Serving Wedding Brew

[UberHasselhoff]

Hello everyone. I've been brewing for a couple of years now and like most of you, I love it. I probably spend far too much time on it to be honest. I am getting married in 10 weeks or so and the future SWMBO agreed to homebrew for the wedding! Score. Our venue allows it and there are no problems transporting it. Here's were it gets tough:

How the hell do I serve it?

We are having a relatively small wedding, probably 60 people, and I'd like to have 15 to 20 gallons of beer ready to go. Hey, we're big drinkers here in WI. l have quite a bit of brewing equipment but I do not own any kegs, kegging equipment, jockey box, or spare fridge/chest freezer. I exclusively bottle at this point.

1) I think bottles would be fine, especially with nice labels. However, worried about the yeast shot. I don't suspect I'll have the chance to explain to everyone how to pour a beer without sediment. So that doesn't seem like great option. Considered making a friend play bartender, but that seems like a lot to ask someone for 5 hours.

2) We're moving abroad after the wedding, and while I'd love four kegs and the setup, I wouldn't be able to use them much afterwards. So I don't want to drop over $200 or so. (Although I might be able to eek out a bit more).

3) I've thought about getting a corny keg setup for one, 5 gallon batch and getting some sort of counter pressure filler. The idea was to carb the beer up in the key for 3 days, then fill bottles. It seems like that setup would come in around budget and the sediment would be greatly reduced. What have your experiences with this been (quality wise, oxidation problems, cost... etc)? Also, keeping the keg at 40 degrees might be a challenge without a fridge, especially for 3 to 4 batches.

So that's where I'm at. Come through for me, brewing buds!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[homebrewhaha]

I'd suggest hiring a bartender who can properly pour your brew (it shouldn't cost you that much—they work mostly on tips),

OR

You're in Milwaukee? Do you have a brew club? Or friends who homebrew/keg? If it's for your wedding you might be able to get folks to loan you their kegs for the day, or even brew some beer to contribute to the cause. If you don't have a lot of connections to those kinds of people, the first option may be a lot easier.

Good luck and congrats.

 

[Gunfighter04]

If you don't want to use this as an excuse to buy kegging equipment, then I'd probably go with PET bottles of a larger variety 22oz? let someone at the bar who knows about the sediment pour out the beer.

 

[UberHasselhoff]

@gunfighter04: I completely agree! Working the keg supplies into the budget would be fan-f'in-tastic. Unfortunately we are moving to Berlin afterwards so I can't take them with me. <Solitary tear rolls down face.>

@homebrewhaha: I think you're spot on about the bartender idea. It's relatively inexpensive and comes with the added benefit of making mixers for the non-beer drinkers out there (as if they matter to me at all. ;-) Borrowing equipment is a possible option, but with my luck, the wedding day would be the day that something goes haywire.

Thanks for the responses guys. Seems crazy but I didn't even think of those... cheers!

 

[inkman15]

Would love to know how this works out for you. I'm also in the midst of planning my wedding (still over a year away) and I know that I'd like to serve homebrew. I have kegs and such to use but I'll have to ask my bartenders to serve from them. Mostly worried about how to make sure people know that homebrew is available as I'm also having a full bar and some bottled beers for my BMC drinking attendees (sigh…).

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Carbing in the brite tank (aka keg) and then bottling is a great way to do it. You could borrow the kegging equipment and knowledge from a local brewer and then force carb and bottle. No sediment. And easy to distro at the wedding.

I have bottled with my beer gun and been very happy. I just opened one last week that was packaged in 2011. No issues at all. So something to think about.

 

[kcmobrewer]

I would do the counter pressure filler idea. You can make a bier muncher bottle filler on the cheap. Like less than $10. I made one and it works great. Depending on how short you are on time, a cheap way to fine your beer is to use gelatin finings also. Just plain ole gelatin from the store. Super cheap and your beer will be crystal clear in a week, or less. Sediment free bottling, for not much investment, assuming you have a way to get the kegs really cold.

 

[NickTheGreat]

At my wedding in October, I wanted to serve my homebrew, but the winery wasn't setup for cornies. I just used one of their refrigerators with the kegs and picnic taps. I had a few friends of my sister do the pouring. And set up a tip jar, which they each got about $50 from.

Kinda low-rent, but it worked pretty well and they could keep up to the demand.

 

[UberHasselhoff]

I was going back through my threads and realized I never posted an update. So better late than never, right?

Took all the advice (thank you) into consideration and ended up sticking with bottling. I hired a friend of a friend that happened to be a bartender to pour beers at the wedding. He did a great job and it was fairly economical -- I think altogether I paid him $60 for 5 hours and he made about double that in tips.

Looking back now I think that cash *could* have gone towards a decent kegging setup, which would have also saved me bottling time but would have been much more expensive. What I will say is that it was SUPER nice to have someone there serving the beer that wasn't related (friend, foe or relative).

All and all it went well enough that I'm still married. Thanks again.

 

[NickTheGreat]

The fact that you're married is the important part. Congrats!

 

[JKaranka]

I used casks and minikegs. A lot easier and cheaper than acquiring kegs. You can get a plastic 6 gallon cask here for the price of 12 pints in the supermarket.

 

[UberHasselhoff]

The fact that you're married is the important part. Congrats!

Ha! It was a quick transition from GF to SWMBO. Oh boy.