Great Wedding Beer Experience

Enough with the "They only had BMC at the Wedding Reception" threads. Have you ever actually been to a wedding where you had a great beer experience?

I went to a wedding this weekend. SWMBO and the bride were friends in High School, when SWMBO hosted a German exchange student. The student and the bride became best friends, so the exchange student and family were at the wedding.

At the reception, I was lucky enough to be called over when the German family broke out a treasure: a six pack of Reissdorf Kolsch, fresh from Cologne. In classic German style, we downed it in a large group, drinking a big toast every time someone else was poured a glass.

Has anyone else been surprised with great beer at a wedding reception recently?

Couple of recent receptions have had Yuengling on tap. A step in the right direction over bud lite and miller lite

At my buddy's wedding in Portland OR he had a keg of mac n Jack's African amber (my all time favorite beer from the pnw) and a keg of Sam Adams (for the bmc crowd I think). Oh and his rehearsal dinner afterparty was at rogue's public house the green dragon. It was an awesome weekend!

My brothers wedding was a few weeks ago and he brewed and bottled 5 different styles of beer for it. They were all big hits. He was also lucky enough to be able to hand select other beer there like Stone IPA and Ruination.

I've seen blue moon served at recent wedding receptions, so that's a little better...

In May I was at one of my fellow Troegs brewer's wedding, and he brewed a Kolsch-ish thing with American hops for it. Two half kegs of that, plus bottles of Pale Ale, Sunshine Pils, and Hopback. His beer was the best. And last year for my wedding, my wife and I homebrewed a stupid-huge imperial stout that we put in a bourbon barrel for a while. Everyone liked that, too. But otherwise, wedding beer selections are usually crap, save for the occasional one that has Sam Adams.

I had my wedding last fall with about 100 folks attending. I brewed up two 5-gallon batches for the toast. Then besides that the venue allowed a choice of 4 beers. From memory, I believe we had Sweetwater 420 & Blue (the wedding was in ATL), Rogue Hazelnut Brown, and Hoegarrden because I figured the BMC types would drink it. And nothing besides that except for wine! Apparently our wedding venue could only buy wholesale from one particular distributor so I didn't get most of my first choices on beer, but it was still great.

It was also entertaining as the bartenders were serving the Rogue Hazelnut Brown in 22-oz bombers without a glass (unless asked). So we had a lot of drunk folks on the dance floor prancing around with their bombers in hand!

I was at a wedding reception here: https://www.athenaeumcaltech.com/

I drank quite a bit (as they selection was *IMPRESSIVE*), and it was >2 years ago, so I don't recall everything they had... But I remember Victory, Unibroue, and several other stellar selections. It seemed like each time I walked up to the bar there were new craft bottles I hadn't seen the last time I walked up.

And, and you know what put the icing on the cake? OPEN BAR!

Good thing my [pregnant] wife was there to be DD!

A good friend got married last year. He decided to rent a huge house near Breckenridge, CO for the wedding, the reception, and two days partying on either side. Of course, he would have to provide the booze.

I had the great pleasure of accompanying him to one of the massive beer stores we have around here. My friend (a real beer guy) proceeded to fill three shopping carts with whatever the hell he wanted with no consideration of price. It was truly amazing. There were probably 100 varieties between all the six packs, singles, bombers, and champagne bottles. Looking back on it, it would be easier to remember what he did not buy.

So yeah, the reception was a pretty good beer experience. My only regret is that my palate was utterly annihilated when I was trying some great beers for the first time.

i wish i was homebrewing when i got married.. i started that a couple years later.. we had Yuengling and Michelob AmberBock on tap, so i was happy

Im getting married in the fall and while our venue doesn't allow us to serve homebrew, we are brewing and bottling three 5gallon batches of beer to give out as wedding favors. I am brewing a pumpkin ale, a chocolate oatmeal stout, and a scottish 80/-. At the venue we are getting the local brewpub (Block 15 in Corvallis, OR) to supply the beer for the wedding. I don't plan on having anything lighter than a hefe at the wedding. If people dont like the beer or the wine than they can drink water or ice tea. We've decided that we are not catering to the BMC crowd as we dont want to pay for that kind of swill.

Vellum said:

At my buddy's wedding in Portland OR he had a keg of mac n Jack's African amber (my all time favorite beer from the pnw) and a keg of Sam Adams (for the bmc crowd I think). Oh and his rehearsal dinner afterparty was at rogue's public house the green dragon. It was an awesome weekend!

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Love me some Mac and Jacks African Amber. Get all I can when in Seattle. Is that a popular reception beer in PNW

cincydave said:

Love me some Mac and Jacks African Amber. Get all I can when in Seattle. Is that a popular reception beer in PNW

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I'm not sure if it is popular reception beer although it should be. I just know it was the grooms favorite as well as my own. I have since moved to Virginia and miss that beer like mad. Every time I go home my family thinks I'm crazy because ill order it with breakfast if it is available. They have it on tap in the airport as well and I try to get through security fast to snag a pint or two. Hmmm I think the clone recipe just made my rebrew list! Not trying to hijack the thread but Manny's pale ale should be a pnw reception beer too.

i'm a catering chef in seattle... maybe it's a NW thing but pretty much all the weddings at least have a bunch of micros in bottles alongside the keg of BMC, if not a keg of something yummy altogether. the lowest amount of effort spent on craft brew is generally a bunch red hook variety packs from costco. i see mac & jacks more frequently than any other beer around here. pretty great!

/zombie mac n jacks...must start brewing...

I've heard the Mack and Jack's blackcat porter is also very good, but I've never gotten past the amber to try it. Maybe next trip.

I'm about to have one in august. Friends are getting married in Chicago so I get to go back to my old stomping grounds, will probably go to 3floyds on the way in and out town. The wedding will be serving bmc, but I'll likely Bmob.

that reminds me, i have to think about what to brew for my wedding...

At my cousin's "We're Getting Married Party" (they got married last week on a mountain top in New Zealand so they held a party in SC for everyone) they served nothing but local microbrew. They had a brown and pale ale along with a wheat/ipa hybrid. They were all fantastic.

deflagratio said:

At my cousin's "We're Getting Married Party" (they got married last week on a mountain top in New Zealand so they held a party in SC for everyone) they served nothing but local microbrew. They had a brown and pale ale along with a wheat/ipa hybrid. They were all fantastic.

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any coast and or westbrook?

Last wedding I was at featured Stone IPA. At first I was super excited, then I realized that it's hard to pace yourself at a wedding. A lot of people got too drunk too early and were tired earlier than usual. It made me realize that I don't want anything over 6% at my wedding.

Xpertskir said:

any coast and or westbrook?

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I think westbrook but don't quote me on that.