Beer types for big summer reunion - what types?

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Brocster

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Hi all,

Just looking for a little advice. I will be soon brewing about 5 batches of beer for my family's upcoming summer get together. We have a good group of all ages, and most like to "put em down" while we camp at the lake. We usually get a pretty good variety of beers, but most people are still stuck on the mass produced beers or the "I wanna pretend to be a craft beer" types.

I usually like bolder types, such as Stouts or solid American types IPA's, but know that I may like types which are a little too far for most to enjoy.

What types of beers would you recommend I brew? I would really like to have an assortment that people who normally don't drink craft, let alone homebrew, beers would taste and go "wow - that IS good!" Assuming the brewmaster doesn't screw up (and I will have my beer stash at hand for the cool people!), what would you recommend? Beers will be kegged, at least 4 will.

Thoughts? Any advice would be appreciated, even experiences that you have had. I really would like to introduce people to the joy of drinking homebrew. About 40 people will be there.......

Thanks!
 
Can you lager? If most people are more into the BMC thing, you might want to play it safe and stay with lighter beers. Maybe a pilsner, a wheat (possibly with fruit), and an amber. Then you can have a keg of stout for you and something else. How long do you have to put this all together?
 
Can you lager? If most people are more into the BMC thing, you might want to play it safe and stay with lighter beers. Maybe a pilsner, a wheat (possibly with fruit), and an amber. Then you can have a keg of stout for you and something else. How long do you have to put this all together?

I have the last week of April off (furlough), so I plan to brew all week for this event and myself. LHBS will be happy! Get together is the week before and through the 4th of July, so I should have plenty of time.
 
Hi all,

Just looking for a little advice. I will be soon brewing about 5 batches of beer for my family's upcoming summer get together. We have a good group of all ages, and most like to "put em down" while we camp at the lake. We usually get a pretty good variety of beers, but most people are still stuck on the mass produced beers or the "I wanna pretend to be a craft beer" types.

To re-phrase: most people are fans of American light and adjunct lagers, or international lagers, german pilsners, dry stouts, american pale wheats, and pale ales.

Now it's up to you how much you want to brew what they like vs. what you like.
 
If it was me, I wouldn't brew anymore than 2 lighter beers. I would go with a wheat and and an APA on the lighter IBU side. The other 2 would be what I felt like brewing at the time and not care what "everyone" else might like.
 
If it was me, I wouldn't brew anymore than 2 lighter beers. I would go with a wheat and and an APA on the lighter IBU side. The other 2 would be what I felt like brewing at the time and not care what "everyone" else might like.

Hmm. IMO, an APA counts as a high-IBU darker beer in a crowd like this. I'm on board with doing some things you like, but no sense doing something that isn't your favorite and isn't well-received by the lighter lager fans. Now if there are a fair number of Sierra fans there, that's another story.
 
Brew BierMunchers cream of tree crops. From what ive read it is a real BMC pleaser.

I agree make 10 gallons of what they might like and then brew the rest what you enjoy.
I would do the cream of three crops and a lighter irish red for the sure fire beers, maybe a Kieran Irish Immigrant American Amber for a middle of the road and then whatever you want. I would make all of the beers very quaffable though, you will be at the lake, in the summer after all.
 
Hmm. IMO, an APA counts as a high-IBU darker beer in a crowd like this. I'm on board with doing some things you like, but no sense doing something that isn't your favorite and isn't well-received by the lighter lager fans. Now if there are a fair number of Sierra fans there, that's another story.

Guess what? I don't care. Never have, never will. If they don't like it, they won't drink it, and I'll take it home. I just don't see the point in brewing a pilsner, cream ale, wheat, and a blonde.
 
Guess what? I don't care. Never have, never will. If they don't like it, they won't drink it, and I'll take it home. I just don't see the point in brewing a pilsner, cream ale, wheat, and a blonde.

I agree. But if I were going to brew 2 for them, I'd pick a cream ale and a wheat or something like that (2 of the ones on your list), not a pale ale or a mild or something else that isn't my favorite but also isn't all that likely to be something they really like.

Basically, I'd brew stuff for me unless I was really just brewing it for them, in which case I'd pick something right in their wheelhouse. No point in making something that's halfway in between my tastes and theirs, and winding up with a beer that isn't a huge hit with either of us.
 
I would give them a variety and an education. I usually bring 5 two liters of different beer and while some go quicker they all end up gone. One beer with prominent american hops IPA or APA, one with english hops mild or esb, one with big yeast character dunkelweizen or saisson, and one dark, porter or oatmeal stout. Once people realize your beer is good they will usually try all of the varieties. I like to go with low hop, drinkable darker beers to help change peoples misconceptions about them.
 
I would give them a variety and an education. I usually bring 5 two liters of different beer and while some go quicker they all end up gone. One beer with prominent american hops IPA or APA, one with english hops mild or esb, one with big yeast character dunkelweizen or saisson, and one dark, porter or oatmeal stout. Once people realize your beer is good they will usually try all of the varieties. I like to go with low hop, drinkable darker beers to help change peoples misconceptions about them.

That's my favorite misconception. "ask my girlfriend, she'll tell you....I drink all the craziest, darkest beers" - This came out of the mouth of a guest at my house last friday, as he was quietly avoiding my dunkelweizen in favor of a whole case of Amstel Light.

