starting a mug club

[3guysandabeerd]

Title says it all. The great state of PA now allows mug clubs. I'm doing research on custom mugs. I have a few questions about what other may have done or would change if they had to do it over again.
1 What type of mug are you using (pewter, glass, ceramic) I'm thinking glass or ceramic
2 How many OZ are they [my thoughts are 18 - 22 OZ larger then my pints now ]
3 Where is a good place to buy and how are they about custom orders
4 What's are the incentives for being a member [ 1$ off beers special offers on special releases. First to know about beers and private tastings]
5 What's a good starting price point for members[ I'm somewhere is the range of 55 to 75 $]
And as always thanks for the great advice from an amazing community
cheers matt

[Todd S]

We're getting ready to launch ours, we'll be using glass. Ceramic is pretty damn cool, there are several breweries around here that use ceramic. The drawback is that a bartender could pour a lot of foam and not notice, and your server won't be able to easily tell when someone needs a refill. Clear glass is better from a customer service standpoint, IMHO.

Ours will be 20 oz, 4 extra ounces and .50/off per pint. We also have a clause that high alcohol beer will be poured in their specialty glassware, but you'll get $1 off. Keep that in mind when setting yours up, or you might be expected to fill a 20 ounce glass of 10% barleywine for a discount on the standard 10 oz pour.

[Jedi]

We're getting ready to launch ours, we'll be using glass. Ceramic is pretty damn cool, there are several breweries around here that use ceramic. The drawback is that a bartender could pour a lot of foam and not notice, and your server won't be able to easily tell when someone needs a refill. Clear glass is better from a customer service standpoint, IMHO.

Ours will be 20 oz, 4 extra ounces and .50/off per pint. We also have a clause that high alcohol beer will be poured in their specialty glassware, but you'll get $1 off. Keep that in mind when setting yours up, or you might be expected to fill a 20 ounce glass of 10% barleywine for a discount on the standard 10 oz pour.

Its funny to see the 4 more ounces comment. In Canada the standard pint is 20oz so a mug club would need to be at 22oz here. Government law says it can only be 1/2oz liquid variance (19.5) or $500-2500 fine. Head does not count in the measurement. They even built an easy to use website to file a claim.

[Todd Hicks]

Its funny to see the 4 more ounces comment. In Canada the standard pint is 20oz so a mug club would need to be at 22oz here. Government law says it can only be 1/2oz liquid variance (19.5) or $500-2500 fine. Head does not count in the measurement. They even built an easy to use website to file a claim.

I read it to mean, that a 16 US oz. pint will be $0.50 off to Mug Club members, high gravity which is usually served 8 US oz. will be $1.00 off the usually much higher price, and the rest of the beers served in the 22 US oz. mug will be the typical pint beer price except Mug Club members get 4 ounces extra. We call that a Lagniappe, "A little something extra". Same idea as a Baker's Dozen is 13.

[3guysandabeerd]

todds thanks for the advice. And yes I meant 16oz pints are my standard now. As for mug I'm going with glass. Not because of the price point but because of the selection of style's. Also 20 oz seems a right fit. 1$ off standard beers, liking the idea of high gravity beers in there normal glass. I'm in the process of writing a hand book for members that way the rules are standard and they under stand what it all about. I'm also setting up a standard way of getting your mug so no one can just walk in and ask for the buddy's mug so they can get the discounts and so on (seen this happen at other places).
also wondering where everyone is ordering there mugs from. I've found several.
And what is the initial cost for the member
cheers matt

[mikeyrb1]

Make sure you have an annual renewal. Not just to make money off of the club, but to ensure that people who no longer come in for whatever reason can be filtered out and new people allowed in. We didn't do this and our mug club has grown so big that it is a storage issue.

On the plus side though, we have mug club members who have been members for 20 years and still come in every day.

[Bainbridge]

A few bits of advice after four years of ours:

Annual mug club gift that only they get (a special growler, take-home mug, etc) goes over really well. Even better if it's refillable... $$$ People are frequently jealous of the steel keg growlers from two years ago.

Watch those big pours of big beers. Consider getting a short pour line engraved or printed. We use a spot on the lettering as a reference.

Annual renewal is a must. We do a two tier structure, joining vs renewing, with joining $20 more to cover the cost of the mug engraving. That sweet sweet mug club boost....

It's not a bad idea to kick out little perks. Like we have given out a bottle of our Anniversary beers, or had a random party, or spare tickets to beer festivals, etc..

