The Surrey Hants Borders Branch Pub of the Year selection procedure is in two parts. The first is an online ranking process open to all branch members. The second is an in person judging, for which any Branch member is welcome to volunteer.

Throughout January Branch members are asked to rank the pubs included in the recently published Good Beer Guide. They start by selecting the premises they have visited in the last year and then sort these pubs in order of preference. There are no strict requirements for this stage but the criteria for later judging are displayed for guidance. Any member who has visited at least two of the eligible pubs can take part.

After the ranking closes at the end of January the results are used to select the top three to five pubs. The selection procedure used takes into account how pubs have been compared with each other. The process is designed not to disadvantage pubs that are hard to get to and hence may receive fewer visits.

In February and early March volunteer judges each visit all of the three to five pubs selected. They use the CAMRA Pub of the Year judging criteria to mark each pub according to eight categories. Once all visits have been completed the scores are totalled up and the branch Pub of the Year is ready to be announced.

The branch Pub of the Year is then entered into the Surrey CAMRA Branches competition, the winner of which goes forward to the regional round.