Best Beer Clubs for 2022 – CNET [CNET]

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Innovative craft breweries are blossoming all over the country, but many of their beers aren’t easily accessible unless you live close by. That’s where beer clubs and beer subscription services come in. Not only will you get to taste some truly excellent and hard-to-get brews, but you’ll be supporting microbreweries and small businesses from coast to coast. 

Each beer club operates differently, with some specializing in a hyperlocal showcase of a single region’s beer each month, while others pluck their favorite brews from various places to give you a cross-section of the best upstart beer-makers in 2022. Several curate a monthly send of interesting or seasonal beers from small-batch breweries. If you dig craft beer, you know there’s no shortage of regions bursting with excellent and creative breweries in the US and around the world. But with just five major parent companies dominating distribution, a beer club is really one of the only ways to get your hands on these special sours, Belgian whites, brown ales and IPAs.

Food and drink clubs are booming. There are edible and drinkable subscriptions for winecoffee, wine, seafood, hot sauces, snacksbutcher cuts, and now a whole bunch of excellent beer clubs too. Whether you’re a regular beer imbiber yourself or want to buy a gift for a craft beer lover, look no further than an independent beer club subscription service. 

If you’re looking to expand your access to excellent craft brews, we tried a few of the leading beer clubs available in 2022 to help you find the right one. Read on picks for the best beer subscriptions for every type of ale or lager lover in 2022. 

Craft Beer Club

The Craft Beer Club is arguably the most popular beer subscription box out there for the craft beer enthusiast and for good reason. This club sends out monthly shipments of new and interesting craft beers from around the country. Many of the new beers and craft brews have limited distribution, meaning a subscription to CBC might be your only shot of tasting those specialty offerings. It also puts a premium on fresh beer, with many of its roster of breweries making a fresh batch just before boxes go out. 

The Craft Beer Club is also one of the most affordable at just $45 a month with free shipping within the continental US. Each box features 12 beers: three of each beer in four different styles from two different breweries.

Beer Drop

Some of the beer subscription boxes on this list don’t leave much of the beer selection up to you, but not so with Beer Drop. This beer delivery box startup offers different plans, but with all of them, you can select your favorite type of beer and specific beer styles that go into your monthly craft beer subscription box shipments. That includes IPAs, fruit-forward beers, Belgian beer and plenty of other varieties. 

Monthly drops of microbrewery offerings start at $49 per month for 10 beers and your subscription can be canceled anytime. Also notable: The Beer Drop brews are all canned, so you’ll never have to worry about a broken bottle.

Brewvana

If you’re looking for outside-the-box brewing, Brewvana is the beer club you’ll want to gain membership to. Brewvana features interesting beers from a single beer-brewing region like De Moines, Iowa. 

The company’s Brews Less Traveled Beer Club highlights one new “undiscovered” beer city each month. Each shipment includes eight different beers; two beers from four breweries in whatever city is on tap that month. In my shipment highlighting Lexington, Kentucky, I got a smattering of beers ranging from the more familiar to the highly unusual. Think berry cobbler sours and Kentucky bourbon barrel ales. 

Brewvana members can enjoy interactive live streams and a drink-a-long podcast to enhance each month’s tasting. The cost is $69 per month but there are no ongoing commitments and you can pause or cancel at any time. If you sign up for six months, you’ll get your first delivery of eight beers for free.

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If hops make you happy, this is the monthly club for you (or another hoppy beer lover you’d like to treat). The HopHeads Beer Club sends three different hops-centric beers — four of each — every month so you can get your fill of this beer style. 

While this is, unsurprisingly, heavy on IPAs of various styles, it also makes room for hoppy pale ale and red ales. These aren’t just super bitter hop-you-over-the-head beers though; the club also spotlights “the many hop flavors and aromas available to today’s brewers amidst the ever-expanding supply of new hop varieties,” and includes imports as well as American selections. If this is your favorite beer style, the Hop Heads Beer Club is the one. Pricing starts at $35 (plus $15 shipping) per month if you sign up for three months. 

Rare Beer Club

The Rare Beer Club is the most selective of them all, featuring only two 750ml bottles of beer a month. It sends two separate styles of craft beer per month and no two months will see the same bottle picks at your door (unless you request or reorder). Don’t be discouraged by the limited choices; it’s quality you’re here for and these beers are carefully chosen. 

You have three buying options: two 750ml bottles per month ($38 plus shipping), four 750ml bottles per month ($59 plus shipping) or six 750ml bottles per month ($79 plus shipping). Often these beers use rare production techniques and ingredients making them exceptional craft beer, like aging through blending or in bourbon and cedar barrels. Plus, you’ll get super-rare brews from all over the world, including from up-and-coming breweries in Brazil, Japan and Scandinavia.

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