About a year ago my life was changed. I had The Bruery’s Black Tuesday for the first time, drinking in a line at Great American Beer Festival, amongst strangers I had befriended, they told me I was in for a 19.2% ABV treat. I fell for Tuesday, but that’s a longer drunken story. Luckily, The Bruery had a membership plan just for me and any other person who was in love with Tuesday. (Because I don’t care if Monday’s blue) Additionally, this membership goes on sale for the next year on TUESDAY, so if you want to know a rundown of the Society, read up!

So, quick intro, The Bruery Reserve Society is a membership/society/club for people who love The Bruery’s beers. They have 3 tiers, Preservation is a quarterly club where you get cool beers, Reserve you also get said cool beers (and exclusive beers!) throughout the year and get to purchase x amount of beers per the release schedule, Hoarders is also like Reserve but you can buy twice as much and get some super-exclusive beers. (The clubs are open to CA residents or anyone else out of state who can assign a trustee to pick up the beers.)

But I was only a Reserve Society member, so let’s chat about that. Quick rundown so far:

What you get: You get a bottle opener, a hoodie, a membership card (which allows discount on tasting room purchases), an initial package of a few beers, and beers trickled in here and there throughout the year.

Events: I only went to the initiation festival, which was rad, and almost had a preview of The Bruery’s entire portfolio. The Black Tuesday Release Party is coming up, which was open to the public previously, but now is a Society exclusive (Reserve & Hoarders) event. There are “Clusterfork” events that happen every now and then (May, July, September) that have been on Sunday nights.

Allocations: This is a fun game. You can buy a whole boatload of beer real quick if you don’t catch yourself. It almost comes in waves in succession of each other within a 3 week period. One period ends, and another starts the beginning of the next business week, or whenever the allocation email states. The allocation emails break down the sale of these bottles with a description, ABV, allocation amount, if they’re cellar-able, and whether or not they’re exclusive. (Email sample below) There are beers exclusive to the society and some that will see general distribution. Each beer is limited to that purchase/allocation period. Sometimes, some beers will resurface to be purchased again, but this doesn’t always hold true.

That’s pretty much it. If I could add a few personal thoughts/tips as to not HADOUKEN the hell out of your wallet, I’d say:

• If you’re thinking about sharing with a friend, do it. (Beer is about making friends anyways right?!)
• Don’t max out for the sake of getting everything the most of anything exclusive if you’re not going to drink it/trade it/do-whatever with it. (As they suggest to drink some of their fruited sours fresh, and their hopped beers fresh too)
• Plan your trips, (esp. if you don’t live in the area) and remember to email them 48 hours in advance to pick up your allocations

Additionally, more lists, like why I think you should get a membership:

• You don’t have to stress out about buying 2 bottles of Black Tuesday quick. (in fact, this year’s allocation allows for a purchase of up to 6, before the public sale)
• You get rad rad rad!!! exclusives, like Chocolate Rain which is SUPER delicious. (Matter of fact you get 2!!! bottles of this beer in the initial package
• You get a discount on purchases! Even in the tasting room!
• You get awesome secret passwords/passphrases like it’s the 20’s and you get rad secret beer (sometimes)!
• You get some exclusive growler fills!

However if you’re looking to hit Hoarders Membership status, as this is invite-only… I wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly how, as it’s a super secret algorithm, which may or may not change from year to year. I can say however, that between two others and I, who were invited, we share these things in common, which again, may be speculation:

• Maxed out on most of the allocations and hit a certain dollar amount on that
• Went to the initiation festival
• Picked up our own allocations in the tasting room
• Spent a certain dollar amount in the tasting room (Swipe that card, you get a discount!! [I’ve forgotten sometimes, and “sic semper drunken-ness” is what I’m sure the Romans have said] and I think! they track this! Again! Speculation!)

Either way, if you’ve made it down to the bottom here, you might be already like this:

Or you may feel like this isn’t for you. In which, I may suggest if you are a Bruery fan or hold a slight interest in joining the society, I’d say go for the Preservation Society option they have available.

Like I’ve mentioned (very briefly) you get cool beers per quarter. I think the major thing in this too, is that you’re guaranteed a bottle of Black Tuesday. So you can skip the stress of trying to log onto the website in the morning and hopefully ordering a bottle amongst all the other thousands(maybe even millions?!) of others trying to do the same.

Either way, if you join, that’s cool. It’s fun trying out all the beers by The Bruery anyhow. I can definitely attribute to a lot of events in my life this year involving some Bruery beer at some point. It’s been rad.

The Bruery Reserve Society
Available October 15^th
$295 (plus tax)