2021 Beer Memberships: Adding, Keeping or Dropping?

Discussion in 'Pacific' started by wolf13, Dec 9, 2020.

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  1. wolf13

    wolf13 Pundit (760) Dec 11, 2014 California
    Trader

    With a spate of new brewery memberships starting and more established memberships starting renewal season, I figured it would be a good time to start a new thread to see what memberships people are planning on keeping, adding, and/or dropping for 2021.

    Keeping:
    MT - Theory
    Private Press Brewing
    Barclay - Dimensions of Time

    Debating keeping/dropping:
    Honeypot - Order of the Honeycomb

    Dropping:
    Horus
     
    mhucker28 likes this.
  2. SDReaper

    SDReaper Pooh-Bah (2,174) Aug 15, 2013 California
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Keeping:
    MT - Theory
    SARA Cellar
    Lost Abbey Sinners & Saints
    Lost Cause Coveters

    Failed at getting into Antidoot (lolz 90 spots for over 2k applicants)

    Dropping:
    None
     
    mhucker28 likes this.
  3. Xul

    Xul Pooh-Bah (2,139) May 18, 2008 California
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Keeping:
    Modern Times Theory
    Highland Park Bottle Friends
    Lost Abbey Saints & Sinners

    Dropped:
    Horus Convocation

    Adding:
    None
     
    mhucker28 likes this.
  4. UnknownKoger

    UnknownKoger Pooh-Bah (1,895) Jul 9, 2010 California
    Pooh-Bah

    I'm debating whether or not to keep Bottle Friends...I probably will but a fair portion of the releases this year were stouts with ingredients I don't care for (coconut, cinnamon, chilis, etc.). I'll probably keep it for the discounts (and assuming bottle friend pours) and events

    Adding/Re-joining
    Modern Times maybe...I finally worked through all of my past bottles lol

    maybe the hivemind can help out. What's a solid membership with barrel aged stouts that aren't too crazy on the adjuncts and good sours?
     
  5. Hype_Train

    Hype_Train Zealot (677) Feb 8, 2017 California

    Unsure: HPB Bottle Friends (although the cost is worth it, having two kids now, covid, etc my expenses buying beer from them has been literally almost 0 and it's only been for allocation pickups)

    Want: CASA. Does anybody have any good/bad reviews as membership goes? They seem similar to hpb in a way.
     
  6. annakarina

    annakarina Savant (1,003) Jul 29, 2016 California

    Keeping: Highland Park Brewery
    Adding: Modern Times
    Contemplating: CASA
     
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  7. NicIsAwesome

    NicIsAwesome Initiate (0) Jun 30, 2014 California
    Trader

    Just because you mentioned MTs, most of their member released stouts have adjuncts. Without combing through my emails, i wanna estimate they do a barrel only stout/bw/malty beer about once a month, maybe once every 1.5 months and theyre usually very limited. The reason for the small bottle counts is because they usually only do non adjuncts in special one off barrels they receive whereas the adjunct stouts usually start with a base blend of multiple barrels

    For sours, I do like the amphora aged saisons and their grisettes but most of their sours are too sour, imo. They arent the first brewery i look toward for sours. I usually stick with blendery. Great sours, reasonable price and easy to get/no rush whatsoever.

    Been a member since 2016 and im a total homer but tried to give an honest opinion
     
  8. mhucker28

    mhucker28 Crusader (466) Apr 24, 2020 California
    Trader

    Keeping: Modern Times League

    Adding: Cellador

    I might add Highland Park Bottle Friends if membership slots open up, but I'll have to wait and see.
     
    Yabu likes this.
  9. wilymobastardo

    wilymobastardo Savant (1,012) Jan 12, 2015 California
    Trader

    Keeping: MT Theory
    Adding: I guess I drunkenly bought in to a portion of Bruery Hoarders
    Crumpling into a Ball and Firing Directly into the Sun: Wild Barrel, Alpine
     
    Brent212, jwacky, m34josh and 6 others like this.
  10. Yabu

    Yabu Savant (1,150) Feb 4, 2015 California
    Trader

    Keeping Modern Times, that was an easy re-up! I hope I never get tempted to join another beer membership again!

