Anyone join the AHA?

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Kmcogar

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Anyone join the American Homebrewers Association?

I was looking at the cost and I thought it was a little rough. $38 a year or $600 for a lifetime membership. I'll have to use the AHA membership perks for 16 years for it to pay off.

Sooooo... Anyone out ther know the perks?

I have a competition that will only crown you best beer if you are a member of the AHA. I wouldn't say my beer is the est but, if it was it wouldn't matter.



Anyone know what the perks are?
 
I love the discounts. Most places around me give you something like a free flight of beer, pint, glassware, or just a 15% discount. Then there is the bonus of the members only session at great American beer fest and zymurgy.
 
Well the zymburgy magazine is a pretty good deal alone. I wish I had good bars around where I live that participate. All bars that participate are at the least an hour away
 
I'm going to join tomorrow. The best but is that they are fighting the political battles that we don't have the money or time to on our own. Check the thread on Alabama, crazy.
 
I joined recently. I haven't used the discounts yet, but I make trips to participating breweries frequently enough through the year and put away quite a few beers and get growler fills that it will certainly pay for itself. I'd be willing to bet my trip to Russian River in February and the two or three times I'll hit Stone over the next year alone will make it worth it. Plus the membership fees fund an advocacy group continuously fighting for our rights.
 
The discount program can cut that cost substantially if you can use it a lot. Unfortunately there's only two places within a 30 minute drive that accepts it and that's BJ's and Flying Saucer but it's only on food. I don't eat there very often. I went to Colorado for a few days and racked up a lot of free beer. Paid for at least half this year's membership.
 
When I signed up last year, they were giving a copy of How to Brew with the membership along with Zymurgy. And the list of breweries/brewpubs/LHBS that give a discount is extensive. My local brewery, People's, gives a free flight and I've gotten the payback from that alone. Over the last year I've gotten well over $100 in benefits/discounts from it.
 
I have been a member for several years. There aren't a lot of places around here that actually take the discounts, or at least, not that I frequent. However, when I went up to the Sonoma valley a month or so ago, I used my AHA card all over the place and got discounts.

Despite not using any discount for years, I still maintain my membership to support homebrewing & craft beer. Zymurgy is also a pretty good magazine, although I must be the only person that doesn't enjoy getting recipes in every issue, because it seems like there are even more of them nowadays.
 
My wife got me a membership for my bday in August. They just added my local HBS to the list of discounts so it will certainly pay off. There's lots of bars in my area that offer discounts even my wife's family friend's brewery, The Wild Onion. It certainly pays off if you have a lot of places that offer discounts in your area!!
 
I get discounts on food, beer and swag at local bars and my LHBS gives me a 5% discount on everything I buy and I think Zymurgy is a great magazine so it is well worth it IMO!
 
I would join but there are no places that close (and I live near New York City) to me that I would ever go there and/or the discounts they offer are not appealing ($1 off).

I also have no interest in a magazine filled with recipes, it's not like there is a shortage of free good beer recipes.

What would cause me to join is if Zymurgy was mostly a discussion of new techniques, or modification of existing techniques, or new grains, hops, etc. Also being able to use a 10% discount a few times a year.

I may still join, just to support the hobby, but I don't think I personally will get much benefit.
 
I live in Alabama, so I'm definitely thankful for their support in our fight to legalize the hobby. I joined last month.
 
ArcLight said:
I would join but there are no places that close (and I live near New York City) to me that I would ever go there and/or the discounts they offer are not appealing ($1 off).

I also have no interest in a magazine filled with recipes, it's not like there is a shortage of free good beer recipes.

What would cause me to join is if Zymurgy was mostly a discussion of new techniques, or modification of existing techniques, or new grains, hops, etc. Also being able to use a 10% discount a few times a year.

I may still join, just to support the hobby, but I don't think I personally will get much benefit.

Zymurgy is way more than recipes. I am a new AHA member and was impressed that several commercial beer companies, Sam Adams included, provided recipes for a few beers from the annual top 100 beers list.

There are lots of articles and columns. I even like the ads.
 
