Planning brews now for a Holiday Party in December

[beernutz]

Almost every year since we got married in 1988 (damn, I'm old) my wife and I have had a holiday open house at our place. I think we've missed one time when we were between houses in an apartment in 1999 but otherwise we haven't missed a year.

Before I built a 4 tap keezer last July I'd generally brew some kind of spiced holiday ale and serve it from an insulated keg with a cobra tap. Last year I used the keezer for the first time but really didn't start planning what to brew until maybe a month beforehand. I brewed an American Wheat lager, a dry-hopped SNPA clone and my regular spiced ale and all were well received even though I didn't think my spiced ale was up to my usual standard for it. There were about 50-60 people who showed up over the course of a few hours but maybe a third were kids. None of the kegs were kicked but IIRC the fat lady was warming up next to the wheat beer keg.

This year I want to up the ante as well as change things up. I made some Pinot Grigio wine for the first time this year and it was much better than I expected it was going to be so I started another batch last week to serve. I'm going to put it inside with my newly purchased argon tank and regulator and serve it like I used to serve the spiced ale from an insulated keg with a cobra tap.

Instead of making spiced ale I've taken that recipe and made cider which has turned out great every time and more importantly my wife loves it so that will be in one of my 4 keezer taps. The other 3 are as yet unknown as my plan is to make a variety of 10 gallon batches up to party time and then pick which ones have come out the best. I'm thinking a good mix for the other 3 taps might be my oatmeal stout which has come a long way, some type of pils/lager, some other ale like an IPA or kolsch.

I have done a planning spreadsheet for the first time with some tentative brewing dates. If a beer has RBS next to it that is my own recipe I've brewed before and know what to expect. CB is a CloneBrews recipe, some of which like the IPA I've brewed before and some not. In all likelihood I won't be able to brew all those batches as in addition to those pesky people at work expecting something for their money my youngest plays high school volleyball and the travel schedule in the fall is murder.

I am kind of organizing my thoughts here and if anybody has feedback I'd love to hear it.

Cliff Notes for the tl;dnr crowd: I'm having a party in December and serving homebrew and homemade wine.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Looks like quite the party. What time shall we arrive?

 

[Teromous]

Are you pretty set on picking from those ones? Chocolate stouts usually go over pretty well.

 

[beernutz]

Are you pretty set on picking from those ones? Chocolate stouts usually go over pretty well.

Do you have a good recipe for one that you've made Teromous?

 

[hottpeper13]

How do you get the Kolsch to finish in 28 days? mine take 8 wks.

 

[beernutz]

How do you get the Kolsch to finish in 28 days? mine take 8 wks.

Except for a few really high gravity beers I don't think I ever take 8 weeks to finish a beer. What are you doing for 8 weeks? Are you both lagering and bottle conditioning?

For the Kolsch I expect I will primary about 2 weeks and lager 2 weeks, filter, force carbonate and serve. Maybe throw a day long diacetyl rest in there. If it doesn't work out I'll have other options.

 

[beernutz]

The old saying is that man plans and god laughs so the white bearded one is probably chuckling a bit now as I have revamped the party brew list quite a bit.

I'm trying to generate some word-of-mouth in advance about the brews, cider, and wine so we can break our attendance record from last year which I believe was just over 60 people in 3 hours. I'm thinking it would be unique to put the vanilla (cream ale) and coffee (oatmeal stout) side-by-side in the keezer along with the spiced cider and a beer to be named later, either the Pilsner or the IPA.