Wedding Beer

[GreenBoneBrew]

I want to brew a couple beers for my sisters wedding for the end of Sept. I've seen other threads where couples are looking for beers to purchase or ideas on home brews.

What I'm looking for are beer recipes that are brewed just for weddings or similar celebrations. Just like there are seasonal beers, are there celebratory beers? A beer with herbs and bitters other then hops would nice.

If not, I'll probably be looking to make a Oktoberfest, IPA, or ESA. Thoughts?

 

[dwarven_stout]

It's all personal preference, really. Have you asked her if there's anything she'd like?

I brewed 30 gallons for my wedding- porter, Basil IPA and a Drifter APA clone. 120 people (maybe half beer drinkers) drank me almost dry.

 

[BrewLou]

Shes more a wine girl, hence why she did her own wine.

Her brother is a Pale Ale/Porter kinda guy, and is into the craft brew scene. I brewed her family some beer at xmas time and it seemed to be a big hit. Ill end up brewing em both probably lol. Ill just take some of everything for a nice variety.

We are looking at ~95 invited, figuring ~60 may actually show and most will be beer drinkers. Im thinking with ~50 bottles of wine from the fiance, ~100 bottles of beer from me should be good.

 

[TopherM]

I'm not sure I would do bottles for the general public unless you bottle them from a keg. If you naturally carbonate, you will have the obligatory yeast sludge and sediment at the bottom of each bottle. Your wedding guests are not going to know to pour to the elbow and leave the sediment, and they are going to be drinking yeasty beer, which is not favorable to the palate of people that are not used to it. It doesn't matter how good the beer is, if you have peeps pouring the whole thing or drinking it straight from the bottle, they are going to get a mouthful of yeast and think it's garbage.

If you can, I might take this wedding as a good excuse to purchase a 3-4 keg setup to avoid the inevitable yeasty bottled beer issue.

Oh, and I'm no math wiz, but 100 bottles of beer for 60 people is like 1.7 beers per person. I am always on my best behavior at most weddings, but can't remember ever drinking less than 6-7 beers at a 4 hour reception. I'd go through more like 10 if I was allowed

We went through almost 528 bottles of beer (has only a few left out of 22 cases) for a crowd of about 125 at my brothers wedding a few summers ago, and were also serving liquor and wine. I think you'd better plan on making more like 20-25 gallons/200-240 bottles worth for a crowd of 60+ if this is the only source of beer.

 

[BrewLou]

Your math is correct, I am not trying to brew everything for the wedding. We will be getting kegs. My beer is simply something I wanted to do, as well as her wine.

Your thoughts are appreciated though, because I did not think of the sediment possibly freaking people out. I will make an "instruction" page for the favors table to show people how to actually pour and enjoy home brewed beer!



Vanilla porter is almost done boiling now and then onto the pale ale!

 

[luke2080]

Your math is correct, I am not trying to brew everything for the wedding. We will be getting kegs. My beer is simply something I wanted to do, as well as her wine.

Your thoughts are appreciated though, because I did not think of the sediment possibly freaking people out. I will make an "instruction" page for the favors table to show people how to actually pour and enjoy home brewed beer!



Vanilla porter is almost done boiling now and then onto the pale ale!

If the beer is partly a fun idea for the wedding, you may just want to brew something light like an APA, and someting a bit heavier like your Oktoberfest thought, and bottle them in tall bottles. Have a bottle of homemade wine and 2 - 750ml bottles of beer at each table, with some sampling glasses people can take home as a gift. That will give each table something fun to do.

 

[1stTimer]

I jsut brewed two batches for a friends wedding. A double choclate stout and a belgian strong. I think I filtered out most the sediment but I figure it wont hurt anyone.

 

[GreenBoneBrew]

I'm going to keg and have some bottles of nice stuff I'm thinking. But since the thing is going to be catered, I'm going to have to do it on the side. Only the people in the know will know where to get it. The wedding is going to be on the farm we grow up on, so I know where to stash the good stuff. They are planning on MGD and Miller Lite. I think I could drink a case and be sober, might have to pee three times also.

 

[badhabit]

I have brewed for 7 weddings. I brew what the couple likes and what they think their guests like. The taste is something I can't predict but I will make more seasonal suggestions. About the only thing that is sonsistant is that everybody wants at least one wheat, I typicaly brew a Hef or a Wit depending again on their taste. I do not like to brew more than 2 pints per guest. I've never had any problems with that quantity and making, transporting and serving 5 cornies full of beer for a crowd of 100 is enough work for me. I love doing it.