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David Watsky Senior Editor / Home and Kitchen
David lives in Brooklyn where he’s spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips.
David earned his BA from Northeastern and has toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom.
Right now he’s likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or tinkering with a toaster. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week.
Expertise Kitchen tools | Appliances | Food science | Subscriptions | Meal kits
There’s always a good reason to crack open a nice cold, crisp beer on a cozy evening. After all, who doesn’t deserve a little treat now and then? With the winter months on the way, there are plenty of new flavors and styles at the store and at events like Oktoberfest. But enjoying all the seasonal flavors takes some planning and can get pricey if you’re unsure where to start. This is where a monthly beer club shines, letting you sample both new and nostalgic flavors without leaving the cozy comfort of your home.
But which is the best beer club to join? We tried a bunch and found the best subscription boxes out there, whether you’re into rich stouts, hoppy IPAs or cool microbrews. Whether you’re a seasoned beer connoisseur, just beginning your journey or looking for the next best thing to give a beer drinker this holiday season, these beer clubs provide a great way to explore new flavors and support independent breweries worldwide.
What is the best beer club overall?
After testing five of the most popular beer of the month clubs, we’ve decided on the budget-friendly and original Craft Beer Club as the best beer subscription box for most people.
There are several dozens of options to consider when looking for a beer subscription box and they all deliver curated collections of unique craft beers to your home to taste. The best beer clubs in 2024 offer access to an ever-expanding beer-brewing universe, with unique picks including rare or limited-release beers. Read on for our picks of the best beer subscriptions for any ale enthusiast or lager lover.
- Best beer club for most people: Craft Beer Club
- Best beer club for IPAs and hoppy beers: The HopHeads Beer Club
- Best beer club if you want to pick the styles: Beer Drop
- Best beer club for rare beers: The Rare Beer Club
- Best beer club to try unusual beers: Brewvana
Best beer clubs of 2024
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Types of beer
Before you sign up for a beer club, you’ll want to decide which types of beer you want delivered in your monthly shipment. Perhaps you only care to try hoppy ales or Belgian-style beers. Certain clubs specialize in niche offerings, while others send a wider mix of beers brewed in every style.
Number of beers
Some beer clubs have a fixed number of beers in each send while others allow you to choose more or fewer beers per month. Decide how many beers make sense for you and pick a plan accordingly. Most services will allow you to change the plan later on if you’re receiving too few or too many than you care to.
Cost
Beer clubs are typically a bit more expensive than going to the local store to buy beer, but some are far more affordable than others. Decide how much you have in your monthly budget for tasting new beers and select a club or subscription that fits.
Testing monthly beer subscriptions is a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it. In order to evaluate the best beer clubs, we ordered as many as three months of beer deliveries from each to gauge the types of beers offered, the variety from month to month and how the beer shipments were packaged including what information about the beers was included.
Is a beer club worth it?
Beer clubs and subscriptions are a great way to try rare and small-bath beers you might not have access to otherwise. If you long to try specialty ales and lagers that go beyond what’s available in your package store, a good beer subscription will help you do it.
Are beer clubs expensive?
Beer clubs typically charge a few dollars more per beer than you would pay if you bought a six-pack of the same brew. That’s to cover the cost of curating the selections, along with all the information that comes along with most beer club deliveries.
Are beer clubs hard to cancel?
All the beer clubs on our list make it easy to cancel or pause your subscription if you need to. If there is a lengthy commitment of monthly payments, it is clearly stated before signing up.
How do beer clubs work?
Each beer club operates differently, with some specializing in a hyperlocal showcase of a single region’s beer every month, while others pluck their favorite brews from various locales to give you a cross-section of the best upstart beer-makers in 2024. Several clubs curate a monthly send of interesting or seasonal beers from small-batch breweries. Others focus on a particular style of beer to highlight in that month’s collection. Most beer clubs send plenty of information on the beer and brewery. Many also send bits of free swag from the breweries with each shipment.