2018 Beer Club Renewals

@DrunkenMonk

NorCal bottle clubs are mostly for sours.

Sante Adairius SARA's Cellar (Capitola) - Good luck! You pretty much have to have an in with the owners now.
Sudwerk Brewer's Cut (Davis) - Mix of styles
Mraz Brewing Barrel Room (El Dorado Hills) - Barrel aged sours
Rare Barrel Ambassadors of Sour (Berkeley)
Mad Fritz Membership (St Helena) - All their beers are barrel aged for even a little bit, even their IPAs. Their club is a really big mix of styles

I didn't know that Bear Republic had a club.

 

Hmm. I couldn't find it either. They had an Eventbrite page, but it's closed. It's Sierra Nevada's barrel aged beer club.

 

Only thing I was on last year was Level Up from Bottle Logic. Should be the same this year.

 

I was in zero beer clubs two years ago.

Last year I went halvsies with a friend on one membership (Rare Barrel).

This year, I'm in (or am sharing) Casa Agria, Modern Times, Cellador, and HPB. I love the easy access to awesome beers, but some of the fun has been taken out of the hunt. I don't make it to the bottle shop as often as I'd like (and not nearly as much as I used to) and yet my beer fridges are bursting at the seams. Anyone else having a similar experience?

EDIT:
Not about having a bunch of beer from being in several beer clubs, but with the fun kinda being taken out of the hobby from being in too many clubs.

 

Not a beer trader and never was much of a beer hunter.

For me, Beer clubs have been a great alternative to "hunting beer". I find that the convenience of wide ordering windows, wide pickup windows, and in many cases, shipping options, are as important to me, as access to good beer.

These days I buy most of my beer through clubs. I will admit to missing the trips to the bottle shops, which are far more infrequent these days, due to my over supply issue. .

I guess it depends on what you get out of "the hobby". The fun for me has always been about having good beer on hand to drink, when I want to drink it. Beer clubs have just enhanced that for me, while allowing me to make better use of my time.

 

I regret not joining Cellador this year... a silly stupid mistake.

I'm satisfied so far with this years Bruery Hoarders offerings, and looking forward to more small batch exclusives.

If I could join SARA Cellars and de Garde Keepers I would be the happiest beer jerk around.

 

I agree with you. I've never liked hunting or trading. The convenience provided by some of these memberships is great, and that factor alone is a huge perk for me.

 

I agree as well, although even as a member you have to be quick on the trigger for some releases - today's Cellador release sold out really quickly (just 200 bottles) and there have been some CASA releases that have sold out as well before public release.

 

I don't mind trading, at least for a few months and then I get over it quickly. The hunt is where I get a lot of enjoyment. When I finally landed my first (yes..someone I lucked into a second) Blauw I was beside myself with joy. So much so that I quickly put together a pretty decent lambic share with 6 other ppl. Got to tick some goodies that I passed over while I was hunting. Everybody won since we had good beers, good laughs, and a lot of lambic farts the following days.

But I will say that clubs make it so much easier. To walk to my fridge and pull out MT beetus or an ipa is a thing of beauty. I still visit my LBS, but like has been said before, a significant amount less, and usually just to grab some non-weird craft that I can take to my parent's house when we have a family gathering. My father enjoys craft, but none of the X w/ (a shit load of adjuncts), he thinks hazy IPAs are lazy, and fruited IPAs he just doesn't understand. So a 6pk of whatever fresh PizzaPort is usually more than solid.

 

I'm sure I'd trade more if I didn't live in San Diego, but we have so much easy access to world class beers that more often than not I find myself disappointed when trying something highly regarded from the opposite coast, the midwest, or wherever.

 

Agreed, most of my trades end up being for lambic but only when the bottles are already stateside.

 

Time for the mid year assessment, as some renewals are right around the corner.

What do you think of your current clubs performance? What are you dropping, renewing, or undecided? What clubs are you looking to join?

Without commenting on the beer, since if you don't like the beer joining the club is pointless,

Here's my assessment, in the order of club value to me,

The Bruery Reserve Society:

• Planning to renew
• Plus: Guaranteed allocation windows
• Plus: Anniversary Festival, Black Tuesday Party
• Plus: $30 growler credit
• Plus: 375, 16oz can formats, as well as, continuation of 750 format
• Plus: Convenient pick up hours for me
• Plus: Good Customer Service
  
• Minus: Release dates feel a bit unpredictable this year, I like the first Monday of the month of past years,

Modern Time League:

• Planning to renew
• Plus: Customer Service - Honestly they are #1 in this category for the three clubs I'm in.
• Plus: Bar Credit
• Plus: The Welcome Party
• Plus: I can buy good coffee in the café when I pickup my beer.
• Plus: I like the food at Dojo ( yes I know you anti-vegan folks disagree )
  
• Plus: Convenient pick up hours for me
  
• Minus: No Guaranteed allocation window

Modern Time League:

• Planning to renew
• Plus: Shipping, since I am not local
• Plus: Fan of Alesmith since their inception, so its nice to be able to enjoy their best beers again.
• Minus: Shipping was a bit slow in the beginning, but seems to be getting better.
  
