Brewing For 150 Wedding Guests

[rlonardo]

Hey all. I'm getting married next summer and was planning on brewing a large portion, if not all of, the beer for the occasion. I was hoping to get some advice from some of you who may have some experience with such a task.

First item - quantity. How much should I need? 150 guests, but wine and spirits will also be available. And not everyone drinks beer, especially on her side. I was thinking in the range of 300 bottles.

Second item - what brews? The following are what I had in mind:

1. Citrus Blonde - I've brewed this one a couple of times and currently have the recipe at the point where I wouldn't change a thing. I was thinking of going big on this one since it is such an easy drinking summer brew.

2. Berliner Weisse - Another easy drinking summer brew. Also it's a good choice for those who don't really like beer. My own recipe, 50/50 wheat Pilsner, a lil hops and and no boil make this one quick and cheap.

3. Russian Imperial Stout - Sounds like a terrible idea for an August wedding, but she's Russian, so I thought it'd be fun to brew one for the wedding.

4. Pale ale/IPA - A big part of my family really enjoys IPAs so I was thinking to include one. I don't really have any tried and true recipes, so if someone has any advice that'd be great.

5. Wheat Beer - Just an idea...

Any other suggestions or brews you think I should omit?

Finally - timing. I think I'm about to answer my own question, but to me it makes sense that if I'm going to brew the RIS I should do it relatively soon and let it age until the date. The berliner could be done early in the summer so that it is warm enough to let the lacto do its thing but still allows enough time to sour in the bottle nicely. The IPA/Pale ale/Blonde would be timed so that hop aroma/flavor is preserved for consumption.

Thoughts!? Advice!? I'm gonna drive her and myself crazy in the next year!

 

[day_trippr]

It'll be Summer, the "biggest" of the four Beer Seasons.

That'd be 6 kegs, and you have five recipes already.
I'd brew two batches of the Blonde, it's bound to get the most action.

I attended a wonderful wedding and reception two weekends ago on a rather warm day (80s with full sun) and the best of the beers ran out too soon. It wasn't tragic, but it wasn't optimal...

Cheers! (and congrats to the Bride )

 

[day_trippr]

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[feinbera]

As somebody who only had a full-time, 9-5 gig for two of the six months leading up to his wedding, and still didn't manage to find time to brew even once during that time, I'd say, get her enthusiastic buy-in now, and put those brew days on the calendar. All that fiddly little crap you don't care enough to be thinking about now, but won't wanna completely half-ass when the time comes to get it done, will completely consume every hour you don't reserve ahead of time.

Oh, yeah, the beers sound pretty solid... I'd maybe go for a dry-hopped pale for beer #4, something with enough late/dry hops to keep the hopheads happy, but light enough on the 60-minute additions to avoid "bitter beer face" for the guests who haven't been fortunate enough to experience a lupulin threshold shift. Hell, double up on it, and skip the hefe if you're also doubling up on the blonde – you'll want something folks can drink all night without getting bored (the blonde) or plastered (the RIS).

 

[ryan_george]

We brewed all the beer for our wedding, and had ~100 guests (We also had wine and spirits available as well). If you advertise that the beer is all made by you, you'll find that more people (even the non-beer drinkers) will want to try some/all of it. So prepare for additional consumption.

We started the event with 3 x 50L (Kolsch, Smoked Ale, and IPA) and 2 x 20L (RIS and Belgian Dubbel) kegs. They were pretty much gone by 9 pm. Had to run home and grab another 2 x 50L kegs. We thought we were being conservative, but people loved the beer way too much! My suggestion is make sure you have more than you think, or have a backup plan ready.... Nobody wants the booze to stop flowing

 

[Xpertskir]

we had 65 people at my wedding earlier this year and I brewed all the beer. We had no liquor, but did have a lot of wine drinkers and some older non/low beverage count drinkers and we went through 30 gallons. You're numbers are way low. Plus extra beer can always be taken home, I've never been to a party with too much alcohol, running out on the other hand is a travesty.

You need to go the keg route, period. Bottles in the quantity you are talking about is going to be a PITA. Use this as an excuse to SWMBO to get a kegging set up/a bunch of kegs.


DO NOT brew a RIS, just don't. There will be a ton of craft beer neophytes that end up drinking your beer, and they don't have the intelligence or tolerance to handle a beer of that size. It's asking for fights and/or vomiting.


I'd keep all the OG's below 1.055 and make sure to have quantity of some easy drinking stuff like blonde, kolsch, wit ect. Maybe do one IPA, but you can make a ton of great hoppy beers under 1.055.

As an example for my wedding I had Kolsch, american wheat, pale ale, IPA, and milk stout

 

[Ramitt]

I'd second going with kegs. You can get some decent deals on multiples of pinlocks. Adventures in homebrewing has 4 pinlocks for $140 on sale right now. I'd imagine other retailers do also. With all the other work you will have leading up to the wedding bottling 300 beers would suck.

 

[podz]

DO NOT brew a RIS, just don't. There will be a ton of craft beer neophytes that end up drinking your beer, and they don't have the intelligence or tolerance to handle a beer of that size. It's asking for fights and/or vomiting.

You obviously don't know how Russians can drink! I am assuming that approximately half of the attendees will be Russians.

 

[DonH]

I recently Brewed for my Sisters wedding. WITH 260 people! I did 1/2BBL of a blonde ale 1/2BBL of a Nut brown ale, and 1/6BBL of a Baltic Porter for those wine drinkers that like dark beers. Its good to have a nice variety yet not scare the drinkers away with very "exciting" beers. You might have those beer drinkers that love the BMC's so its a good idea to have a keg of BMC on tap also. I did notice you will be bottling, make sure the bartenders know how to pour homebrew! You do have a nifty list up there, figure 5 to 6 12oz beers per person

 

[IanJ]

I had the idea to do this for my wedding but the venue won't allow it, stupid laws. Best of luck to you, though!

 

[lostcheesehead]

The brews you mention look decent. I was actually in the Columbus area for a May wedding in 2012, and it was warm (especially all decked out in wedding duds). All the ones you mention, aside from the stout, will be well-received, no doubt. Stay light, stay malty, especially if you don't know the taste preferences of everyone who'll be there.

All that said, I'll point you to an article I wrote for this site covering the very topics you're wondering about: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/7-tips-brewing-100-beer-loving-friends-family.html

Good luck!

 

[Ramitt]

I had the idea to do this for my wedding but the venue won't allow it, stupid laws. Best of luck to you, though!

That would be an important consideration to be sure of before hand.

 

[Xpertskir]

I had the idea to do this for my wedding but the venue won't allow it, stupid laws. Best of luck to you, though!

Laws had nothing to do with it. Their profit however played a large role.