The Beer Fund Series—Drinking on a Budget

As fellow craft beer drinkers you all know that this hobby can take a toll on your budget.  Craft beer isn’t cheap, but then again, if we were looking for “cheap” beer we would just be drinking those macro brewed, fizzy yellow beverages anyway…and who wants to do that!  Nevertheless, we’ve all had times when our beer fund has run a little low, and we look for ways to cut expenses, but still manage to enjoy craft beer on a budget.  This familiar dilemma has inspired me to start a new series—The Beer Fund Series.

For the inaugural post of this series, here are the top 3 ways to start saving on beer:

1.     Join a Mug Club:  Joining a mug club is probably the easiest way to start immediately saving money on beer.  Mug clubs usually have some sort of upfront fee that will get you a discount on beer and sometimes various other benefits.  Be sure to ask about mug club memberships at any breweries or brew pubs that you visit regularly.  One of my favorite mug club memberships is at Wolverine State Brewing.  A $65 lifetime mug club membership will get you a 16-ounce mug for the 12-ounce price and $1 off growlers, along with various other cool perks and discounts.

2.     Drink at Happy Hour:  This is a pretty obvious way to save money on beer.  Many places have happy hour times where beer (and sometimes food) is served at big discounts.  Arbor Brewing has a great happy hour deal that includes ½ off drinks and some food discounts as well.  Happy hour at ABC is from 4-7pm and all day Monday.

3.     Fill-up a Grower:  Growlers are ½ gallon or 4 pints.  The price you pay for a growler will almost always be less than 4 individual pints.  If you’re on a tight budget, but still want to drink good craft beer, then fill up some growlers and have your friends come over to your place instead of meeting at the bar.  Growler refills at Liberty Street Brewing in Plymouth are only $9 on Sundays and Wednesdays—that’s only $2.25 per pint!

These are three easy ways to start saving money on beer, and this series will continue to highlight more ways to save, but still enjoy, craft beer.  Be sure to leave comments or email any of your favorite ways to save money on beer, and maybe your tip will be featured in a future edition of “The Beer Fund Series.”