• Minus: not being local, I miss out on the many of the local benefits
  
• Minus: Most expensive club I'm in, it is a little hard to justify, but I'm still in for next year
• Minus: Communication with the club was lagging, but is improving.

​

All clubs I'm in:

• Plus: Online ordering
• Plus: long pickup windows

Not looking to join any new clubs.

 

Thoughts on the clubs I'm currently in:

Theory Of Leisure. The best membership out there hands down. The level of communication and customer service is bar none. Fantastic beers and great pickup windows. I have been blown away by all of their offerings this year. Everything is firing on all cylinders.

Horus. Man the quality of beer Kyle is putting out right now is mind boggling. For a less than a year old operation - I know he started a few years ago and I say less than a year because thats about how long its been since releasing his first beers is insane.

No doubt about it renewing both.

 

I’m probably going to drop my Bruery Reserve, but will keep Alesmith’s Order of the Anvil.

 

Also dropping Reserve. Great beer club but the ABV of most beers and what I enjoy these days don't align, even with the smaller formats.

 

I’m Bruery hoarders. Every new beer sounds amazing. Then i taste it and i don’t want it. They are blowing it. Have been blowing it.

 

Modern Times League - yes, all day long. I could pretty much survive on just MT beers if I had do, and almost do.

Highland Park Bottle Friends - absolutely will renew

Bruery Reserve - they are really on the edge for me lately. but if I dropped them I would miss angering Bruery fanboys, which is something that does help pass the time throughout the year

 

The best part of my Reserve membership this year was the anniversary party but that’s not even an included perk, just an additional access.

 

I was fortunate to get into too many clubs this year so I'll probably drop some going into next year, although it's too early to say given many clubs don't renew for months.

Drop:

• Rare Barrel - have been member for 4 years but bought very little this year and found the increased experimentation this year hit or miss (Eg. Cherry HSH was terrible). I find bottles expensive and there's better stuff out there for the price with more complexity and variety. I'm lucky to be in many other clubs so will drop despite price decrease.
• Ale Apothecary - will probably drop but hard to really say given the 12 included bottles all land together in November. Pickup windows are short for additional quarterly bottles and the 4 I tried were as bit too hit or miss and had carbonation problems. Overall I think I've decided the malty terroir of AA isn't my jam.

Keep:

• De Garde Keepers - was pleasantly surprised they renewed the club given all the complainers on BA and FB. Wish they shipped but finding a proxy quarterly has worked out and been worth it.
• SARA Celler - a favorite! Enough said!
• Casey Extended Family - Expensive but I've been happy with nearly everything I've tried this year, especially the stone fruit stuff (leaner and dry hoped nectarine variants were amazing). Looking forward to berry releases this fall. Happy they sell shippers which make proxy pickup and shipping very easy.
• Moksa - split with a friend and glad we did. super impressed with the one member beer so far, indulgence. Obviously they have big plans with lots of beers starting to fill barrels. Wish it was closer to SF or they allowed pickup by non members to simplify membership split or they did online sales.

TBD:

• Casa - too early to say. I think for anyone in California and can get shipping, Casa beats Rare Barrel. Their beers are more consistent, less expensive and they do IPAs.

 

Order of satisfaction with quick comments:

Modern Times League: Definitely renewing without question. Beers are killer, love the preview tastings, swag, bar credits, and overall customer service. I may only go with this membership in 2019 since I drink so much of their stuff.

Lost Abbey: Good customer service but the two ladies running it have recently left. We'll see the direction it takes. Going to likely drop it, because their beers are pricey as hell and I've only really cared about half of the member bottles so far. A bit inconvenient to get to for me.

Mikkeller Viking: Splitting this one, not sure how I feel about it. Probably going to drop this one. Beers are OK but their customer service is forever lacking and it seems like it's always one broken promise after another with them.

Bottlecraft Lock & Key: Another that I don't know how I feel about. I like their online sales as I've gotten all Bottlelogic stasis bottles, and I enjoy guaranteed access to Alvarado Street, etc. The first two quarterly drops have been kinda meh, though. It's definitely one of the cheaper member programs out there, so there's that. Leaning toward dropping this one as well.

Ultimately. I'm learning that these memberships serve as a way to lock in your money and patronage for the year. I start feeling like I HAVE to spend money at these places since I'm already forking over so much cash for the membership. Meanwhile, local bottle shops always have killer selections from local breweries and I feel like I start to miss out on those, as well as various other releases from area breweries.