Have rules, in a brochure or letter, that goes out annually.

Important in there is the "No Assholes Rule." "As one of our most welcome regulars, we ask that you treat everyone, staff, patrons, everyone, with respect. Assholes will be kicked out of the club and will not receive a refund at the brewery's discretion. No assholes."

Staff selection. For us it's not a "Pay and you're in" gig, though I know some places go that route. We take applications for the month of July each year (same time we do renewals), then early August have a big staff meeting after hours where we order pizzas in, hang out and drink, and decide the new members. You are actively encouraging these people to come in more often. If everyone hates them, why would you do that? So all staff have an unlimited number of vetoes. Sometimes we get lively debates. See the No Assholes Rule. We used to limit the number of members, but then I figured that the people who rarely use their mugs subsidize the people who are hear nearly every day. So our club has grown from 75 to 120 mugs over the years.

Breakage rules. We do: "If you break your mug, it's $10 to replace it. Until we get that, here's a loaner. If we break it, we'll replace it ASAP."

We do glass mugs that we laser etch with each person's number and whatever they want on their mug. Side note: clubs where you just get to drink from a bigger mug, or where you get a mug with just a number, are lame. So we let people pick what they want on their mug, from "Bob" to "Do Or Do Not, There Is No Try" to "Shitbag". There's a 'No War and Peace' rule to limit people who think their mug is an infinite canvas to express their individuality. Printing area's only so large yo! The problem is that when one breaks it has to be re-etched, and our guy has minimums. So we have to build up enough of a run and it might take a while. So have loaners ready. Also staff appreciate mugs and it's a small token of appreciation easily thrown in the larger print run. The best way I've seen is at the Titanic in Miami, where we had pewter medallions glued on glass mugs. They could be engraved with a rototool, and if a mug broke, you just pry the medallion off and glue it on a new, pre-logoed mug. Easy peasy. Sadly I have yet to find a good source for those medallions.

[Todd S]

A few bits of advice after four years of ours:


Staff selection. For us it's not a "Pay and you're in" gig, though I know some places go that route. We take applications for the month of July each year (same time we do renewals), then early August have a big staff meeting after hours where we order pizzas in, hang out and drink, and decide the new members. You are actively encouraging these people to come in more often. If everyone hates them, why would you do that? So all staff have an unlimited number of vetoes. Sometimes we get lively debates. See the No Assholes Rule. We used to limit the number of members, but then I figured that the people who rarely use their mugs subsidize the people who are hear nearly every day. So our club has grown from 75 to 120 mugs over the years.

That's very interesting, I haven't heard of anyone doing that before. Have you ever gotten any backlash? I've got people bangin' down the door to buy into our mug club that I haven't even launched yet - I can't imagine having to tell an eager customer they didn't make the cut. Certainly, we'll have a 'no assholes' rule as well to kick someone out if need-be, but excluding someone from the get-go seems like it could end in bad PR and maybe lost business. How do you go about rejecting people?

[Todd S]

And what is the initial cost for the member

We're charging $80/year. If we were in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, it might be significantly less, but we're in a downtown touristy area on main street, surrounded by restaurants, beaches, and boardwalks. I expect to sell out of mug clubs pretty much as soon as I launch them.

Do the math though for your situation, do some research and make some assumptions on how much the discounted or extra beer is going to cost you per member. It needs to be expensive enough that you aren't getting burned, but valuable enough that people want to be members. Factoring in a number of variables like that, and we came up with 80/year as a good number. We may adjust that price for subsequent years if our assumptions are incorrect, so we're stating in our agreement that the annual fee is subject to change in subsequent years. I've seen a lot of startups sell mug clubs prior to opening to generate startup capital with some silly clauses stating the initial member annual renewal price will never change. Seems.... dangerous given the volatility of raw ingredient costs.

[Jedi]

I would have a lawyer create a terms of service. I have contract experience so I will just a lawyer to qc mine.

[Bainbridge]

That's very interesting, I haven't heard of anyone doing that before. Have you ever gotten any backlash? I've got people bangin' down the door to buy into our mug club that I haven't even launched yet - I can't imagine having to tell an eager customer they didn't make the cut. Certainly, we'll have a 'no assholes' rule as well to kick someone out if need-be, but excluding someone from the get-go seems like it could end in bad PR and maybe lost business. How do you go about rejecting people?

