MyBreweryTap.com arrivals
Back at the end of October, the Reluctant Scooper ran a post on My Brewery Tap and their 52 week beer club. This caught my attention, so off to their website I went. Northern Ireland poses additional difficulties for any beer mail order operation - not all mainland UK-based couriers operate over here, and those that do invariably charge more for delivery - so I'm always interested to see how this aspect fares in any delivery pricing set up. It may not concern mainland readers much but it can add quite a bit to the cost per bottle, and orders need to be quite large to keep that cost down.
My first impression of My Brewery Tap was very positive, a very competitive £9.99 p&p for up to 36 bottles, albeit all from the same brewery. But the Beer Club was what I was interested in and by way of an incentive, Ed and Richard very generously sent me over one of their mixed cases, which I believe pretty much mimics the contents of the current Beer Club selection. I could be wrong but based on most of the conversations I've had with people here, the idea of beer by mail is not something they would consider. Apart from the aforementioned increased delivery costs, they express concerns about the bottles getting broken. Well, if Laithwaites and their like can send wine over every day, why should beer bottles be any different, but I can see where they're coming from. Richard from My Brewery Tap admits mine is the first case they've sent over here, and it arrived today via Home Delivery Network, who also operate the Collect+ service the Beer Swap guys are using.
For the benefit of Ed and Richard, here's the opened box showing the contents all safe and sound -
And here's the beery contents -
Tasting notes will follow in due course, there's definitely a few in there I'm looking forward to sampling.
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That looks like a rather excellent selection, mate. I think the vast majority of those would have been new to me (the Meantime London stout being the obvious exception). I'll have to drink the contents of the beer cupboard a bit faster and then see about joining up for the beer club when I've got the storage room, I reckon.
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