Cheap but crowd pleasing wedding recipe.

I'm considering brewing for a friend's wedding. It's still a year out; they're thinking October of 2010. Still, I want to be able to make them some wedding beer, and I need some ideas for cheap but crowd pleasing beer. I'm planning to buy all the ingredients in bulk and then make separate brew sessions, using multiple 5gal buckets. I'll probably then go on to kegging but I'll have to figure that out in the future. The big deal is that I'm trying to keep the ingredient cost significantly below the cost for an actual BMC beer. As far as my calculations have gone, when we can get a BMC keg for 70-75, that's hard to do.
I figure I can probably hit 60 without too much strain but if anyone has any ideas or guidance, I'd appreciate it.

I would go with an american blonde or cream ale. Hefeweizens and Wits could work too, if you want an additional flavor.

Look at Biermuncher's 3 Crop Cream Ale.

How many taps are you planning to have?

I would do either biermuncher's cream of the three crops, or centennial blonde, maybe something like a hoegaarden or Blue moon type clone,a nice wit with orange peel....then maybe something a little more challenging for beer geeks....I can highly recommend conroe's https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/mojave-red-112308/ as a nice and crisp amber/red ale...it is sort of a crafbrewer's version of budweiser's attempt and an "american ale"

I'll go ahead and plug my Kentucky Common, mainly because I can't get over how many people have loved it, from Craft to BMC drinkers. It's a great, quick, cheap session beer. The keg was pretty much gone in 2 weeks. I took the last few pints to a party last night and everyone that tried it wanted more. I honestly didn't think the BMCers would like it very much, but they all love it. I haven't had 1 person not like it, and trust me, all these people are brutally honest.

You can see the two recipes here. The second one is still in primary. The first went grains to glass in under 2 weeks and was fantastic.
Kentucky Common Recipes | O'Daniel Brewery

So there's something a little different to think about.

I agree that BierMuncher has the ticket for ya. I did the centennial blond as a lager with s-23 yeast...and it was killer awesome! Cream of 3 crops is sure to please 8 out of 10 uneducated beer drinkers.

If you're an extract brewer and the goal is to make beer cheaper than BMC, I'd say forget it. If you're willing to spend some money to make it special, then it will be worth it. You're looking at $75 in extract for 15 gallons right there.

i just did 40 gallons of Honey Wheat Ale for my sister-in-law's wedding. the wedding is this sunday, i'll let you know how it turns out!

One more vote for BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde. I've done extract and AG versions - it's a winna!

Edwort's Kolsch. Very easy. Very cheap. Very mild and neutral and enjoyed by everyone, including BMC drinkers.

With bulk grain & hops purchases and using dry yeast, you should be able to come in considerably cheaper than BMC keg prices. With 9 lbs of grain (5 gallon batch) you can make some very nice 4-5% abv beers. If you're buying bulk ($1/lb), that's $9. For BMC drinkers, 2 oz of hops will be fine for many beers. If you're buying in bulk ($24/lb or $1.50/oz), that's $3. Packet of dry yeast might be as high as $2. So there you have a $14 batch of beer. Three 5 gallon batches in a keg and you're coming in at $42/keg cost. I'd say that's very doable.

But as Bobby said, if you're brewing extract, it'll be much tougher.

if you do extract, just buy in bulk from ncm. less then $2.50 a pound for dme

Before you get into the full swing of brewing for the wedding, make sure the venue will allow you to serve a home made alcoholic beverage.

I was going to brew beer for my wedding but it could not have been served legally at our reception.

Chello: Yes I've considered the venue issue. The bride to be and I actually discussed it. They haven't planned that far yet as they just got officially engaged a week ago, but they asked me to see if I could make them beer for the reception before that.

I also wanted to go ahead and experiment and have a game plan ready well in advance so that I can be sure whether I can or cannot help them out. I also figured that I could try making a few of the recipes and see what they wanted. The groom just enjoys beer period as does his family, but so far as I can tell they aren't picky, or at least he isn't.

As far as how many taps, probably a very limited number.

Overall I'm glad I have a full year to prepare, as I haven't yet got a kegging setup nor do I have my brewpot modded for all-grain. I'm going to have to figure out what kind of a setup I'm going to go for. I'm unfortunately a poor college student.

$116 for 50pound of dme shipped from ncm.

=$65.46 for 20gallons of BM centential blonde. that leaves you with 30pounds of dme. but thats without buying the hops or grains(carapils) in bulk, and reusing the notty for each 5gallons

I'll probably end up making a starter batch and washing, bottling or kegging that one, and reusing the yeast, split three ways. I should be able to pitch pretty significantly that way.
I also have no problem having extra malt. I will use it. I have 3 other people helping me brew in my house, each with (small) incomes.