The Bruery (2025)

Cheers, hoarder this year, against my better judgement ($$)

 

Two more links to get the inside scoop on upcoming releases as labels are submitted:

1.) https://mybeerbuzz.blogspot.com/search/label/Bruery?m=1

2.) https://ttbonline.gov/colasonline/publicSearchColasBasic.do

90% of the time you will find 1.) to be the latest and greatest but occasionally I have found items through 2.) that weren’t listed on 1.) you’ll just have to enter The Bruery into the search, also recommend you change the search timeframe so aren’t you sifting through really old releases (start date defaults to 01/01/2024).

 

Fourth year hoarder here and unfortunately likely my last unless the Michigan shipping is worked out. I, too, am pleased to see the switch to 375 ml bottles for the new year.

 

What did BT run in the 750ml? I saw the 375 at a Wholefoods for $25. I was a member a long time ago Back just to get BT but I thought it was like $30. I am sure the price has gone up since I was a member but with the change from 750 to 375 has the cost for oz gone up a lot?

 

I can’t speak for 750 because I bought it in a bundle but the 375 was 22 without discounts, as a hoarder it was 17.60 for me.

 

Would’ve been a fifth year, but couldn’t pull trigger with shipping issues, hopefully it works out for you!

Did crack an All the Leaves, was curious based on Untappd reviews, but was very surprised how much I enjoyed it

 

The 375 was outside of the bundle. For whatever reason Spicy Island was a dollar cheaper. Amburana Noir and Caramel Mocha Wednesday look to be 23.

 

I just looked through the included bottles list for 2025 and there’s some non barrel aged beers. This is supposed to be a world class barrel aged beer club but now there’s a bunch of random non BA filler beers included? Extremely disappointing!

 

Not a huge fan of this new "shop" integration... seem to have even less information on my order status than in the past (all I know is I placed my shipping order on the 18th)... and have to allow them access to my email... big brother be brothering.. Is there an upside to this that anyone has experienced?

 

January allocations now out. Just digesting the “new normal” for 2025 membership, and the included non-BA bottles combined with smaller format really hurts the value proposition for people who need to ship.

It wasn’t so bad adding on an extra $3-$4 per bottle when it was a $30 750ml. Now for January we are tacking on an extra $6-$8 shipping for 2 included non-BA bottles that combined cost less than $15 after HS discount (so a 40%-50% cost premium for shipping).

I never would have bought those bottles in the past specifically because shipping just makes less sense for those, but now it isn’t a choice. We are also getting those non-BA bottles instead of including a Critical Alignment or Caramel Mocha Wednesday that I suspect would have been preferred by most members (or at least by me). So we are only getting the equivalent of a single 750ml BA bottle whereas 2 would have been the norm in the past.

I realize the whole membership is a luxury good and these are incremental impacts, but we all still need to look at the value in totality and make a decision every year, and this is more of a negative for those of us who ship.

if they are able to scale down shipping costs for the smaller format bottles, that would help offset some of the issue, but wherever they land it is going to add up to a decent amount of shipping costs for non-BA bottles that I suspect most of us would not have otherwise purchased.

 

I am assuming they are going to keep the shipping the same through at least the cellar expiration period since there will still be a lot of 2024 750s to ship.. then hopefully shortly after that they will announce an overhaul to the shipping costs..

 

Once it gets to UPS (a tracking number is generated) I am a premium member so I can do a lot through their site. In the past The Bruery site would at least indicate that they hadn’t generated the label yet now with shop it says nothing at all. Shouldn’t be a problem when the backlog dies down but it’s been close to a month for me with no info whatsoever.

 

Yeah getting my cellar beers has been rough too. Ordered Dec 3rd and a label was finally created with UPS on the 26th. Got an email today saying the boxes will be delivered tomorrow but UPS tracking still shows the boxes as being in Anaheim, with each box weighing 1lb. All bottles are now listed in my cellar again and available for shipping. Guess I’ll find out what is happening tomorrow!