It's this: http://www.beermonthclub.com/the-rare-beer-club.htm I was in it for a year, and it's not worth it. 80% of the time it's beer you can get on the shelves, and 90% of the time it's not any good. (Although my perspective on that might be skewed because it was ALL SAISONS, and I don't really like them.)
Do an open monthly membership. There's a few times a year it's worth getting the selections. However, any month you don't want the beers, you simply say so. They give you an online form ahead of time with the upcoming selections and can do a few options: double up, swap out beer, skip the shipment, etc. No charge to your card obviously if you skip. I think it's just nice to have when something good comes up.
This is the answer. With the open ended membership, you really have no obligations to order unless it's something you think you really want. My 4 bottle membership comes to around $66, so just over $15 per bottle after shipping which isn't half bad, and they only send 750s. The new Cigar City Cucumber Saison is featured this month, I skipped the other bottle and got 4 of those.
They use "cucumber essence" which is a fancy way of making cucumbers into concentrated flavor. From what I understand, there's nothing artificial about it, just awesome. Oh, and it IS awesome, especially with this damned summer we're having. Cheers!
I thought it was solid after a couple of sips. After it warmed up, it tasted like grass and was not pleasant at all.
I have been an open member more than three years now - the brews have been excellent! I don't remember getting very many Saisons at all. I keep all of the newsletters in a binder for reference and I could only count 6 Saisons in 36 months. If there is a beer I don't want in a month I just double up on the ones I like. I didn't like IPA's, but after joining this club now I look forward to trying the next IPA brew.
That's bizarre. I don't think I ever got an IPA out of it, and there were definitely months with 2 Saisons. If you're active about managing it then you'll get better results, but I think it sucks as a "sign up and get two beers every month" club. I probably got one beer I really liked out of 24.
One of the beers in the June shipments is an IPA. December there was a Spiced Holiday IPA. Maybe you should try the 12 beer variety pack rather that the 2 beer format?
The June shipment wasn't while I was a member, so, uh, cool story. And a Spiced Holiday IPA isn't a real IPA, because the spices will dominate the flavoring. I bet whatever beer it was is classified as a winter warmer or something on BA. The 12 beer variety pack is ridiculous. My mom gave me one of those for xmas and the first thing they sent me was Mendocino, which I can get in literally any craft beer store in a 40 mile radius. I canceled it after that. Waste of money.
