Last Sunday was Fathers Day in the United States. Fathers Day is always a struggle for those who buy me gifts. I neither need or want much and when I do need something I typically go out and buy it (which sometimes frustrates my wife). Well this particular Fathers Day my wife and daughters hit a home run with my gift when they presented me with a Mug Club Membership for the Black Cloister Brewery. To say I was happy would be an understatement. I was aware of the Mug Club and had toyed with the idea of purchasing a membership. But I procrastinated. And I am glad I did.

Mug Club Membership costs $125. As with most memberships it comes with both benefits and obligations. It includes a $50 gift certificate that can be spent on beer and merchandise. I suspect that I will dribble mine away on Bohemian Pilsners, Irish Reds, and, as I’ve never met one I didn’t like, the occasional Belgian Blonde.

A custom t-shirt featuring the Order of the Black Cloister Coat of Arms was also part of the membership package. I have around five million t-shirts at home so I suppose another one can do no harm. This particular t-shirt is only given to Mug Club members and is not available for sale to the general public. So that makes it somewhat special I guess.

By far the coolest perk of membership was a glass beer mug made by Gathered Glassblowing Studio in downtown Toledo. The Gathered studio is just around the block, a few minutes walk, from the Black Cloister. In a recent blog entry (Designed in Toledo) I wrote about Toledo’s long and rich association with the glass industry. This is an association that is alive and well today and the Gathered Studio is a small but important piece of that. And it is great to see The Black Cloister support local artists, especially ones that are contributing to the renaissance of the downtown.

If the glass beer mug was cool the next benefit of membership can only be described as intriguing. A medallion that is to be used to show one’s loyalty among the Order and which MUST be carried on one’s person at all times. If another member of the Order were to ask me to present my medallion and I am unable to do so I am obligated to buy him or her a beer. This is serious business folks. On the flip side I can now while away the hours in the Black Cloister taproom scanning the faces of patrons looking for the worried look of an individual who has forgotten his or her medallion. As a thrifty Scotsman the opportunity to acquire a free pint of beer is too good to pass up.

Membership of the Order also comes with some pretty serious obligations. I have to drink craft beer when it is available and do so in a manner that is responsible. Not only do I have to drink it but I have to enjoy it – its flavor, its aroma, and its body. I also seem to be committed to being a bit of an evangelist for craft beer. This will require seeking converts to the cause and warning the uninitiated against false beer idols (read Budweiser, Miller Lite, Heineken, Stella, and Corona). I can just see myself at the corner of Monroe and Secor holding up a sign that reads Repent, Drink Craft Beer: The End of Yellow Fizz is Nigh while waving a copy of Michael Jackson’s New World Guide to Beer in my right hand.

So I thank my family for this gift. It is VERY much appreciated. And while I really did not need another t-shirt neither did I need another pair of socks, boxer shorts, a sweater, or a tie. As they say in the country of my birth slàinte mhaith.