Pricing a beer subscription for regular customers
Beer clubs and prepaid pint cards are a good way to reward regulars and smooth out cash flow. The pricing is harder than it looks, because the people most likely to sign up are the ones already spending the most. Here is how to set it.
Decide what the subscription is for
A subscription can do three different jobs: bring cash in before the beer is poured, give regulars a reason to visit more often or pull in drinkers who come rarely. Each needs a different price. A deep discount pleases your Friday regulars and does nothing for the rest. A small discount with a perk, such as first taste of each new beer, can do the job without giving margin away.
Write the goal down in one sentence before you set any number. If you cannot, you are not ready to launch.
Check what format your licence allows
In much of the world a beer club means cans posted to the drinker's door. In India home delivery of alcohol is restricted in most states. Takeaway of draught beer in growlers is allowed in some and not others. Rules vary and change, so check the current position with the excise department or a licensing consultant.
For most brewpubs the safe formats are on-premise: a prepaid card worth a set number of pints, a monthly membership giving a fixed allowance or a discount, or a regulars' club with tasting events. Keep the structure simple enough that your bar staff can apply it on a busy Saturday.
Work the discount from your margin
Start with your gross margin per pour. As an illustration, say your house pale ale sells at ₹360 for 400 ml and costs ₹55 a pour including losses. A card of ten pints for ₹3,240 is a 10% discount, worth ₹36 a pint to the drinker. Your margin falls from ₹305 to ₹269, still healthy.
Now test it against your real customers. If the card mostly sells to people who already drink ten pints a month with you, you have given away ₹360 a head and gained nothing except cash a few weeks early. If it brings someone in twice more a month, it pays easily. For most brewpubs a discount between 10 and 15% is the useful range. Beyond 20% you are mostly paying your loyal drinkers to do what they already do.
Account for unused value honestly
Some prepaid pints never get poured. Cards are lost and people move cities. It is tempting to count on this as profit. Do not price around it. A subscription that only works if customers forget about it is a poor deal for your regulars.
The money you take for a prepaid card is not revenue until the beer is poured. Until then it sits on your balance sheet as a liability you owe in beer. Set a clear validity period, such as six or twelve months, print it on the card and ask your accountant how unused balances should be treated at the end of it.
Track usage from day one
Run it through the till, not a paper punch card, so every redemption is recorded against a named member. You want to see how many cards were sold, how many pours redeemed per week and whether card holders also buy food and other beer on the same visit. That last number matters most. A card holder who orders a ₹350 plate with their prepaid pint is worth far more than the discount suggests.
After three months compare card holders' monthly spend before they joined with their spend since. If it has gone up, the scheme works. If it has stayed flat, the discount is too generous or the perks are not doing anything.
Make the perks do the work
The best subscriptions lean on things that cost little and mean a lot. Think of a first pour of each new seasonal before it goes on the board, a quarterly brewer's tasting for members or a named mug behind the bar. None of these cost much margin and all of them make regulars feel like insiders.
A perk we like: invite members to taste a pilot batch from a small test kit and give feedback. You get real sensory data on a recipe before committing a full brew. They get a story to tell their friends.
Getting the balance right between discount, perks and cash flow is a small version of the pricing work in our guide to beer pricing strategy. It repays the same care.
Pilot it with 30 people first
Do not launch to everyone. Offer the card to 30 regulars, run it for two months and look at the numbers. Change the discount or the perks before you open it up.
Your first step: pull the till report for your top 30 customers by spend over the last three months. Work out what a 10% card would have cost you on their existing visits. That is the price of the scheme before it earns anything.
Common questions
Can a brewpub in India sell beer by subscription?
On-premise formats such as prepaid pint cards and memberships are usually easier than delivery, which most states restrict. Check current state rules before launching.
How much discount should a beer subscription give?
Between 10 and 15% is a useful range for most brewpubs. Deeper discounts mostly reward regulars for visits they would have made anyway.
Is money from a prepaid beer card revenue?
Not until the beer is poured. Until then it is a liability on the balance sheet. Ask your accountant how to treat unused balances.