Obviously the first round of the mug club is a bit different right, I mean, you don't actually know most of these people, but they're psyched to support you and three cheers for that! And most of them will be awesome, and some might be crazypeople, and some might be awesome crazypeople. Plus you will get well-meaning relatives and friends who want to buy a mug as a misguided way of supporting you, though they will likely never use it. And you can use mug memberships as rewards for key people: investors, contractors, friends who went above and beyond during the buildout. Certainly there's merit to 'anyone who wants to give you money...should be able to give you money'. But in future years it depends really on whether you want your club to be a select group of regulars, or a more open if less prestigious group.

Because you'll get two problem applicants in future years. The first will be random people who just happened to be in the taproom during the sign up period. They might be great people. They might be horrible. They might start coming every day. They might never show up again. You have no way of knowing. So in general, if we get an application and none of the staff know who that person is...well they probably aren't even going to remember they applied. People see the mugs and ask about them, and we explain that's the mug club, and when they ask how to get one we say "Well, start by showing up a lot. Then in July we take applications." Each year I write up a new application, mostly so we get the names/contact info of who wants in, but I put in some funny questions to make it interesting. One is always "Name three of the taproom staff. (Possibly scowling at you riiiiiiight...now.)" to catch regulars who are spacing on staff names so we can all joke about it, and to see if this person has ever even been in before. Other questions are things like "Please rate your chance of survival in the following situation: As punishment for your many, many crimes you are now forced to connect to the internet via AOL on a dial-up modem." and "Write us a poem or draw us a purdy picture." These help us decide if the unknown or relatively unknown person at least has a sense of humor. At the end of the day we only have so much room for mugs, I want them to at least be used once in a while and if you let everyone in you end up with boxes and boxes of mugs. Been to places where that was their thing, fine. Just plan shelf-space accordingly.

But the second problem applicant, is...That One Asshole, right? That customer who is rude, or sexist, or doesn't tip, is obnoxious or odorous, or is always like Eeyore gone off his meds. I do think sometimes you have to fire customers. It's a bar. You may have to 86 people and it sucks. Usually though, it's a borderline issue where you don't need to kick them out, but you certainly don't want to encourage them to come in more often. This might be a Seattle thing, we have a reputation for being a bit frosty and passive aggressive, versus say, explicitly shouting "Hey you, *$%& Off." Around here, "Yeah let's do that sometime." is a hard "No." So it can be awkward, but usually the first line of defense is silence by only contacting the new members. Most people forget they even applied. But if the vetoed person asks, it's a "Sorry, race was tight this year." and leave it at that. If it escalates beyond that, well, that's a reminder why you vetoed them right?

That said, these things are rare. In four years there's maybe been two people who have been hard vetoed for assholery. Four or five a year for "Who the hell is this?" And a few that were lobbied for in the face of a veto who are members now. The majority who want in make it in just fine. Particularly since we made the total number floating instead of replacements for non-renewals. We're meeting tonight actually to decide the next year's new members and I look forward to some of this years best customers getting mugs. To me it gets down to what kind of Mug Club, and in a bigger sense, what kind of taproom atmosphere...ethos?...philosophy?...you pursue. I don't want my bar to be TJI Fridays. I don't want it to be a corporate brewpub chain where for $40 you can purchase a Mug Club Membership Card that gets you a bigger glass and free Zesty Jalapotato Popperz on your birthday. We don't operate on "The customer is always right." The customer is sometimes an asshole. No need to be overtly rude, (we're not the SF Toronado!), but we don't have to kowtow to every entitled jerk who walks in either. I want our bar to have character, uniqueness, locality, and a good group of regulars, who maybe didn't know each other at first, but soon become friends. I think we've built a good atmosphere so far. But it takes tending. Running the mug club well is an important part of this.

[TGTimm]

Our "Mug Club" is a very different affair. One of (sadly, former) long-time employees is a glassblower, and he and the fellow who owns the glass studio make custom beer glasses (and many other beautiful things). Very nice hand-blown art glass, and not cheap. When we first started selling them at the pub, people wanted to leave them here. We made room. Now we have a hundred or so--it's a good intelligence test for the servers to remember regular's glass. We offer no discount, and breakage is understood to be "you pays yer money, you takes yer chances".

Our regular customers just appreciate having their own custom glass. It sets them apart from the ravening horde. Personally, I'm on glass #7, and I have a couple I rotate on a seasonal basis--gotta keep the minions on their feet.