Wedding Brew Ideas?

I know there are quite a few threads on brewing beer for weddings, but I just need a little input. My sister is getting married in early November of this year and I'd like to bring some homebrew to the rehearsal dinner and reception. I know I can come up with some nifty names, labels, etc. but I'm just wondering what style of beer would be best for this type of occasion. I just started homebrewing and have 2 - 5 gal batches under my belt: a Cherry Wheat extract kit from Midwest (currently bottle conditioning) and EdWort's Apfelwein fermenting as of 6/9/09. I'm thinking of using the Apfelwein (should be nice and tasty by November!) and one other beer, but I don't know what. Any suggestions???

I plan to keg both for the wedding and also bottle some as a gift with some nice labels in a crate or something as well.

Thanks!

I got married a little while back and brewed up 10 gallons of pale ale and 5 gallons of stout. The stout was gone even before I was done with pictures and the pale ale was cashed about 1 hour later. The wedding was a late October wedding so the situation is similiar to yours.

I brewed 2 batches of 5 gal home brew for my buddy's wedding in May. One batch is an IPA which was well received by all the guys. The other batch is a blonde which most gals loved. 10 gal of beer were completely consumed in two hours. I would have brewed more, maybe 20 gal, if I could by I didn't have enough fermenters and kegs at the time.

This combination turned out to be a good compromise to fulfill all types of beer drinkers at the wedding.

I have a buddy's wedding to go to next weekend! I ended up brewing 10 gallons of Bee Cave Hause Pale ale and then another 10 gallons of SWMBO slayer.

My best advice is make a schedule and stick to it. Plus try to space it out if you can. I can only brew 5 gallon batches so I did two 5 gallon batches in one day which got kind of stressful and wasn't my normal routine.

oh and try to to stress out about it too much like me

I'm pretty interested in this myself. I'm getting married in October and was thinking about doing a batch of homebrew for it. We're actually going to be using Duvel for the guy's toast and champagne for the girls, but having a decent brew for the guests would be awesome. I was leaning towards a saison, but think a more common style might be better considering most of the guest probably wouldn't know anything about decent beer.

I"m actually setting up to make a couple different ones for my sister's wedding. Ask the bride and groom their favorite types and make that... for that time of year and OktoberFest or a spiced christmas style beer and a pale ale combo seems like a good mix.

Subscribed! I am actually getting married in October myself. Building up a keg freezer over the next couple of weeks. Here in Arizona, its still warm during the day and not too cool at night... but I think my lineup may be something like:

1) IPA
2) Stout
3) Orange Hefe
4) Apfelwein
5) ESB

Those are the top thoughts... new to brewing, so some of those may be a little tough for me to learn to do in the next 4 months?

i would definitely recommend something like a kolsch, blonde, or cream ale. they will appeal to a wide array of people. and then you can compliment it with something a little off the beaten path that will appeal to those who dig good beer (not that the previously mentioned ones aren't good). also, i would recommend having some BMC on hand so those who think they'll go blind drinking homebrew can suck on something.

android said:

i would definitely recommend something like a kolsch, blonde, or cream ale. they will appeal to a wide array of people. and then you can compliment it with something a little off the beaten path that will appeal to those who dig good beer (not that the previously mentioned ones aren't good). also, i would recommend having some BMC on hand so those who think they'll go blind drinking homebrew can suck on something.

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Haha, yeah.. I was thinking a Kolsch actually, and a blonde is pretty high on the list too. Good suggestion!

And yeah, BMC... Unfortunately, I will have some of that there =/

Seems like i always bring this up in wedding brew threads, but never the less it needs to be pointed out.

Make sure you are legally allowed/able to serve a home made alcoholic beverage at the wedding rehearsal/reception venue. I was going to brew for my reception last year, but was told that it was not allowed and that a licensed bartender would not be allowed to serve it.

So just double check that before you get to far into the planning/brewing.

I think a cherry wheat is good for a wedding. I really think the most important thing is to make sure it is something everyone will enjoy. Most of my family has a distaste for stronger beers. So, I tend to brew something on the lighter side for them (i.e. A Belgian wit or a mild pale ale). I really think that brewing to your audience is key to making your beer an enjoyable experience for your friends and family.

My grandpa is responsible for getting me into the craft beer scene(thanks to Shiner Bock!) so I'm working on a recipe for a bock that I'm hoping to have ready for my wedding in September.

Making a few different styles sounds like a much better plan than simply having one there. Question about making them in advance; what's the earliest I should probably brew this stuff? I'm also assuming I'll need to invest in kegging equipment too.

Chello said:

Seems like i always bring this up in wedding brew threads, but never the less it needs to be pointed out.

Make sure you are legally allowed/able to serve a home made alcoholic beverage at the wedding rehearsal/reception venue. I was going to brew for my reception last year, but was told that it was not allowed and that a licensed bartender would not be allowed to serve it.

So just double check that before you get to far into the planning/brewing.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's a great point. I was just going to talk to my sis and find out or do some investigating of my own. If all else fails, the wedding is on a beach so we can just roll out to the sands to drink!! :rockin:

I think I'll have the Apfelwein, a Blood Orange Hefe, and some sort of light Ale, myabe a Cream Ale.