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While there are many choices when it comes to joining a monthly beer club, so before you make your final decision, it would serve you well to take a little time and do some research, so to make sure you are choosing the best craft beer subscription box.
To be honest, most of the clubs the we reviewed are comparable when it comes to the overall cost, and relatively similar in how their membership is structured, and what they have to offer.
Here are a few things to consider before you join any beer club.
Choosing The Best Monthly Beer Club and Beer Subscription Box
A monthly beer club is just like hundreds of other online subscription clubs that you can join, only this club caters to people who love their beer, especially craft beer.
As a member of a beer club, you will be delivered a wide variety of craft beers that you cannot readily find in your local liquor store or your favorite pub.
These clubs will search for unique styles and flavors of craft beers from all over the world, and ship them directly to your front door, once a month, every other month, or quarterly, depending on your preferences.
Why Should You Join A Beer Of The Month Club?
If you are someone you loves trying new and unique flavors and styles of beer, or know someone who is, a beer club is definitely the way to go.
With so many craft beers now available in retail stores, restaurants, and the tavern down the street, it can be quite overwhelming knowing what new beer you should try, not to mention, how expensive it can be too.
Are you looking to find a craft beer that you can savor while eating your favorite meal? Just like pairing a fine wine with dinner, finding the right beer to go along with your food is no different.
Many of the newsletters that come with your membership will have recipes included that will help you find the perfect match for your featured beer.
Benefits Of Joining A Beer Club
There are three main benefits to joining a monthly beer club:
- Almost unlimited selections of beer
- Saving money
- Convenience
Wide Selection Of Beers To Please Any Beer Lover
I don’t know about you, but before I joined my first beer club, I always defaulted to my “go to” nationally distributed lager beer. This was mainly because I already knew what I liked, and I didn’t want to experiment on a beer that I didn’t know how it would taste.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, there are so many beers on the market now, you can just go to the supermarket or liquor store and check out how many beers that are stocked on the shelves for you to buy.
Everything from Lagers to Ale’s to IPAs to Porters, to Stouts, etc.
The list goes on and on and on.
So when you join a beer club, you will get to sample hard to find, rare beers from these craft breweries that you might not normally have access to in your town, and you can expand your palate without spending money on a 6-pack that you can’t even drink.
Saves Money
Besides, the cost of a membership to a beer club is a much more cost effective way to try and sample new craft beers from different regions, while moving out of your comfort zone.
In fact, many of the beer clubs you will find are actually cheaper than buying a case of beer, or buying a round of drinks for your friends.
Convenience
There really isn’t anything more convenient than having something delivered to your house. Isn’t it much easier to have a pizza delivered to your house, rather than getting in your car and picking it up yourself.
The same goes for craft beer too. Why go to the store to get you brew when you can just walk to the front door? How cool do you think it will be when you get that knock on your door and get to open that box that has twelve new beers? Who knows, you might even be able to get your pizza and beer delivered at the same time!
Things To Look For In A Monthly Beer Club
Now that you are ready to finally start having new and unique craft beers delivered to your front door, what are the main things to look for before joining?
Hopefully after reading our article on the beer clubs that we recommend, you know that there are really only three types of beer clubs: Clubs that only ship beers that come from the United States, clubs that only deliver beers that were brewed internationally, and clubs that offer a mixture of the two.
What Is The Beer Selection Process?
If you are wondering if you get to select the style of beer you will receive each shipment, the answer is “sort of”.
While most of the clubs do not let you specifically choose which beers you want to try and sample, they will allow you to specify what beers that you do not want. If one month the club is featuring different IPAs, and you are not a big fan of the really hoppy beers, they just won’t ship you any beer that month.
With that said, another thing to consider is how do these clubs actually select which beers they they will be profiling each month.
Do they just have anybody randomly pick the beers of the month, or is there a group of experts using a sophisticated process to choose? I can tell you from my experience that the clubs that I have used, all use an experienced panel of experts for the selection process.
Even though I have personally received selections that I didn’t particularly care for, part of the overall experience of joining a beer club is not exactly knowing what you are going to get each and every month.
Most beer drinkers do not usually go to the liquor store with the intention of trying a completely new style and flavor of beer. It’s much easier just to buy the beer that you know you already like, but a beer club will let you experience craft beers that you normally wouldn’t.
What Beer Is In The Box?
Depending on which club you join, most shipments are packed with twelve 12oz bottles, while some might come in cans, and others might come in the larger 750ml bottles.
Most of the time you will get four random styles of beer, three of each, and they will come from at least two different breweries.
Even though most grocery and liquor stores today are stocking a wider variety of craft beers, along with the popular nationally distributed beers from the mega brewers, you still want to make sure that the particular beer club that you are leaning towards is offering selections that are not readily available in your area.
One thing you can do is go to the website of each beer club and see in their archives what beers were selected and sent out the previous months. That way you can do a little comparison to the craft beers in your area and the beers that they have recently been picked the previous months.
The Cost
For most of us, the final kicker is what is it going to cost. Membership cost will vary depending on the club, but all of the clubs that we have used and reviewed range anywhere between $30.00 to $40.00 per shipment.
But don’t forget to check out the cost of shipping too. Again, some clubs offer free shipping, while other clubs charge a flat rate of $5.00, where others charge about $15.00. But one good thing if you are interested in trying beers from international breweries, you won’t be charged to import them from overseas.
All in all, the cost of the membership to these clubs really won’t be that much different from one another, it just comes down to what kind of beer do you want.
On a side note, you might want to look for a club that will allow you to pay in installments, rather than a lump sum all up front. Overall it will probably be cheaper if you want to commit to a full year, but paying monthly or quarterly will give you more flexibility without being locked into a long-term membership.
Membership Bonuses
Everybody likes to have an added bonus when they join a club. Most beer clubs with gift you a small gift or a special perk when you become a new member.
Some of the things you can receive are things like a free bartenders bottle opener, special discount codes, and an opportunity to re-order your favorite beers while supplies last.
Another cool thing is the newsletter that comes with your order. In the newsletter, you will find information about the beers and the breweries that they come from. The newsletter also comes with tasting notes and can have food options that will pair perfectly with each beer choice.
Again for me, these few extra perks are nice, but should not be a deal breaker when it comes to the club you are interested in.
Customer Service
And finally, it comes down to customer service, response time, and overall satisfaction.
You want to know that you will be able to get the help you need if you ever have a problem or issue with an order. I’m sure you know how annoying it is when you need to talk to someone and you are on hold for 30 minutes, or eventually get disconnected.
Fortunately for me, I haven’t ran into any serious issues, so I haven’t had to worry too much about customer service with the clubs that I have used.
But the times I wanted to ask a question or needed information about something, I never had a problem talking to a real life person.
And the last thing I would like to mention is to make sure that the club that you join has a complete 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. It is important to know that if your shipment is damaged in anyway, you will be offered a quick replacement or a refund.
Final Say
Now that you are a little bit more familiar with a beer subscription box, it’s time to try one out for yourself.
If you would like to pick one, but still not sure which one to choose, have a look at our “Best Beer of the Month Clubs” page, or check out any of the ones below.
Cheers!
