How much beer should I have at my wedding reception?

[thetmaxx]

I have a weird question, but figure you guys must be experts in the subject. We are having our wedding reception for about 120 guests. My friends and I drink a lot of craft beers. There are a lot of people in our family though that are BMC drinkers. And quite a few winos. We are having about 36 bottles of red wine, same for champaign I think.

I was going to brew a "Black Tux Black IPA" "White Dress Witbier" and "Honeymoon Pineapple Wheat" (going to Maui for honey moon, where pineapples come from)

I am concerned about my estimate which was one 5 gal corny of each. Giving me about 150 beers.

Problem was it's $50 corkage fee for each one, and it was like $200 for a 5 gal keg of BMC. Should I up the home brew I'm bringing, like 2 kegs of each? Also I only Own 3 kegs, but that could change... We also have a cash bar and they have typical beers on tap.

Thank you for any input or ideas you may have.

 

[mxpx5678]

I think 3 kegs should be plenty. At my wedding we had open bar but I only have 1 or 2 beers since I was so busy. Also I doubt everyone will drink.

 

[broadbill]

BMC drinkers will probably not touch any of the beers you are serving...all they will see is black or cloudy.

The wine will give everyone one good pour for dinner, but not much more than that.

I don't understand your corkage fee...its $50 for 5 gallon of homebrew; and $200 or 5 gallons of BMC? Do they even make 5 gallon kegs of BMC?

I would predict that you'll be bringing back the majority of those three homebrew kegs.

 

[JohnnyO]

I didn't brew for my wedding, but I supplied all of the beer for the event. I severely overestimated how much people would be drinking. I was able to return any beer that was still in a sealed 12 pack/case container, fortunately.

However, I'm happy that I had enough and didn't have to worry.

So, if you're having a bar and then your beer, then I would think that a keg of each would be sufficient.

 

[broadbill]

I didn't brew for my wedding, but I supplied all of the beer for the event. I severely overestimated how much people would be drinking. I was able to return any beer that was still in a sealed 12 pack/case container, fortunately.

However, I'm happy that I had enough and didn't have to worry.

So, if you're having a bar and then your beer, then I would think that a keg of each would be sufficient.

huh....wouldn't have occurred to me to return the unopened beer. Would have said to myself "this isn't going to drink itself...time to get to work!"

 

[Ultrazord]

Depends on your friends. I know my friends would throw back 3+ each. Of course women would probably drink less since they weigh less.

A safe estimate is probably 2 beers per person, with a little bit of purchased stuff at the bar to fall back on if you run out.

 

[jhorgan1]

200 for a keg of BMC! A half keg (15.5gal ish) is 50-65 around where I live. I suppose it depends on how much your friends and family normally drink. My whole family is pretty Irish and pretty big drinkers and while I have no clue how much we drank we definitely would have killed all of your beer pretty quickly. If you family and friends like to drink a lot maybe you could bottle some of your beers from one of your kegs and then put more beer in the keg. So 3 craft kegs and maybe 50 bottles? Its really your call, I don't know how much you guys drink.

 

[fermenter]

1 keg of each should work.

Sorry thetmaxx totally off topic... but your going to Maui I hear?

I HIGHLY recommend checking out the following places on Maui
http://www.mamasfishhouse.com/
http://mauibrewingco.com/

have fun!

 

[teal]

Depends on if you're from WI or not.

I went through 5 1/2 barrels with a reception of about 100 people. My brother went through 11 1/2 barrels with 200 people.

 

[BunzoBrew]

I'd get 5 kegs of BMW and bring your home brew

 

[Apendecto]

Depends on if you're from WI or not.

I went through 5 1/2 barrels with a reception of about 100 people. My brother went through 11 1/2 barrels with 200 people.

Damn man. In both scenarios you've got each person drinking .775 gallons (8.2 12 oz brews) and .85 gallons (9.07 12 oz brews) at your bros.

If I got a 100-200 people together, I know several people who would put that much back but not everyone. That's crazy.

 

[teal]

Yeah - I hadn't planned on that much booze, brother did. He had open bar for the first hour too so people round here drink.

Course we both had our receptions at hotels so many spent the night. Easier to drink to excess when there's zero DUI worry.

 

[dutchoven]

We had 165 at our wedding. I brought 4 half-barrels, by the end of the night, only two had been tapped. We were serving wine and mojitos as well, though.

 

[blkandrust]

all of it!!!!!

 

[petrostar]

I have a weird question, but figure you guys must be experts in the subject. We are having our wedding reception for about 120 guests. My friends and I drink a lot of craft beers. There are a lot of people in our family though that are BMC drinkers. And quite a few winos. We are having about 36 bottles of red wine, same for champaign I think.

I was going to brew a "Black Tux Black IPA" "White Dress Witbier" and "Honeymoon Pineapple Wheat" (going to Maui for honey moon, where pineapples come from)

I am concerned about my estimate which was one 5 gal corny of each. Giving me about 150 beers.

Problem was it's $50 corkage fee for each one, and it was like $200 for a 5 gal keg of BMC. Should I up the home brew I'm bringing, like 2 kegs of each? Also I only Own 3 kegs, but that could change... We also have a cash bar and they have typical beers on tap.

Thank you for any input or ideas you may have.

I just got married in November an brewed all my own beer also! I had 85 guests and quite a few were craft drinkers and some were bmc drinkers. I did a keg of dry hopped pale ale, a roasted pumpkin porter and a fizzy yellow beer for wussies. Also had about 36 bottles of wine. Reception went till about 1200am and I had just a tiny bit of the pumpkin left. It was 9% abv so we didn't let people have full glasses. I think for our group it was the perfect amount. My family and friends thought it was the coolest thing ever and our wedding favors were custom labeled 'I do brew' a pale ale I made. If you're having liquor I'd say 3 is good. If not I'd say go 4 kegs. Hope I can help.

 

[thetmaxx]

Thank you all so much! Looks like I will probably do four kegs, IM thinking 10 GAL of the witbier,(even my grandma likes that, lol) then I don't have to brew a whole other beer, but its tempting to do a blonde for the fizzy yellow beer drinkers.

The venue we are using was the only onewe could find that would let us
bring my beer, I really wanted to do it at a winery... And they also charged corkage on the bmc keg, plus equipment to tap it, ice, bucket and some other bs....

And for the honey moon we are most definitely going to Maui brewing co. When my GF told me her boss was sending us there that was the first words out of my mouth, lol... You know your a beer geek when...

 

[dutchoven]

Maui Brewing Co. is great ... Their bar has a refrigerated/frozen surface to keep your beer cold ...

 

[dcbw]

Based on my wedding last year, go through your guest list and estimate how much each person would drink, based on what you know about them and how long they might stay at the party. Then add some margin. At mine about a hundred were at the post dinner party where there were kegs, for about 6 hours. Not all drank beer as wine and soda were available. We managed 15 out of 25 gallons of good craft beer (milk stout, amber, and ipa) and I just bottled the rest the next day since I didn't have co2 at the time.

 

[petrostar]

Oh, do a keg of root beer! People absolutely loved that. First thing cashed at my wedding

 

[thetmaxx]

Root beer is not a bad Idea actually... Might run that by my GF to see what she thinks...

 

[petrostar]

Root beer is not a bad Idea actually... Might run that by my GF to see what she thinks...

Btw, it takes 5 minutes to make and everybody said it was the best they'd ever had. My recipe called for maltodextrine and sugar, it made a difference.