2023 Beer Memberships: Adding, Keeping, and Dropping

Keeping Firestone Walker - I've been in it since Year 1 and enjoyed the club exclusives and swag. We don't live close to any of the FW locations, but we typically take advantage of onsite discounts when we visit our son and daughter in law in Santa Monica and travel to the Central Coast.

Adding - TBD. Considering Alesmith and looking for something closer to home in the North San Diego County/Temecula area.

 

Keeping my SARA membership for as long as they'll have me. Would love to add Private Press but I don't think I'll drink enough strong ales to make it worth the money, but I love everything I've tried from them.

 

Just got the new membership email from MT, I’m surprised they are still doing it. Anyway checked here since I know a lot of you are in it, not surprised by the drops :/

anyway renewing:

sara: best club I’m in, I hope they keep putting out bangers

Private press: we’ll renewals are in June but I love this club

lc: renewing, hoping year 3 brings on owk b2, or somthing along those lines

Xul: I really enjoyed their beers so I plan to renew this club as well

dropping

russian river. I split a membership, they stopping it next year. I think we were planning to drop it anyway

Up in the air:
None I’d like to add but I’m a temp member for floodland, I’ll join them if I get offered a spot, this year has been great so far

no other clubs are on my radar right now. I dropped hpb last year and am having lots of beer regerts :/

 

It's crazy how much love there is for SARA and Private Press, and the brewers are married. That couple has to be the most important couple in brewing.

 

It’s easy, Brad is such a cool dude and adair os awesome, they are both cut from the same cloth. I’ve got great stories about both of them, I’m sure many people do.

going to pick up private press is always a highlight chatting with Brad.

 

Oh yeah, it's not crazy that they're married, it's just crazy that two people who arguably rule the two major pillars of barrel aged beer in California are married. It'd be like if the best player in the NBA and WNBA were married or something. Just uncommon for two people who are so close to the pinnacle of the same industry to be married.

I'm still waiting for the absolute world beating estate brewery that they set up together over on the Salinas side of the hill

 

If they weren't so gracious, I'm sure Vinnie and Natalie would like to have a word with you.

 

Ha, fair point. Call it novelty bias. Those two have been together since before I was aware of their shared brewery so im kind of just perceiving them as a singular entity.

At the same time, RR makes some absolutely elite west coast ipas and some good-great barrel aged sours. But I wonder where people broadly would even place their barrel program. To me, the things I've had have been fine but Russian River is not really in the discussion for me when talking about the best barrel aged mixed fermentation beers. SARA feels like their BA program is in the top 10 global conversation when it comes to spontaneous/mixed fermentation stuff and Private Press feels like it's getting itself into that same convo when you talk strong dark ales.

 

I was being mildly flippant, and I completely understand where you're coming from. I agree, the RR mixed fermentation beers don't hold up to contemporary standards, but they were revelatory a 15 years back.

 

My first ever stop at RR I bought 3 or 4 each of PtE and Blind Pig and 2 each of a bunch of their sours to fill a case. I had zero experience with sours and had only heard that Russian River was the best thing going. It was an experience for sure.

 

Massive +1. The quality of the beer alone makes Private Press my favorite membership, but Brad is such a genuinely great guy and creates a welcoming environment to hang out while you're picking up, in spite of the fact that he doesn't have taps or any sort of actual tasting room.

 

For my taste, RR is absolutely top echelon for wild ales in CA. Their membership focused on their fruited sours and blends and, with the exception of Sara, I can't think of anyone in CA who does those better.

 

Private Press' membership was only a $30 admin fee for the year, but you're required to buy at least eight bottles over the year in order be invited back for next year. It's roughly $310 for the year (~ $35/btl based on the last sale) with the fee and purchase/tax if you buy eight bottles and pick up. Another $22 or so for shipping those eight bottles. Overall general "cost" of the club is low as is the minimum purchase requirement. While the bottles price themselves are on the higher side, at least all the beers are BA and generally good (unlike Horus) and consistent (unlike MT).

 

Yeah I don't mean to disparage their program at all, I havent really been delving into that realm the last couple of years, but I just meant that I don't hear their name come up much when people are talking about the best barrel aged sours. One of the grape variants of Intinction from them is one of the best I've ever had.

 

I haven't had a lot of their recent stuff, and none of their small batch series, but when they're on, few beers can beat Temptation or Beatification. Or Supplication.

 

Probably your foot in the door?

 

This is all we were told:

"- Membership Fee $30, this is an administrative fee and does not include any beer or merchandise.
- The 2021 Membership cycle runs from July 2022 through July 2023.
- There will be 4 quarterly releases throughout the year.
- MEMBERS MUST PURCHASE 8 BOTTLES OVER THE CLUB CYCLE. IF YOU DO NOT BUY 8 BOTTLES, YOU FORFEIT YOUR ABILITY TO RENEW FOR THE FOLLOWING YEAR. THE 8 BOTTLES CAN BE PURCHASED DURING THE QUARTERLY RELEASES OR CELLAR SALES.
- Nothing is included with the membership, so you buy what you want each release."

As I understand it, he basically wanted people to be able to buy what they wanted instead of potentially getting stuck with an included bottle of something they didn't want in a style/barrel/etc. they didn't like. The way to do that was to not charge the first/second year prices of $325-ish and to not include any bottles/swag, thus letting members pick what they wanted when sales came up.

My guess is if he did not charge anything for the membership there might be some people that may just sit on their memberships and not do anything. There are people in beer clubs who only take the included bottles and never buy anything else. The $30 for nothing in return would probably give those people and anyone potentially on the fence about renewing incentive to just drop the membership and not take up a space for someone who wants to buy a lot of bottles. This is a very highly sought after club after all. The $30 also probably does cover some admin costs that are generally hidden costs rolled into the $300-500+ people usually pay for memberships. That's all just guesses though. You also have to keep in mind that most of the wine clubs you've been in also probably sell their wines in a tasting room, online, stores, etc., so they have other venues of monetization. PP solely sells to its members.

I wouldn't think of the $30 as a "privilege tax" but rather take it as the face value admin fee that assists in running what was largely a one-person show behind the membership process. Most clubs have whole teams behind them. PP has largely just Brad brewing, barreling, bottling, fulfilling orders, shipping, and doing customer service. I would prefer to pay the $30 and pick beers than get stuck with a bunch of non-BA or pseudo-BA crap I don't want <cough> Horus <cough>.

But, to each their own.