Dark doesn't mean strong, stiff, syrupy, etc.....but I'm preaching to the choir.
 
The beer choice should really be dependent on your "audience." If the guests are going to be typical BMC drinkers, then making an IPA or a Stout won't be appreciated by them. And if you've looked at some of the "I made beer for this party and noone drank it, or wasted it" complaint threads (or the "stupidest comment about your beer" thread) you'll see that when we try to impose our maybe more "refined" or at least adventurist tastes on people we have to be willing to realize that if those types of beers were the majority of the population's "cup of tea" then Bud light wouldn't be the most popular beer on the planet.


A lot of new brewers decide to brew what they like to show off their skills to friends, family, etc, and many times there efforts are for naught, because their audience truns out to be die-hard bmc drinkers, and are unwilling to try, or just plain don't like, what they spent their hard earned time and money making.

So if you really want to do this to make people happy, you really need a spread of beers that will appeal to the greatest number of people. It doesn't mean you have to make crappy beers, or budlight clones....it means that if you make all strong, or hoppy, or "challenging" beers, then don't be pissed off if people make a beer run for a case of BMC.

When people ask about this, I usually refer people to the tap list in Biermuncher's BYO magazine Rolling Garbage Can Kegerator thread. He did it for an anniversary party, where more than likely the audience weren't homebrewing beer geeks, like us...

He kept it simple, as you can see from the pics..

7005d1217425902-biermunchers-rolling-kegerator-byo-published-rolling_kegger9999.jpg


It may be hard to see by the tap pics, but he made a BMC-esque Cream Ale (iirc it was his Cream of the three crops, or Centennial Blonde,) and Irish Red ale, and a Blue moon-type clone.)

ANd this is the result of his party...

Biermuncher said:
he Friday night pre-party was at my house for just relatives. There were probably 35-40 Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. We killed one keg of the Cream ALe, half a keg of the wit and surprisingly, nearly half a keg of the Irish Red. It was a nice prelude to the real party on Saturday.

Saturday AM I went over to the house to set up the rig. I gotta be honest...the last thing you want to think about after a 2AM beer binge the night before is waking up early to lug four full kegs around in 98 degree heat.

Once I dropped the three cornies into place, the rig only held two large bags of ice. I put the other two bags into the freezer and asked my BIL, (staying at their house) to refill the rig with fresh ice as necessary.

Turns out the insulation was enough that even after 8 hours sitting in the heat...he didn't need to add any ice.

When I got to the party at 5:00 and hooked up the CO2 unit, I was a bit nervous about everything working according to plan. I went first with the 9-Oz CO2 bottle thinking that if it ran out...I'd then go with the 1-pounder.

I hooked up the beer lines...fastened the gas lines to the CO2 unit and hooked up the ball locks. Dialed up the CO2 just until the needle lifted off the peg...and drew a pint of the cream ale. The first pint was pure foam.

Immediately I started regretting not having my other BIL pick up some cases of BMC as a back up.

I decided to draw a pint of the Irish Ale...and it was perfect. I moved to the Wit and it too was perfect. Holding out hope, I returned to the Cream Ale (which I knew would be the popular beer of the evening) and tried again. The first half of the pint...foam...but then...the beer started flowing smoothly. It looked like the more highly carbonated CA was just a bit touchier.

About this time, people started taking notice and lining up.

I spent the first 1 1/2 hours standing next to the taps talking about nothing but homebrewing. Even the blue haired ladies who were sipping white zin dropped their glass for a moment to sample some homebrew.

By the end of the evening, we went through a full keg of Cream Ale, plus half of a second that I brought (just in case) and killed the full keg of Irish Ale. The Wit had about 1/4 left this morning when I went to break things down.

All in all, the system performed flawlessly. No problems with the CO2. The beer stayed cold throughout and there was even ice in the rig this morning.

We all met back up at the house today (Sunday) for a brunch before people left town and all anyone could talk about was the homebrewed beer and the "cute little" delivery system out of the garbage can.

I couldn't have been more happy with the affair. Now..I'm of to clean some kegs and dismantle "trash-r-ator" until next time.

SO I guess I'm saying, know your audience, and make sure you make enough that would appeal to typical beer drinkers, not necessarily beer geeks...or else if you start one of those "no one drank my beer" threads after the fact I'm gonna slap you aside the head and say "I told you so."

:mug:
 
We have a family reunion coming up in June, too.

I just brewed a uber light Pils last weekend (10lb Pils malt, 1lb flaked wheat) that should appeal to those rednecks. Unless I drink it, first.

What I will probably do is haul a 5 gallon keg of something light (Pils, other light lager, blonde ale), maybe a 3 gallon keg of something I like, like an amber, and several 1 and two liter bottles of whatever I have on tap at home.

I'm about to order one of those aquarium regulators that work on paintball bottles. Hopefully, it will work for portable serving.
 
American Wheat all the way, you can't go wrong with this beer in the summer and everyone from BMC drinkers to homebrewers can enjoy this.
 
I'd do a pale ale, nothing too hoppy, but with good body. What about a batch of Apfelwien? I bet that would go over nicely on a hot summer evening
 
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