We’ve written before about the Fresh Beer Club - our monthly subscription that either lets you taste your way around Australia (the Fresh Beer Box) or gives you a beer festival in a box every month (the Laid Back Box).

But if you’re the kind of person who likes to do it yourself - renovate your own kitchen, plan your own holiday, fix your own car - then you might want to start your own beer club. And that could look different depending on your situation.

Here’s a few ideas for how it could go…

Scenario #1 - The Sampler

You and your friends love tasting different beers all the time. You’re always trying what’s new when you meet at the pub, and you’ve got a message thread where you chat about your latest finds.

So you decide to order three mixed cartons from Lost Palms, and you get together on the first Saturday of the month to taste through the beers together. When you’ve finished your session, you divide up what’s left - maybe even do a bit of trading so everyone goes home with more of the one they liked best.

Next month you decide to try mixed cartons from Moo Brew. The month after that, Badlands. You even decide to do Dry July together with a few mixed cartons from Sobah. And because you always order from one brewery at a time, the flat rate shipping works in your favour - whether you get two, three, four or more cartons, it’s still only $15, leaving more money for beer. Score.

Scenario #2 - The Regional Hub

You live in a small town in regional Australia, and you’re sick of bad beer. Most of the beer in your local bottle-o is owned by the big corporations, and the small amount of independent craft beer there is has spent months on trucks and in warehouses before sitting on a hot shelf.

You put out the word to your friends, neighbours, and footy team - it’s time to start ordering fresh beer direct from independent breweries around Australia.

You start by ordering from the capital cities - that’s where the good stuff is, right? You’ve heard of Ballistic in Brisbane, Frenchies in Sydney, and Wolf of the Willows, but they don’t make it out to where you live. This is your chance to finally get try them, and have them delivered straight from the brewery to you without a middle man.

After a few orders, you decide to start checking out breweries from outside of the big cities, too - after all, you know how important it is to support regional Australia. So you order from Shepparton Brewery in regional Victoria, Great Hops in regional New South Wales, and Stalwart in Queensland.

You may live in a small town, but you can get brewery fresh beer from all around the country. And your friends and neighbours thank you for it.

Scenario #3 - The Distributor

You’ve been at your job for a few years. You know someone organises Secret Santa at Christmas, and someone else organises a betting pool at grand final time. It’s about time someone organised a regular beer delivery people for people to get in on.

So you put the word out: “Who likes good beer? Tell me what you’re after, I’ll put in the order to Only Craft Beer, and I’ll bring the beer in to work to divvy it up. And anyone who orders from the same brewery gets to save on postage.”

Surprisingly, your boss is the first one to jump in. She never has time to hit the shops, so she’s grateful that you’d get her favourite beer to just show up at work.

Slowly, other people come out of the woodwork - people you didn’t even realise were into beer. The accountant likes dark beer. The guy on the front desk is always wanting to try new stuff. Jacko likes his lagers, Jessica likes her sours, and Jamie likes a bit of everything.

It gets to the point where every time you say, “I’m getting another order - who’s in?” more people put their hand up. You’ve become the person with the ideas who pulls the team together, like Hannibal from the A-Team. Now people at work are chatting about beer at lunch time, organising after work drinks, and hanging out on weekends. Your co-workers used to just be acquaintances, but now you’re all friends as you come together over good beer.

"I love it when a plan comes together."

Scenario #4 - The Easy Option

Of course, you could always take the easy route with a monthly subscription to the Fresh Beer Box the Laid Back Box - after all, that’s why Only Craft Beer offers them in the first place.

But putting together a DIY beer club that works for you? Maybe that’s worth the effort.