    Added: Culling. I know there was a lot of hate with them because of the unknown and the disclaimer if you don't max, you won't be invited next year. I'm not worried about re-upping next year, so that doesn't bother me. But for $50, it's worth a shot. I wasted more money for less value. Also the idea of buy as you go...sounds great. Rather than dropping $300 and hope those are good beers.

    Dropping:
    Bruery.
    Honey Pot
     
    Ponzu4u, bret27 and mhucker28 like this.
  11. putonyourwalkingshoes

    putonyourwalkingshoes Pooh-Bah (1,574) Jul 31, 2013 California
    Pooh-Bah Trader


    Question to you guys dropping Horus... Why?? Past years I thought they were an absolute joke but it looks like Kyle got his shit together and dropped a lot of bangers this year.
     
    m34josh likes this.
  12. Swiveln

    Swiveln Devotee (381) May 24, 2012 California
    Trader

    Adding:
    Culling Meadery
    Viking Artisan Ales

    Keeping:
    Honeypot Meadery
    Modern Times league
    Private Press
    Sante Adairius

    Dropping:
    Moksa
     
    Supermario79 likes this.
  13. riko

    riko Pundit (756) Jan 18, 2008 California
    Trader

    Keeping: Modern Times League

    Dropping: Alpine (will they even do it next year?)

    Adding: None

    Hoping: That all the breweries running these clubs are able to survive the pandemic and stay open.
     
    fegelFatso, Redondo_Terp and Yabu like this.
  14. SDReaper

    SDReaper Pooh-Bah (2,174) Aug 15, 2013 California
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I actually got an email the other day for a 2021 membership into the 1843 lodge.
     
  15. thuey

    thuey Pooh-Bah (1,705) Nov 13, 2015 California
    Pooh-Bah

    Keeping
    Casa Agria Specialty Ales

    Dropping
    Cellador

    What do you want to know? The details of the club are pretty much as described, and for 2021 it's $100 cheaper to boot!
     
    MonkeyBread and Yabu like this.
  16. cquiroga

    cquiroga Zealot (677) Oct 14, 2004 California

    Keeping:
    SARA
    MT League
    HPB
    Cellador V
    Lost Abbey
    Horus

    Dropping:
    None

    Adding:
    None


    Running it back one more year with these, largely because all are friends and I want to support them as much as I can.

    Focusing this year on making sure I pick up all of my shit.
     
    nghiem and UnknownKoger like this.
  17. FrogOut69

    FrogOut69 Initiate (0) Sep 24, 2013 California
    Trader

    Keeping:
    MT Theory
    Lost Abbey Sinners & Saints
    Order of Anvil (Split)
    Bruery Hoarder (Split)
    Private Press

    Dropping:
    Alpine

    Adding:
    Russian River if selected
     
    bret27, fegelFatso and Yabu like this.
  18. fegelFatso

    fegelFatso Pundit (949) Jun 23, 2013 California

    Keeping:
    Bruery Hoarders
    MT League

    ...that is all.
     
    bret27 and Yabu like this.
  19. mikehblack

    mikehblack Zealot (602) Feb 10, 2010 California
    Trader

    I noticed a lot of people are renewing their Lost Abbey membership. Can someone give a brief description of what they liked about it/beers received this year? Thanks.
     
    UnknownKoger likes this.
  20. SDReaper

    SDReaper Pooh-Bah (2,174) Aug 15, 2013 California
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I liked it because it is simple, just like how the SARA club is run. When beers are ready, we receive an email with the pickup weekend/options for shipping, ability to purchase more if bottles are available, and during pickup we get little tickets to get free (well now gotta buy a meal) pours usually of everything we are picking up. If it was a smaller batch then just a pour of one of the offerings.

    We don't get a slew of emails throughout the year, although this does seem to be a negative for some members that like to know what is going on.

    I don't have a good list of what we received last year without dissecting all of the pickup emails since they usually only tell us of a few planned releases
    (Ex. "Completely forgot I wanted to share a few of the beers for club next year. We are working with Shaun from Hill Farmstead on a collab, of course the return of our Sinner's Blend that we'll be relying on our club members to help decide what that looks like, Cable Car 2020, and after much investigation from Tomme, the return of Yellow Bus.")

    We also get a discount on the site as well as I think in the tasting room, early access to public sales (Ex. our cyber-monday sale with older DDG and CC occurred that sunday), and occasionally they will put up a vintage bottle on a first-come first-served basis for us.
     
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