Jester King Craft Brewery

I was going to to quote the exact bit.

The people with the biggest toys may tend to be the ones with more money, but at the end of the day, it's just a hobby, and hobbies are luxury goods.

 

$300? lets do this.

 

Are you going to buy all the spots?

 

I'll buy you a spot just for being my favorite person here.

 

Wait, I thought $300 got you a predetermined set of beers and you could add extra. Is that not right?

Also, 10 beers for $300 is crazy expensive when only 3 of the beers are even at the $30+ sticker price.

$300 means you are averaging $30 a beer which seems high since most go for $20 or less, correct?

Does the $300 get you the anniversary beer or white chocolate?

I would hope you'd at least get (out of your 10 beers):
White Chocolate
Black Tuesday
Chocolate Rain
Melange 3
Anniversary Beer

Maybe I read wrong and need to get the scoop.

 

Bruery Reserve Society:



Membership is $295 and includes the following:

-- 1 bottle of Melange #3 (Initial Package, January 2013 pickup)
-- 1 bottle of White Chocolate (Initial Package, January 2013 pickup)
-- 1 bottle of Otiose (Initial Package, January 2013 pickup)
-- 1 bottle of Chocolate Rain (Available in March 2013)
-- 2 bottles of Black Tuesday (Available in late October 2013)
-- 2 bottles Barrel Aged 5 Golden Rings (Available in December 2013)
-- 1 bottle of Mystery Beer #1 (Mystery Release Date)
-- 1 bottle of Mystery Beer #2 (Mystery Release Date)
-- 1 piece of high quality merchandise

Other Perks:

-- Guaranteed access to many releases throughout the year
--15% off: Allocations, other purchases through The Bruery website, purchases at the Tasting Room and when purchasing Bruery beer at The Bruery provisions.
-- Access to special growler fills, special flights, and Reserve Society events
-- First right of refusal to join the 2014 Reserve Society
-- Climate controlled storage of your online allocation purchases until March 31st, 2014

 

That's pretty solid then. Now how do you deal with the other beers. Is it like Columbia House where you can send it back, but if you don't then you get charged for it or do they only put other beers in there upon your request?

I had heard from other reserve society members that you got a lot of beers you didn't want. Maybe this isn't correct.

And Will, there have been a lot of Bruery beers I didn't care too much for.

 

I'm not a member, but my understanding is that Reserve Society members have first-dibs on other beers, but dont have to buy them if they dont want them. I think they key phrase is "Guaranteed access to many releases throughout the year"

Some people just get the minimum number of beers, and some people buy LOTS more. I have a buddy who ends up picking up around 15+ cases every year because of all the other stuff he buys. And you get 15% off those as well.

 

As the beers become available, they go up for sale. You can choose to buy zero or you can max out what they allow you to buy. You have complete control over what you purchase outside of that initial list that was posted. Plus you get the 15% discount on all purchases.

 

Considering Otiose is the only beer on the list I don't really want, that's a pretty solid list.

I guess all you can't get are the Hoarders beers.

 

Until beer can be shipped to my front door, I would have to pass. But, once beer can be shipped to my front door, count me in.

 

If I had the money, I'd be all up in this shit. I certainly don't mind other people who can afford it getting in on it, though--more trades for me, in the mean time!

 

This was one of the things I was going to mention in my response post to all the cons. Thanks for that!

 

So my big issue with the bruery reserve society is that it initially cost you $30/beer. Cool, great, after that you can save 15% on purchases after that. But to me that argument is "spend more money to save money." So essentially you are spending more money on beer to make up for the fact that you over paid in the beginning.

 

Yeah, their beers tend to be overpriced. Whether it's RS or otherwise.

 

I guess for me the rationale for a reserve society type set-up is the guarantee of access to the beers without the hassle of having to track them down. Its a huge hassle to try to track down trades for the Bruery stuff I want, so I'd totally do it if I had a proxy I could trust.

Same would be true for JK - even though they're local, some of the stuff can be very hard to track down, and the idea of "pre-buying" the beers and having them there to pick up at my own convenience is pretty appealing. Factor in the 15% savings, since I always purchase multiples of everything, and I think it would work out in my favor, so I'd definitely be interested.

 

So with the Bruery RS do you have to pick them up or can you have someone else do it in your name? Seems like you pay 300 but also have to front the plane ticket and time off from work. I would rather spend the money on other beers locally.

 

Here's the deal. Say you buy in at $300 and you get 15% off. To keep it simple, I'll say the avg JK beer is $15/bottle and at 15% off that would be $12.75 per bottle saving you, $2.25 per bottle. You would have to buy 133.33 bottles to make up that $300 buy in. Some folks deem it worth it while others, meh, not so.

 

Trustees.

 

You are forgetting that the initial $300 buy in gets you beers that you don't have to pay for later on,