Question: Wedding Beer Quantity... with a twist.

[Silentdrinker]

I'm getting married sept 2nd. I'm making beer & cider, maybe some hard lemonade and/or hard root beer.

I purchased a specific chest freezer that fits my 10 gallon corny kegs with out a collar, so I'll be serving in those. I have a total of 9 of them for 90 gal. I also have a metric ton of other kegs if need be. But I'd like to stick with just 10s if it's sufficient.

The keezer will fit 4 of the ten gal kegs along with a 20lb c02 tank and an 80lb nitrogen (beer gas) tank. Plus a smaller 3 gal keg could fit on the bump.

We're estimating about 120 people, some heavy beer drinkers, some wine drinkers. We will have a couple cases of wine but no hard alcohol.

With that said, I need some help figuring out, hopefully by others previous experience, as to how much I should make in total.

Here's the twist, were camping over night. We don't expect everyone to camp, and I can't say as to how many I expect to camp. I imagine it'll be over 50 and will probably be most of the heavier drinkers.

Ceremony is at 4:30 I believe.

My other concern is keeping the spare kegs cold. I figured ice buckets should do the trick.

I'll have a cream Ale at around 5%. This will be the majority of the beer since it's cheap to make and it's a good beer for those who aren't adventurous. I'm thinking maybe 30gal.

I'll have an imperial milk stout about 9% on Nitro. I was thinking of 10 gal, maybe 20 gal since it's not a cheap beer to make.

There will be a hopped cider. I was thinking 6-7% and about 20gal of that

Then I'll have a IIPA at probably 10gal, maybe 20gal. I'm thinking 8-9%

Depending on what I decide, I may replace 10 or 20gal above with either hard lemonade or root beer or something different.

So that would equate to 90 gal with a variety of ABV.

Thoughts? Does 90gal sound sufficient or overkill for my scenario?

Thanks.

 

[SirSpectre]

90 Gal is 3 barrels roughly.

I had a heavy beer drinking crowd at my wedding with 1.5 barrels. Barely went through half that with 180 people. 1 barrel is 300 beers.

I made 4 5 gallon kegs for a wedding last summer. went through 3 of those with 150 people.

I think your plan is overkill imo, but thats just me.

 

[Silentdrinker]

90 Gal is 3 barrels roughly.

I had a heavy beer drinking crowd at my wedding with 1.5 barrels. Barely went through half that with 180 people. 1 barrel is 300 beers.

I made 4 5 gallon kegs for a wedding last summer. went through 3 of those with 150 people.

I think your plan is overkill imo, but thats just me.

Thanks. I appreciate your experience.

How long was your wedding? At 1.25 barrels, you averaged about 2 (16oz) pints per person, so that doesn't really seem like a heavy drinking crowd, unless your wedding was short. I believe a barrel would be 248 16oz pints or 330 "bottles" at 12 oz.

The wedding you brewed for averaged just slightly over 0.8 (16oz) pint per person, that's not very much at all.

A friend went through 2 kegs, so a barrel, with 90 people at their wedding. And they said most people drank hard liquor. Plus they didn't have a camp over.

I brewed for a buddies wedding, but don't remember the exact numbers. But we went through 30 or 40gal plus wine. The wedding ended really early too because it was outside in July. People were too hot to stick around. But they did provide mason jars, with lids, as their cups. So people did take beer home in those.

It's so hard to estimate. And I know if I do 50gal, we would run out and probably have gone through 80. But if I end up making 90, we will end up taking home 50 gallons. That's how my world works.

 

[Gonefishing]

Given the time and money to make it, I'd rather have too much left over than run out. Since you're providing the alcohol are you taking pains to make sure that no one gets smashed and drives? It could come back badly on you if someone did get drunk, leave and smash into someone.

 

[Electrake]

First and foremost, all I read was to the word lemonade. SKEETER PEE. Google it if you don't know.

 

[Silentdrinker]

Given the time and money to make it, I'd rather have too much left over than run out. Since you're providing the alcohol are you taking pains to make sure that no one gets smashed and drives? It could come back badly on you if someone did get drunk, leave and smash into someone.

Ya, I agree. I feel like we will be close to 80gal by the end. I'm just second guessing myself, and intend to go overboard most the time, so I was hoping for some insight from those with experience. I wouldn't mind to avoid hauling 9 ten gal kegs.

You make a good point. We're in Oregon, so we are a social host law state though it can be difficult to win since the injured 3rd party would have to prove some stuff against us to have a case. Regardless of the law, we're going to do our best to avoid any irresponsible activities especially drunk driving. We have some friends who can't or won't be drinking and they'll help keep an eye on things. But this will be a self serve event, plus anything can happen. Because of that, we're getting insurance that includes damage to the venue and social host protection if anything unfortunate were to occur.

