Stroud CAMRA launched the 2026 Good Beer Guide at The Woolpack in Slad, which is back in the guide after a year’s absence, writes Tim Mars.
The pub was very busy and we had a good turnout of CAMRA members to celebrate the publication of the 53rd edition of the UK’s best-selling beer and pub guide, and the Woolpack’s achievement in being listed as one of the best real ale pubs in the area. Many Stroud CAMRA members were involved in visiting and shortlisting pubs for inclusion in the guide, so this was as much a celebration of their efforts, culminating in the publication of the end result.
The Woolpack has Stroud Budding, Uley Bitter and Pigs Ear on handpump, plus a guest beer. On Saturday it was Cotswold Lion Shepherd’s Delight (3.6%), a light crisp flavoursome ale which I haven’t encountered on the bar for a very long time. I was thus spared Uley’s grainy offerings and the perpetual disappointment of Stroud Budding, sadly a shadow of its former self.
The Good Beer Guide 2026 entry for the Woolpack reads: ‘Popular, 17th-century inn clinging to the side of the Slad Valley with superb views. It achieved fame through Cider with Rosie – author Laurie Lee was a regular and was instrumental in saving the pub. It has been restored and enhanced, with built-in dark wooden settles in the end rooms. A recent two-storey extension to the rear has enlarged the kitchen and added a new restaurant area to the right-hand end room, with a ceiling painting of the Slad Valley.’
The Woolpack is often described as ‘unaltered’ or ‘untouched by time’, but has in fact been altered subtly and with infinite care over the years. The built-in dark wooden settles in the end rooms that look as though they have been there forever are less than 30 years old and the new restaurant area features brand new Crittall-style metal window frames with lever-arm stays hand-made by a local blacksmith to match the existing windows.
Stroud CAMRA chose these eight pubs to be included in the guide this year:
Badger, Eastington
Old Lodge, Minchinhampton
Butchers Arms, Sheepscombe
Woolpack, Slad
Ale House, Stroud
Lord John, Stroud
Prince Albert, Stroud
Carpenters Arms, Westrip
The Guide was published by CAMRA on Thursday, September 25th.
The Good Beer Guide is the UK’s best-selling beer and pub guide and this year marks the 53rd year of publication. The guide began from humble beginnings in 1972 when it was a small, 18-page, loose-leaf collection of papers stapled together and sent to members. The first bound and professionally printed version came two years later in 1974.
Fast forward to today and the new 2026 Good Beer Guide features around 4,500 pubs, bars and clubs, 3000 breweries and has a print length of over 900 pages. Each entry contains a short description as well as details of regular and guest beers both local and national. The self-styled ‘beer-lovers’ bible’ is fully revised and updated each year
The guide is completely independent, with listings based entirely on evaluation by members of CAMRA’s 200-plus local branches. The unique breweries section lists every brewery—micro, regional and national—that produces real ale in the UK, and their beers. Tasting notes for the beers, compiled by CAMRA-trained tasting teams, are also included.
The Stroud CAMRA area has around 80 pubs (GL5, GL6 & GL10 postcodes) and is blessed to have a large percentage of really good ones, serving real ale in characterful and sometimes idiosyncratic buildings. Choosing which pubs should be in the guide is an exacting process involving three visits with two different judges each time. The pubs that make the cut really do deserve to be there, and we are always sorry we cannot get more in.
Stroud CAMRA has more than 150 members who file reports on the pubs they visit, rating them for the range and quality of their beers, as well as welcome, service and atmosphere. At our monthly meetings, these reports are used to draw up a shortlist of pubs to be visited and evaluated for inclusion in the Good Beer Guide.
As part of this evaluation process, each shortlisted pub is visited unannounced at least three times a year—in spring, summer and autumn—to see how the pub fares at different seasons, whether the number of beers available varies, and if the temperature and quality is consistent on a hot summer’s day as well as on a cold autumn night.
Teams comprising at least two members armed with electronic thermometers assess each pub, and these teams are rotated to avoid unconscious bias. So every pub is assessed by three separate teams of assessors—a minimum of six different individuals. As far as possible they try to judge the quality and condition of the beer on offer—the part that is down to the licensee and the cellarmanship—rather than whether or not a particular beer is to their taste.
With this meticulous procedure and attention to detail, no wonder the Good Beer Guide remains the UK’s best-selling beer and pub guide!
