Online Beer Clubs

[JonBrew]

Just looking for thoughts/reviews from anyone who has signed up for one of the online/mail order beer clubs, i.e. where you pay a monthly subscription and they send you a consignment of beers.

I currently live in a major city but will be moving to a rural location soon which will make getting to decent beer shops very difficult so thought an online subscription would be a good option.

Currently deciding between Honest Brew, Flavourly and the Beer Merchants Club. Flavourly is by far the cheapest a £20 for 10 beers but they don't seem to offer the same quality/range of selection that the others do.

Can anyone offer views on this?

Cheers

 

[Gaspode]

I know a few people who use Beer 52 - https://www.beer52.com/

They have always seemed pleased with the selection the receive and I think there is an option to buy more of what you like once you have tasted it.

There is always a discount voucher for the first month and its often on Groupon as well.

I have never used it but have heard good reports.

 

[Brightonnik]

I was a member of Beer 52 last year. I was generally pleased as a lot of the beers were ones not usually available. However at December they completely missed my delivery and the explanation was laughable. Along the lines of they had more orders than they could deal with and from looking at their twitter at the time it happened to a lot of people. The offer of compensation was a free box of beer which turned out to be the previous months worth of beers which I had already had. I cancelled soon after.

 

[Pope]

My missus got me a crate from Beer 52 for Christmas...the beer itself was great...this is how I found out about Cwtch and Hiver Beer.

However, to subscribe is like having an extra bill and at the moment I couldn't justify the outlay for how many beers you get.

 

[stinkepoo]

I was a member of beer52. Would recommend the variety and quality of beers.

 

[machin05]

I've been on BeerBods for about 18 months now. It's slightly different in that it's more communal. You pay £36 for a box of 12 beers and you drink a specific one ech week. The main idea is that all the subscribers drink the same beer at the same time (Thursday 9pm) and share your thoughts on Twitter. More of a beer discovery than anything else.

I've had boxes from Honest Brew and Beer52 and have much preferred the service you get from Honest Brew - their focus is on fresh beer, so don't churn out old stock for cheaper prices. They have an online shop that has a relatively small, but constantly rotating stock. Again, freshness is key. Beer52 are similar but when I've had issues with them they've been very poor in sorting them out. Of course, YMMV.

One thing I would suggest is to not let price determine your choice if you're looking for good quality beers. I would be looking at paying around £3 per beer, otherwise you might as well stick to supermarket shopping.

 

[Brewdoug]

Not quite the same thing, but I subscribed to Brewdog's 'Bottlebox' for a while. I went for the ���£37 a month option for 18 bottles which at a tad over ���£2 a bottle delivered isn't bad especially as some of the beers I got sell for ���£10 a bottle on their website.
As you don't actually know what you're going to get each month this is a good way to try the different beers they make, which you might not otherwise buy and you always get their new releases. You can stop and start whenever you want.
The only disappointment I had was the free merchandise they send you with every third case. They sent me a pack of stickers, how old do they think I am, 7? :-?

 

[JonBrew]

Thanks for all the replies.

I ended up going with the beer merchants club, 10 for £30. I'll see how it goes for a few months and would definitely try honest brew if I don't like what I get.

The BrewDog bottlebox sounds like great value but i'm not interested in drinking only brewdog beer and I gather you need to be an equity punk to get their mixed case.

Cheers all!

 

[Personal91]

Not quite the same thing, but I subscribed to Brewdog's 'Bottlebox' for a while. I went for the £37 a month option for 18 bottles which at a tad over £2 a bottle delivered isn't bad especially as some of the beers I got sell for £10 a bottle on their website.
As you don't actually know what you're going to get each month this is a good way to try the different beers they make, which you might not otherwise buy and you always get their new releases. You can stop and start whenever you want.
The only disappointment I had was the free merchandise they send you with every third case. They sent me a pack of stickers, how old do they think I am, 7? :-?

If it was a breeding pint glass/tankard then I would be happy