With Christmas coming, nothing would make me more jolly than a membership to an exclusive club. I recently received a news letter for the Sierra Nevada alpha society that had me intrigued. The shipping costs always tilted the scale to a neigh but With the North Carolina brewery now only three hours away I went ahead and put it on the Christmas list. How many of you are members of one or more rare clubs, and does it live up to your expectation as an advocate? After all you really don't know what your gonna get.
i'm a subscriber to the rare beer club started by Michael Jackson and i think it is well worth while to go for the rare beer six bottle plan given that they have decent stuff and great flexibility if that months offerings aren't of interest. as always, individual mileage may vary but i have had a great time over the past years with beers from the club. my favorite feature is that you can skip any month you decide to based on the beers or if you just happen to be broke that month. check out their past selections and see if it suits you. cheers! http://www.beermonthclub.com/the-rare-beer-club-six-bottles.htm
I've been looking at this for awhile, and the rare selection is always nice, and it seems like a good deal. Unfortunately, on a college budget still, it's out of my reach for now, but in the future this seems like a great route!
the thing i like about it is you can skip any month. i have skipped the last 6 or so because the beers just didn't appeal. getting the cherry stout this month because it is finally something i am into
Wife got it for me last year. I enjoyed it. I set it up so I could decide if I wanted what was sent or skip months etc
Thanks for the recommendation. Didn't realize you could pick and choose months and with the variety of styles and countries this is a viable option.
If you are familiar with the brewery and like what they do, clubs can be a good value...you pay the luxury tax of not having to scramble around searching for the beer and it's especially nice to have somebody bring beer to door step.
As another BA wrote, YMMV. Because I live in north jersey, work in NYC, have family in the Hudson valley and near Vermont, I have a pretty fantastic selection of beer available in stores as well as access to some great breweries. If I was in the middle of nowhere I would definitely consider joining one though. Also if I was close to a brewery with a club I wanted to join, like de garde or even the bruery, I'd do it, but at this point I don't want to bother with a trustee on top of all the other effort and costs. I really should have been a tired hands believer or plan bee hive guy but laziness is getting in the way of my beer hunting these days (as well as some degree of waning enthusiasm for the chase).
