Brewery memberships have been around Washington for years, but some of the newer ones are asking customers for a lot more than the price of a mug club. Copperworks Tavern in Kenmore is a good example. Its Founders Club starts at $300, with the top level priced at $2,500. For beer fans who enjoy becoming part of the community around a local brewery, memberships at this level can offer a more involved way to stay connected with the people, events, and releases that shape the local drinking scene.
That’s well beyond the usual annual fee for a few discounts and a branded glass. The higher price makes more sense when you look at what these clubs are being used for. They’re becoming a way for regular customers to support a brewery or taproom before they’ve even settled in for their next pint, turning a simple membership into a longer-term connection with a place they already enjoy visiting.
Copperworks Is Selling More Than Drink Discounts.
As we reported on Copperworks Tavern’s Founders Club, memberships come with gift cards and access to bottles that won’t simply be sitting on the shelf for everyone else. Some levels also include dinners or membership in the Copperworks Whiskey Club. That emphasizes access rather than shaving a dollar off every visit. Someone paying several hundred dollars probably isn’t joining because they’ve calculated how many pints it will take to break even.
They’re buying into the place before it has fully opened. Washington breweries have tried similar ideas. Taneum Creek Brewing expanded its bottle club in 2023 while raising money for its new Cle Elum tasting room. Members were helping fund the next version of the brewery while getting something useful in return.
Why One Membership Level Isn’t Always Enough
Once clubs get more expensive, a single price becomes harder to justify. Some customers want a straightforward deal they’ll use every month. The regular who follows every bottle release may want something else entirely.
Tiered loyalty programs offer another way to recognize customers with different levels of engagement. MLive’s Golden Nugget overview, which can be read here, describes a five-level Dynasty Rewards structure in which customers move through status levels by earning Tier Credits.
A brewery obviously doesn’t need to copy a casino rewards program. The useful comparison is simpler than that. Someone who drops into a taproom six times a year probably shouldn’t be offered the same membership as the person who knows every bartender and shows up whenever a new bottle lands.
Clubs Can Bring Future Spending Forward.
That upfront money is one of the more interesting parts of the model. Taprooms need cash before customers start filling seats. Build-outs cost money, equipment needs to be bought, and opening a new location rarely comes with a perfectly predictable first few months.
A membership club can pull some future customer spending into the present. That doesn’t make it free money. The brewery still owes those members whatever was promised, and a badly designed club can become expensive to maintain. A program tied to recurring events, such as a Sunday brewery series, can give members another reason to stay engaged throughout the year. But there’s a meaningful difference between hoping someone spends $500 over the next year and having part of that money committed before opening day.
What Members Are Actually Paying For
Membership value goes beyond discounts, giving members a closer connection to the brewery. Access is often what makes that connection feel exclusive and worthwhile.
Access
Limited releases are an obvious fit because the benefit doesn’t have to cost the brewery much every time it’s used. Early ordering can be enough. A members-only bottle allocation can work too. The value comes from knowing you’ll get a chance at something before it disappears.
That’s very different from an endless discount, which eats into the margin every time a member buys a beer.
A Closer Connection To The Brewery
Some clubs work because the customer already sees the brewery as one of their regular places. Permanent recognition inside a taproom, opening events, or a dinner with the people behind the business won’t appeal to everybody. They don’t need to. The members willing to pay more are usually the people who were already paying attention.
The Club Still Has To Earn Another Year.
The first signup is only half the job. Deloitte surveyed 5,564 US loyalty-program members for its 2025 consumer loyalty research. Seventy-two percent said loyalty programs made them more likely to spend with their preferred brand. A brewery club has an advantage here because repeat visits are already normal. The membership doesn’t have to invent a new habit. It has to make an existing one feel worthwhile.
That gets harder when the benefits look impressive on the signup page but rarely come up in real life. Copperworks is going further than most Washington beer clubs with its Founders Club, but the basic idea is familiar. Regulars are willing to commit early when they feel connected to a place and the membership gives them something they’ll actually use. For breweries and taprooms, that commitment can extend beyond the membership itself, helping build a steady community around the beers, gatherings, and experiences that keep local beer culture active.
