Welcome additions and one surprise omission as new GBG is launched

THE 2026 Camra Good Beer Guide was launched yesterday - with one bombshell and a couple of pleasant surprises in terms of the local entries.

- 

As I have said before, it is easy to criticise the GBG but a lot less easy to come up with a more democratic guide like it.

It will have its flaws but it still provides a useful snapshot of the pub landscape and is laced with informative articles as well as the beer listings.

It may also be debatable just how relevant any printed guide is in an ever faster-moving digital world in which pubs can use a variety of apps to update the beers they are offering by the minute if they wish.

A quick look at the highlights, then, and the astonishing news locally is that, after an unbroken run of more than 40 years, the Royal Oak at Ockbrook, also featured adjacent, has been left out.

More astonishing, to me and I suspect others, is the reason given.