In the News Archives - Page 3 of 14 - Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club

Beyond the Bottle: Venturing Out

June 26, 2020 by Ken Weaver

It’s tough to imagine having COVID-19 under control in this country anytime soon, so, like everybody else right now, my wife and I have been making adjustments for the long haul. As local restaurants and breweries reopen for on-site business up here in Sonoma County, we’re finally faced with the option of venturing out. For the past few months, we’ve been focused on curbside pickup at the handful of local breweries we really want to have around when this is all over—which seems dire, but probably isn’t. Our biggest city here is Santa Rosa, known to many as home to Russian River Brewing Co., and the hospitality industry is a very big part of life. In a recent CBS article, the CEO of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber mentioned we’d be lucky to lose only 40% of the city’s restaurants. But he expected most to shut for good.

Deep breath.

The next year is going to be super challenging, even more so for small businesses relying on in-person interactions at the heart of their business model. Things are just now reopening as I’m typing this from Sonoma County, and one of the main things we’re discussing with our friends is how to balance these new options with keeping the folks in our pod (or bubble, or whatever quaranteam term you prefer) safe. Our pod includes our closest friends’ parents, so we’ve been erring on the side of caution. Curbside, delivery, masks, meet for beers outside… But dear god do I want to sit at a bar and drink beer and chat random shit with strangers.

How’s reopening been going in your area? Have you been venturing out to local breweries or restaurants yet? Folks masking up? Get in touch on Twitter via @RareBeerClub.

Craft Beer Delivery to Your Home

May 29, 2020 by Kris Calef

The pandemic has more and more of us seeking out reputable services and online shops that can safely deliver craft beer. And who can blame them? I’ve been working out of the house for over 2 months now trying to drown out what feels like a daily assault of leaf blowers, garbage trucks, and weed whackers. Hell, there’s a dog barking, my children kicking up a ruckus, and a chainsaw buzzing at the very moment that I’m typing up this post. When it’s time to logoff and leave the coalface behind for the day, I’m more ready for a beer than I’ve ever been each day. Fortunately for me, I’ve got a pretty sweet beer fridge in my garage, well stocked with recent and past selections from our clubs. Yeah, I’m gonna shoot straight with you. It’s good to have a warehouse full of really good craft beer at your disposal when you need it… And even when you don’t.

Anyway, back to your needs, specifically your beer fridge. Shipping hard-to-find, professionally curated craft beers is exactly what we’ve been doing for just over 25 years now, both through our 5 distinctive beer club memberships and by allowing club members the ability to re-order their favorites at discounted prices.

So here’s what’s changed on our end. In these challenging times, we’ve made the decision to open up our beer store to everyone, not just active members.

Read more about our craft beer delivery options.

Stay Safe, But Don’t Stay Thirsty my friends,

Kris

Beyond the Bottle: Beer in Quarantine

April 15, 2020 by Ken Weaver

It’s hard to know where the world will be when this newsletter lands, but at the moment my wife and I and our cats have been bunkered down for just over 11 days. We both work from home usually, so we’re focused on worrying about the family we’ve got working through the outbreak (one a pharmacist; another working on a crisis-response team). We’ve been keeping in touch with peeps, via online happy hours and the like… But this is super tough—even for introverts, where this should be our Olympics. We miss our friends and our shared spaces.

Until things go back to anything resembling normal, here’s hoping that you’re staying safe, isolated, virtually connected, and properly stocked. Your favorite small businesses are almost for sure having a terrible time figuring out how they’re going to weather this pandemic, so now’s the best time to support them if you’re able to. The local breweries here in NorCal are offering options like no-contact home deliveries, curbside pickup, and online shops. Merch, gift cards, and employee fundraisers are other great ways to help folks get through this.

How are you making it through the downtime? What beers did you quarantine impulse-buy? Did you find a way to support your local brewery? Connect on Twitter at @RareBeerClub.

Great New Review from Brew Fuse!

March 27, 2019 by Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

Recently the fine folks over at Brew Fuse reviewed a variety of beer subscription services, and we’re excited to announce we came out on top! Brew Fuse praised our selection of different club options, such as the Hop-Heads Beer Club and the Rare Beer Club, as well as our focus on quality selections.

You can check our their review here: brewfuse.com/microbrewed-beer-of-the-month-club-review-2019/

Cheers!

52 Brews Names The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club #1 Recommended Beer Club

November 8, 2018 by Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

We are pleased to share that we have made it to the top of still yet another beer club comparison review site. 52brews reviewed and ranked 10 different beer clubs and we were named their Top Recommended Beer Club. With nearly 25 years under our belts and five different beer clubs to choose from including our most recently introduced Hop-Heads Beer Club, we’re not entirely surprised at the news, but honored just the same!

52 Brews highlighted our dedication to our selection process and commitment to featuring quality craft beers year after year as a key differentiation point. It’s been at the heart of our mission statement from our inception and remains to be the single most important thing we do over here. We drink a lot of bad beer so you don’t have to!

We invite you to check out 52 Brew’s Best Beer of the Month Club review yourself.

Beyond the Bottle: Great American Beer Fest Notes

October 10, 2018 by Ken Weaver

Knocking out this latest column right after getting back from Denver. It was my fourth year judging out at the Great American Beer Festival, and it’s one of the parts of my involvement in the industry that’s particularly rewarding each year. Three days, and up to six flights a day, of beers across varying styles and executions, judged blind with some of the more thoughtful and experienced palates in the beer world. This year we were 298 judges across 12 countries, sensorily combing through approximately 8,650 beers entered by 2,400 American breweries.

Also: 391 entries in the new hazy/juicy IPA category. Which gives you a sense of tone.

Some clips from the highlights reel: The competition is in the process of transitioning fully to an eJudging platform, so I got to knock out some of my first-round notes with a tablet—which I think is guaranteed to streamline the process and clarity of notes going forward, and they’re rolling it out carefully. During the sessions of the beer festival itself: it was interesting to see lines snaking away from hazy-focused spots like Weldwerks and Great Notion, where that fanfare hadn’t quite crested a few years ago when we’d first seen them. Weldwerks’ end-corner booth had a dedicated side for brewers and judges; even that tended to have a line. I chatted with a few folks about what it means to have a competition with an increasingly less familiar set of names winning awards as the industry expands, and if that’s cause for concern. As expected: Certainly saw a number of Brut IPAs at the fest. On the Rare Beer Club front: shout out to The Bruery for taking a bronze for Mischief—their 10^th GABF medal to date.

The Lost Abbey Rare Beer Club Special Offer

July 13, 2018 by Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club

We’re doing something a little different and unprecedented for this latest Rare Beer Club special offer. Tomme Arthur and the team at The Lost Abbey were recently tasting through the brewery’s archives to discover what was at its peak, and, given the long history between Tomme and the club—we’ve been loving his beer since the Pizza Port days—he reached out with some of the very best of The Lost Abbey’s rarest vintage beers. Five of the six offered score 100 points over on RateBeer (the other one’s a 98)—and this is ultimately one of the best collections we’ve ever been able to put together. A chance to taste Lost Abbey history.

NOTE: This the first time we’re offering 375mL bottles within the club! We want to be able to expand on the rare beers we’re able to offer our members going forward, and this seems like the best possible time to expand into smaller-format selections. Lost Abbey has less than 100 cases of each of these releases—for the 2017 Deliverance and 2018 Bat Out of Hell, for instance, there are less than 40 cases left—and once they’re gone, they’re gone. The final two beers offer up the great opportunity to try 2015 and 2018 Number of the Beast side-by-side.

To take part of this exciting offer, visit our Special Offer Page.