You also get special deals on Brewers Publications books (usually 20-40% off on new releases) and free entry to homebrewing rallies. And as others have said, it is an advocacy group for homebrewers. Mississippi and Alabama need our support!
 
Great organization. You should join.

Lectures online from NHC were as awesome perk and I love zymurgy. Back issues too online.

Plus it's the only lobby group helping to keep idiot politicians from making dumb laws against homebrewing.
 
You also get special deals on Brewers Publications books (usually 20-40% off on new releases) and free entry to homebrewing rallies. And as others have said, it is an advocacy group for homebrewers. Mississippi and Alabama need our support!

Supporting the hobby is the main reason I am a member. The AHA probably benefits all homebrewers more than you think, through its advocacy of the craft.

To add to the hombrewing rally comment: I attended one at F.X. Matt Brewery in Utica, NY (they do the Saranac and Utica Club lines, plus a ton of contract brewing for well-known brands) for free b/c of the membership and let me tell you, that rally was worth $38 in itself. 5 hours of free beer on tap - anything the brewery had on hand, plus free food, lots of BS'ing with homebrewers, and everyone got a growler of anything they wanted to take home with them. I also won an AHA hat and some Saranac merchandise somehow. I felt like I robbed the brewery by the time we left.

My guest was not an AHA member but she joined for $5 as part of the family membership and got all the perks mentioned above. The rallies are few and far between as far as I can tell, and don't often hit update NY, but if you have the opportunity to attend one, I'd recommend it.
 
My wife got me a membership for my birthday and I think it's a good deal. The discounts available, the magazine, the additional members you can interact with all seem like a good addition to the hobby.
 
I use the discount at several local places and it covers a good portion of the cost annually. You also must be a member to attend NHC.

What I don't understand with many of the restaurants (BJ's primarily) is why they don't give any discounts on beer. Seriously, they make most of their profit on beer, so they have room there to give a discount. I'd be motivated to eat there much more often if the discount included the beer. I'm not motivated when a beer costs $5-7 and I have several taps flowing at home that I know only cost me .30 to .50 cents per glass.
 
I use the discount at several local places and it covers a good portion of the cost annually. You also must be a member to attend NHC.

What I don't understand with many of the restaurants (BJ's primarily) is why they don't give any discounts on beer. Seriously, they make most of their profit on beer, so they have room there to give a discount. I'd be motivated to eat there much more often if the discount included the beer. I'm not motivated when a beer costs $5-7 and I have several taps flowing at home that I know only cost me .30 to .50 cents per glass.

I want to say its a legal reason why they can't discount beer. In the small print of a lot of restaurant promotions, you'll see that offer excludes alcohol.
 
I want to say its a legal reason why they can't discount beer. In the small print of a lot of restaurant promotions, you'll see that offer excludes alcohol.

TABC (Texas) has some extremely specific rules on alcohol promotions that prohibit most discounts.

I joined the AHA last month-- mainly to support legislation efforts in Mississippi, Alabama. The magazine subscription is just an added bonus.

There aren't too many discounts in Austin -- the 25% off food @ Flying Saucer will probably be the only discount I'll ever use.
 
I want to say its a legal reason why they can't discount beer. In the small print of a lot of restaurant promotions, you'll see that offer excludes alcohol.

I tried searching for an answer to this, but I came up empty on anything specific. With happy hour discounts, MNF discounts, etc., I'd think it wasn't illegal (at least in CA).

One state with weird laws regarding this is Washington State. Two years ago we were up there on vacation and went to Pike Brewing. As I usually do, I tried looking up local discounts on the AHA website, but no Washington places showed up. I then found some web posts about Pike doing an AHA rally there several months prior. I inquired with our server about whether they participated in a discount and she said yes, 15% off total bill. Sweet! Turns our that WA state laws allow them to participate in discount programs, but it prohibits them from advertising that fact (thus they are not listed on the AHA website). Some of these states really need to get with the 21st century.

Select Washington state from the AHA website here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/directories/find-an-aha-member-deal
They have a disclaimer that they can't list any breweries that participate.
 
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