The Bruery (2024)

Cracked open a 5 Golden Rings last week and it is definitely passed its prime. Drink em if you got em!

 

Was introduced to the Bruery last year by receiving a Reserve Society mid-year box as a gift. Shipping was included as it was a new order and it came with 12 beers. Most of everything was excellent (truly good stuff) and I even made a subsequent large order using my Reserve Society discount. Was happy enough with everything to renew and join the regular Reserve Society for 2024.

Didn't really put it all together until now, but it looks I'm going to owe at least another $100 or so in shipping (compared to what I had paid last year). It looks like any of my Reserve Society bottles are going to get added to my "cellar" and that I'll have to pay extra to get those shipped. I understand that it's unreasonable to expect them to pay to ship each of the bottles to me each month, but even if I wait until later in the year to combine it all to one or two larger shipments to save the Bruery on costs, I'm still going to pay big for shipping. There also doesn't appear to be a way around this by ordering another $200+ of their beer and having my Reserve Society stuff get combined with that (which seemed to be a good compromise maybe?).

I'm not sure that I'm getting a better deal with Reserve Society (when the added shipping is included) as opposed to just making 1-2 large orders on my own without any Reserve Society and getting the discounted shipping on that.

At the end of the day, I'm still going to enjoy the beers, so this is more of a rant than me being truly upset, but it's certainly something I'll considering when deciding whether to renew in 2025 or not.

Am I thinking about this all the right way, or does anyone here have any ideas on how I can mitigate shipping costs and get more value out of my membership?

 

Your gist is spot on.

They made a ton of logistical changes last year, so I wouldn't count them out yet in terms of still refining how they do things.

Remember that as a non-member you wouldn't have access to buy a lot of the better beers they do, regardless of discount.

I don't know if their NY shipping is more than in CA... But if you accumulated 18 bottles and shipped them at end of year in CA it would cost $50. Not ideal, but not awful.

The crux of the issue is they're now aiming to produce enough of each beer that it sells out in the month it's released. So, those larger archive sales will probably go away. So, to spend $200 in a month, you're probably rolling the dice on multiple bottles of a beer you haven't tried yet. Or, you're grabbing select items for your cellar and then incurring shipping later. Have to just pick your poison.

 

So a 12 botte shipper will cost you $30, which isn’t all that bad, better than driving from Mi to DC for me ( cost wise, when you add up gas and staying somewhere)when that was an option, except for stopping at other great breweries. @ernh, it kinda sounds similar for shipping costs in CA

 

I joined again this year (reserve) after living in Chicago for a few years. I just noticed that they announced on instagram that the welcome party is already sold out, even though I never received an email with the information, or a welcome email of any kind. Did I miss an email, or should I just have been checking my allocations?

 

Thanks, must have missed it

 

First year Hoarder this year, worth it for me solely for 20% discount for how often I go to the tasting room.

 

Could be. It would be a lot of beer to open at once though if you didn't have a group... But including adjuncts or flavors to add yourself feels likely cost prohibitive?

I assume a BT Box? And hopefully some kind of barrel variant box? That leaves one mystery...

 

I thought the sherry BT was this month? Didn't see in the email...

 

Hmm, they advertised it on instagram and Facebook

 

That's a good sign then. Maybe the email only had limited space.

 

Plus people are checking in on Untappd

 

Speaking of... Does anyone know if Adios Martes is aged in white sherry like the small batch bottle a couple years ago? Or a red/Pedro style?

 

I am very excited to try Adios Martes and Dreamception.

Curious to see no purchase limits on new releases...I wonder if that was an oversight or if they're confident in production quantities?

Non-BA canned stouts topping $15 now? Furrowing my brow at that real hard.

 

Our Production Team was able to confirm that this beer was aged in Oloroso Sherry Casks