Beer of Month Club

I am looking to get into a beer of the month club. Looking for 12 different beers monthly with a diverse variety...any suggestions? Thanks

Have you looked at the prices? Most of them are insanely expensive. Being in New York City I would assume you have some stores with a pretty good selection around you. I would recommend you make you own beer of the month club by going there.

Welcome. I'm not sure if you are aking which BOTM Clubs to join or for beer suggestons. It it's which clubs, look at the threads in the similar thread's box below.

If you are looking for ideas, start with this tread. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f38/right-now-im-drinking-8426/ to see what folks are drinking, then you could google the infor.

This is also a great site with beer and beer reviews. http://beeradvocate.com/

Data's right, if you are in NYC you must have great beer stores coming out of your butt...no need to join a club, just do some beer hunting.

Here you go..a list of stores and such,

http://www.realbeer.com/destinations/newyork/stores.php/

thanks, I guess I was looking for a nice surprise each month, maybe something I have never tried before

Well that's a cool way to do it I guess....You could also take a coin or a pair of dice to the beer store and flip or roll for what you want to bring home to try.

But I prefer to either read and buy or buy, then come back to read while I am tasting it. Find a store that allows for doing mixed sixers of micro brew, it's a good way to try different styles and it's often a couple bucks or more cheaper than buying an entire sixer of one micro...for example I can get a six pack of bell's two hearted for about 12 bucks...but at the same beer store they have a cooler for 9.99 mix and match....and you never know what they will stick in there...so if I'm not in the mood for something in particular or feel like expanding my horizons and not risking an entire six of something I might not like.

So far I've only had a couple bottles of something that I could say I wouldn't have again.

But I've also discovered a bunch of new breweries that I might not have if their beer was in the 12-15 dollar a six.

And I've also gotten turned on by a few beers in styles I never thought I'd try...Like Vienna Lagers....I've never been a fan of the fizzy yellow type of lagers, but damn those brown, malty Vienna ones are fantastic.

If you have a Trader Joe's in your town they usually allow for mixed sixer filling as well. And those are 5.99, and the majority of the "TJ's" labeled beers are brewed by Gordon Biersch.


Usually if it is a beer I have never tried or even a new style then i will sit down with the beer and google and do some reading on the beer or the style.

Usually beer advocate will have the beer reviewed, and also a lot of the micro breweries have info on their website, sometimes the actual recipe or at least ingredient info.

Another good resource is the BJCP style guide, it gives a lot of info on the beer, the history of it, the numbers range for OG, FG, IBU's, etc. As well as a list of commercial representations of the beers. BJCP 2008 Style Guidelines - Index

Then if I am planning to brew something, I usually google to see if there are any clone recipes for the beer online.

Sometimes I will do a themed sixer, like all IPAs or Ambers or stouts, and get six different beers of the same style. It is a good way to see how different breweries tackle the same style...then if I mamnage to find info on the online, or even clone recipes I can see what ingredients are similar between recipes, and what is it that gives a certain version something special...i did that with vienna lagers, and learned a lot about the style,

Hope this helps.

My wife got me a B-O-T-M subscription a few years back. I love beer and I HATED the crap they sent me. It was mostly funky Belgian spice/fruit style beers and stouts. The rare APA or IPA that was in there was marginal at best. I received shipments for 4 months (4 six packs each month) and I didn't like any of it. I made her call them up and cancel it and get the $$ back.

I've done wine of the month clubs before as well and while they were much better, you can go to your local beer/wine store and buy/try all kinds of new things for less $$ and have as good as or better results than what they pick.

dataz722 said:

Have you looked at the prices? Most of them are insanely expensive. Being in New York City I would assume you have some stores with a pretty good selection around you. I would recommend you make you own beer of the month club by going there.

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I totally agree with Data here. Besides the expense a beer club is not like a coffe or wine club. Coffee and Wine can sit for awhile before you drink it, alot of the beer styles need to be consumed fresh and I doubt you will get that from a club that wharehouses beers.

This actually stands to reason that stores should in-store pickup "beer of the month" picks and maybe a little discount club to go with it.

Tell ya what CH, PM me once a month and I'll email suggestions.

thanks for all your help. What Im going to do is give a BOM club gift to my brother and if he likes it I will sign up myself. Its the guniea pigs birthday this month so lets see if he likes his present. I'm going to go with amazingclubs.com which sends 12 full-sized bottles of hard-to-find, specialty microbrews from award-winning, regional breweries across the country.