Beer/barrel clubs

[swenocha]

It seems to be a growing trend for craft breweries around the country to start exclusive beer clubs. Sierra Nevada recently started one out of the NC facility. Bruery, Upland, Cigar City, Hill Farmstead, Crooked Stave, Smutty, Jackie O's, FiftyFifty and dozens of others have started this as well. Locally, Yazoo and Mantra both have joined in. Usually, they run around $150 or more (some in the thousands), and you get limited release beers, special parties, discounts and the like. Here's the Mantra and Yazoo breakdowns as an example:






Has anyone joined any? I'm curious as to your thoughts. I haven't bitten the bullet on any of them for several reasons, though I am tempted. The cost/benefit is usually pretty good on these if you break it down to what you get... Yazoo for example is $250. In that, I would get a ticket to Funk Fest ($50) and 8 exclusive bottles ($25 ea), so that's a break even. In addition, I'd get occasional parties (free), early access to other bottles releases with no lines, and one free pint every time I visited the taproom. So, the benefits clearly outweigh the costs, especially since I frequent the taproom. And, the access to exclusive bottles, discounts, etc. are nice perks. Mantra the same... lots of discounts, merch, and parties to go along with bottle access. Most of the others offer similar cost/benefit.

Where I fall off the rails is that I have a limited beer budget (especially considering the medical expenses we've recently incurred), and I like variety. Thus, the outlay of $250 up front for Yazoo or $150 for Mantra would eat a large portion of my annual beer budget, and thus any variety I have from picking up bottles from other breweries would be negated. I simply can't afford (or, actually, don't want to afford) buying multiple memberships, though I have some friends that are in several of these bottle clubs, so I'm basically limiting my beer purchases to one or two breweries. And, what if one (or several) of the bottles that are part of the club end up being styles I don't care for? I'm kinda putting myself in a position to buy bottles I normally wouldn't. Also, it kinda bites that you miss out on being able to purchase some of these bottles (on the exclusive bottles) if you don't join.

I will say, I can totally understand why they do this. In Yazoo's case, they've sold 200ish of the 250 memberships in the first week at $250/per, so that's $50k they've made up front in the last week. Cigar City made $180k on their club in the first year. It makes perfect sense for them if they have the market for it.

Has anyone joined one of these? Any thoughts as to what you liked or didn't? Is anyone else considering any of these? Curious to everyone's thoughts on these.

[Rebel_B]

I have not joined one. My local micro brewery (within walking distance of my home) started out with a club. With a limit of 50 club members, it was full from the introduction, so you would apply to wait in the 'queue' for an opening. Only made sense to me if you were there every week for at least a pour or three.

[John Sand]

I haven't either, though I'm not sure there are any local. I'd also find it hard to pry $150-250 out of my wallet for a club, even if it balanced. And I only visit each local brewery a couple of times a year. I agree with your thought that paying would restrict my choice to the one brewery more often.

[Kealia]

I've seen a number of them around here but don't participate. A few reasons:
1) Most of my really local breweries (with the exception of Sante Adarius) don't crank out a lot of new stuff. They turn out good beer, but it's normally the standard line up.
2) I don't get out to them very often, maybe because of #1
3) The ones that are close (within an hour) offer more variety but I never want to feel obligated to go there (to make sure I'm getting my money's worth)
4) I know I don't like a huge variety of styles so I don't want to be stuck with bottles of porters/stouts in the winter and saisons in the summer that I won't drink

I like the idea of exclusive bottles, parties, discounts, etc. but it would be too limiting for me. And my tastes vary by the day sometimes and I want the ability to either brew or pick up what I want when I want it.

I will say though, a free pint on every visit adds up quickly and could be worth it just for that (if I had someplace that I hit up more often).