entries for the Good Beer Guide and letting other members know where to find the best quality cask ale in Bolton and across the country.

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Good Beer Guide 2026

The next edition of the Good Beer Guide is now out. Order your copy here.

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Framed Pump Clips For Sale