2023 Beer Memberships: Adding, Keeping, and Dropping

At my house we're keeping Casey and dropping Catador (Cigar City).

Casey's Extended Family is well run and those types of beers aren't necessarily available elsewhere. A few might mirror items from elsewhere, but the Casey "house flavor" is pretty unique even when other places are using similar approaches and fruits.

Catador has become a colossal pain in the ass for members in Colorado. They moved the pick-up from Boulder to Longmont, which sucks for me but could work better for others. The trick is, the staff there (and previously the one in Boulder) have a mix of hatred and confusion for Catador pick-ups. It always takes them forever, they don't have a good tracking system, and the bottles the actually have vs. what they're supposed to have = vastly different. They're always getting too many of some bottles and not enough (or none at all) of others. We've gotten shorted at least one item for the last 3 seasons. On our last pickup they gave us 4 of another bottle to supposedly make up for it. Apparently they were sent way too many of that one. Plus "the guy who can help you with Catador stuff" mysteriously always seems to have just quit. In terms of the actual beers, they've started tasting less and less memorable. There used to be a couple world beaters every year and I'm not sure they've had a truly great item for the last 2 seasons. It's also worth noting that they keep pushing events in Tampa as selling points for the CO. membership. How about something out here for once?

 

As others have mentioned Highland Park Brewery's Bottle Friends is one of the smoothest and cheapest memberships around. Absolutely no hassles and headaches, all the beer is fantastic, and they're bringing back the Friends Brunch which is an absolute blast.

I'm planning to keep that one and drop Modern Times even though I could be in Theory now.

I drink more gin and mezcal than beer these days. I do really want to get into the Private Press membership though. Somebody pull some strings for me please, thank you.

 

Keeping - Deschutes Cellar Door Society. For me a beer club is all about the bottles and Deschutes' releases I always find to have a good value. I don't ever go to breweries to drink for various reasons, so those kind of club perks don't do much for me. It's hard to beat the price ($100, twice a year), too.

Dropping - FG Lovell Auto Co. I love FG and the beer they produce is always stellar. Just trying to drink less 14% BA stouts. The annual cost ($399) will probably still be spent on beer, just different beer.

 

The first couple years that Cigar City offered memberships to Colorado, it was impressive. My wife saw a posting about it on their Facebook and bought the membership. Pickups were at the Boulder Oskar Blues location (a cool spot) and the bottles that were part of the club were fantastic. Some of the best barrel-aged stouts I can recall ever having. The price was right, too. At the time they were priced as though you'd simply bought a normal barrel-aged stout 750ml bottle at the store. They also showed up in Boulder about a week after the same bottles were released in Tampa. We couldn't have been happier. Year 2 was similar, although there were people grumbling that the bottles were "too similar" which seemed odd to me. I'm one of those people that thinks like 90% of BA stouts and strong ales taste the same. These definitely didn't. That year was the first time we didn't get a bottle (mysteriously one people wanted most), and when the logistics seemed to fall apart. That's when the first CO. guy who was running the program apparently quit. The subsequent seasons fell off a cliff. I think she kept renewing out of the hope that there would be a return to those first 2 years. When they bumped things to Longmont and the bottle allocations were all completely wrong was kinda the last straw. Well, that and the beers felt more like throwing shit at a wall vs. the more curated previous ones.

 

Dam. Some of you spend a lot of money on beer memberships and most of them have gotten more expensive.

Keeping: Mad Fritz

Adding/Dropping: None

I'm starting to embrace this shipping thing. I prefer to drop a $100-$200 on beer that I'm sure that I will like from FW, Alesmith, etc. rather than a beer membership for $500 and I may only like half of the beer.

 

Bummer to hear. I almost bought the member at the beginning to have my son pick them up and share when I visited him in Denver. Love Cigar City and sorry to hear the program has not been sustained.

 

Adding: Everywhere, hesitated to join at first but got an email on Black Friday there were some slots and jumped on it. Love the people there as well, and I've enjoyed their IPAs thus far. Excited to see how the BA beers are.

Dropping: Modern Times League, I was on the fence about this one until Leisuretown closed (my local location), which made my decision. Wish them the best but I haven't bought anything from a sale since probably July, although I think I'll be splurging one last time with the December sale.

 

Dropping:

Cellador - sad to see it go but I’m hoping they find a new spot and start it up again. Love their beers and hassle free membership.

Undecided:

Modern Times League - I do still enjoy their stouts and with an LA pick up location, it’s enticing to rejoin but part of me thinks the pickup location might not last and MT may just cease to exist altogether. I have another week to decide.

That’s it. I may try and join Highland Park this year but any other club recommendations? I have a slot or two open now.

 

Adding: Nothing

Keeping: Nothing

Dropping: Modern Times Theory

I was pretty set on dropping Theory after this year regardless of everything that went down with them, I just have too much inventory to keep up with and enjoy too many other local and non-local options to dedicate so much room and money to one brewery anymore. Everything that transpired over the past year just made this an even easier decision. No more memberships for me.

 

Keeping: Casey, Referend, Westbound & Down
Dropping: Horus Sky God - Too expensive

 

Keeping: Highland Park - The most drama free beer club in existence

Intrigued By: Everywhere - I joined the waiting list since it's sold out but I keep hearing good things

Adding/Dropping: None

 

Upgraded from Bruery Reserve to Hoarders.
Keeping HpB Bottle Friends, never going to let that go.

Thought about Everywhere when it was opened but passed due to prices at Taproom. It would of been a slippery slope from there.

 

Adding: I would gladly add Highland Park, Everywhere, Side Project, and Private Press if anyone could get me in. Other than that, all I really want are coffee stouts, no adjunct BA stouts, occasionally some coconut in there, and some IPAs (WC or hazy). I also don't need something crazy like Hoarders/Reserve.

Keeping: None. In the past couple years I dropped Perennial (getting a proxy to ship to CA got annoying, and too many sour/wild ales that I can't drink), MT League (before shit went south), and Alesmith. I'm keeping my winery memberships, though.

Dropping: None. I went a year without any memberships.

 

Keeping my local legends…
Private Press & Sante Adairius. Not only love the beer but at this point I’m friends with many people involved.
Have a 1 year Floodland membership related to a fundraiser donation. Would likely renew if it’s offered as an option.
Not looking to add anything new.

 

Congrats on joining Hoarders!

 

Keeping Bruery hoarders. Im buying less of their bottles because I can’t seem to drink down my cellar. I live a few minutes from the tasting room and their 20 percent off at the tasting room is keeping me around. Practically pays for itself.
Keeping highland park bottle friends. Can’t say a bad thing about them. Been very happy with the membership.

Adding/dropping none

 

Got out of Lost Abbey last year and then Modern times when they offered the buyout after the Oakland spot closed. It was nice not having a membership for about 6 months, I saved a bundle not hitting the extra sales.

Hope to be adding SARA for 2023, think one will do for awhile.

 

If I could only have one that would be it.
Good luck.

 

Dropped Perennial (member since Year 1) and De Garde (good membership, just finding it hard to keep up with the acidity and quarterly trips).

Now membershipless. And I’m ok with that. The only ways that changes if SARA or Floodland fall into my lap which I don’t see happening anytime soon