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My wife and I have hosted a Christmas party at each place we've lived over the last 20 years and for most of them I've served a keg of homebrew, generally a spiced Christmas ale, out of an insulated keg using a cobra tap. I had not last brewed for a party (or at all) since 2007 so this year was a long overdue renewal of our party's homebrew tradition.
This year I had brewed three batches especially for the party: an American Wheat lager, a SNPA clone with one of the kegs dry hopped with 2oz whole Williamette, and a spiced Christmas ale, and served them out of the Keezer I built this summer. We had about 60 people over for three plus hours including about 8 teenagers who are friends with my kids. Lucky for us the weather was super cooperative as it was about 70 degrees during the party so that we could leave our outside doors open the entire time and many people were out on the deck where I had a fire pit going. The fire pit wasn't really needed but a lot of people stood around it anyway as I guess there are ladies who get the chills easy.
For various reasons I had moved my Keezer from its original location in my dining room:
to the garage next to our spare refrigerator where you can see the great job my wife did painting the drip trey/cup holder to match the keezer collar:
Especially for the party I made up signs about being 21 to drink and to please, drink responsibly and also bought an internet camera and mounted it above the keezer. You can see it mounted on the wall in the bottom picture. I set up my Ipad in the kitchen where all the party food was located to monitor the keezer usage but that turned out to not be a problem as the teens all behaved themselves.
What I thought was a bit funny was that in the bottom picture, I had put an upside down white Styrofoam cup with a frowny face drawn on it over the Spice beer tap and removed its magnetic tap label from on top of the keezer because at the last minute before the party started I decided I wasn't 100% pleased with how it came out. The funny part is that didn't stop a lot of people who during the party asked me what was in that tap because they really liked it. Oh well, as long as they were happy with it then so am I.
The lager was definitely the beer consumed the most based on lifting the keg this morning. I think at least 4 gallons of it was gone. What surprised me though was that the pale ales were also very popular even with them having 46 IBUs. I know that is not super hoppy but it is much more so than a lot of people here typically drink. We also had 8 bottles of wine of which only three were opened plus water and soft drinks and two punches, one with vodka, but based on looking at what drinks people were holding homebrew was the beverage of choice by far.
Another interesting thing is that I put a kooler of Miller Lite next to the keezer for anyone who didn't want to try the homebrew. Exactly two people drank one Lite each and when I talked to them about it, it turned out they didn't realize what was in the keezer because I hadn't given them the beer directions when they arrived.
Anyway, there is no particular point to this thread, I just thought I'd share my party planning and experience.
This year I had brewed three batches especially for the party: an American Wheat lager, a SNPA clone with one of the kegs dry hopped with 2oz whole Williamette, and a spiced Christmas ale, and served them out of the Keezer I built this summer. We had about 60 people over for three plus hours including about 8 teenagers who are friends with my kids. Lucky for us the weather was super cooperative as it was about 70 degrees during the party so that we could leave our outside doors open the entire time and many people were out on the deck where I had a fire pit going. The fire pit wasn't really needed but a lot of people stood around it anyway as I guess there are ladies who get the chills easy.
For various reasons I had moved my Keezer from its original location in my dining room:
to the garage next to our spare refrigerator where you can see the great job my wife did painting the drip trey/cup holder to match the keezer collar:
Especially for the party I made up signs about being 21 to drink and to please, drink responsibly and also bought an internet camera and mounted it above the keezer. You can see it mounted on the wall in the bottom picture. I set up my Ipad in the kitchen where all the party food was located to monitor the keezer usage but that turned out to not be a problem as the teens all behaved themselves.
What I thought was a bit funny was that in the bottom picture, I had put an upside down white Styrofoam cup with a frowny face drawn on it over the Spice beer tap and removed its magnetic tap label from on top of the keezer because at the last minute before the party started I decided I wasn't 100% pleased with how it came out. The funny part is that didn't stop a lot of people who during the party asked me what was in that tap because they really liked it. Oh well, as long as they were happy with it then so am I.
The lager was definitely the beer consumed the most based on lifting the keg this morning. I think at least 4 gallons of it was gone. What surprised me though was that the pale ales were also very popular even with them having 46 IBUs. I know that is not super hoppy but it is much more so than a lot of people here typically drink. We also had 8 bottles of wine of which only three were opened plus water and soft drinks and two punches, one with vodka, but based on looking at what drinks people were holding homebrew was the beverage of choice by far.
Another interesting thing is that I put a kooler of Miller Lite next to the keezer for anyone who didn't want to try the homebrew. Exactly two people drank one Lite each and when I talked to them about it, it turned out they didn't realize what was in the keezer because I hadn't given them the beer directions when they arrived.
Anyway, there is no particular point to this thread, I just thought I'd share my party planning and experience.