First and foremost, all I read was to the word lemonade. SKEETER PEE. Google it if you don't know.

Yup, I've read about skeeter pee years ago but I've never actually made it. I have a different recipe for mine. I use frozen juice concentrate and some DME. Thanks for the tip though.

 

[Gonefishing]

The insurance sounds like a great idea. Sounds like you have the bases covered well.

 

[btbnl]

The two big events I've catered each had ~200 people (including wine drinkers) for ~6 hours and both times we got through 6 x 5 gallon kegs.

Given that you're planning for an extended period of drinking though I might back off the ABVs ... there's a reason session beers are called that.

There's also the balance; with 4 taps and a NorCal crowd I do 2 hoppy (an IPA and a hoppy pale), 1 amber (English bitter, Irish red, etc) and 1 blonde. Unless you know you've got a bunch of hardcore stout drinkers, that's a niche.

 

[Sadu]

Just gonna put this out there. America sounds like a pretty f**ked up place to live if you give away free beer and can be liable if someone drink drives on the way home. Does this country have no concept of personal responsibility?
I don't mean to be rude, and host responsibility is a good thing, but to have to take out insurance for what your guests might do is a foreign concept to some of us.

 

[madscientist451]

Its your wedding, its supposed to be fun and not a hassle. You're already doing enough with 40 gallons of beer. Tell everyone there will be 40 gallons of homebrew and if they want to bring an extra 12 pack (in their own coolers w/ice) then there won't be any worries about running out.

 

[derekcw83]

Just gonna put this out there. America sounds like a pretty f**ked up place to live if you give away free beer and can be liable if someone drink drives on the way home. Does this country have no concept of personal responsibility?
I don't mean to be rude, and host responsibility is a good thing, but to have to take out insurance for what your guests might do is a foreign concept to some of us.

Agreed, we've become a country that sues anyone for anything. All mistakes, accidental or intentional, are someone else's fault lol

Regarding the beer quantity, definitely rather have too much beer than not enough. You can always drink the rest later.

 

[johnwpowell]

Why not take some pressure off yourself and buy some alcohol in addition to your brew.

 

[jodell]

I brewed all the beer for my wedding. I did 40 gallons for 200 people, however not a tom of heavy beer drinker and, not over night.

As far as everybody saying take the pressure off...i disagree. I absolutely loved brewing for my wedding and felt like it was more of a fun challenge rather than a pressure. If brewing is a passion then fill them kegs up!

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Some months ago I brewed a Kolsch, a Witbeir and a SMaSH IPA for my daughter's wedding. All the beer's were between 5% to 5.5% alcohol, out of 170 bottles we had 18 left over after the wedding. The Kolsch ran out the quickest, followed by the Witbier, there were 70 guests and the event was at held FoxFire Mountain House over 3 days. During the actual wedding reception, and whenever the bar was open, we weren't allowed to drink our own beverages.

I debated whether to bring kegs or bottles and in the end my Beer Gun got a really good workout, to me it wasn't worth dealing with Co2, kegs and taps so far from home. Plus the sound of the staff tossing all those empty bottles in the dumpster each morning was priceless.

 

[brick_haus]

Watch out for wedding crashers, like we had last month at my nieces wedding! But I digress...
For her wedding I brewed 15 gallons for 130 People, mostly young craft beer drinkers. We barely finished it off. There were however about 20 cases of wine left over...

 

[Miller4]

My 2 cents from how our wedding went. I did 9 five gallon kegs of home-brew and then we also had two half barrel kegs, one of sierra Nevada pale ale and one of Kiwanda cream ale. We also did a camp out, and the night before the wedding we only tapped the sierra nevada. Day of the wedding we went through all of the home-brew except one keg that inadvertently never got hooked up, and we finished the sierra nevada. Then made a good dent in the Kiwanda the day after the wedding. So I would say approximately 60 gallons finished during the weekend. We didn't provide any other alcohol though other than some random cases of beer. There was probably around 70 people at the actual wedding ceremony and 25ish that stayed the night. I was happy that all of the home-brew got finished before the commercial beer, and the one keg that didn't get finished I happily took home to keep working on after our honeymoon. Let me know if you have any other questions, and congrats.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=591473

 

[ChelisHubby]

Just gonna put this out there. America sounds like a pretty f**ked up place to live if you give away free beer and can be liable if someone drink drives on the way home. Does this country have no concept of personal responsibility?
I don't mean to be rude, and host responsibility is a good thing, but to have to take out insurance for what your guests might do is a foreign concept to some of us.[/QUOTS. Sadu we have to many lawyers and people not willing to be responsible for there actions, But that said I don't think I know off a place I would rather live. But there are some laws that people would love to repeal.