Event brewing: what woud you put on 4 taps?

[btbnl]

I've been brewing for a number of events (fundraisers, parties) and a persistent question is what to serve.

For a single-keg tailgate, it'll always be a pale ale or IPA.

For the last 2-tap event I did, we ran a hoppy pale and a dry stout, though since it was a dinner event we switched to a milk stout towards the end of the evening and served chocolate ice cream floats for dessert.

If I bring out the keezer I could run 4 taps, and a bar-owning friend recommended an IPA, a pale ale, an amber and a pilsner as the most crowd-pleasing selection.

I'm still thinking a porter or stout belongs in there, but I'm not sure what it would displace. With bottomless kegs you could do something like run a hoppy pale and drop the IPA, but in the real 5-gallon world the pale and IPA are the ones that run out first (by a large margin) so having both helps cover the demand.

So what would you put on 4 taps if you wanted to please as much of the crowd as possible?

 

[worlddivides]

IPA, pilsner, stout, and witbier

if it were me.

 

[Mike_kever_kombi]

I've been brewing for a number of events (fundraisers, parties) and a persistent question is what to serve.



So what would you put on 4 taps if you wanted to please as much of the crowd as possible?

Unfortunately statistically it is probably something along the lines of:

Bud light, mille lite, coors light, and either blue moon or shock top.

I would personally go with , IPA, PA, Pilsner, and a brown ale. Brown is an ok compromise between Amber/red and a porter, without committing to either, and will please most people that prefer darker ales.

 

[Teromous]

IIPA, American Style Barleywine, RIS, Belgian Quad

 

[seanybubbles]

Cream ale, pale ale, stout, English bitter.....

 

[Rivenin]

Something hoppy, something dark, something light/refreshing, something malty
So like, IPA, Porter/stout, american wheat, amber gets my vote

 

[plankbr]

Blonde, British Bitter, IPA, American Stout.

 

[Jimbodaman]

Anything with a pretentious name. Happy Hippies Green Honey African Ale. Obamahater's Oatmeal Stout. ... and anything in between. Clever innuendo names and "shiny" packaging is honestly what most poser beer snobs like.

 

[eric19312]

IPA, APA, APA, Stout if you are pouring 4 kegs till the beer is gone and there are no reserves.

Depending on the crowd I might switch the stout for something with fruit.

If it were my beer friends it would look something more like Berliner, IPA, double IPA, RIS.

 

[Jimbodaman]

On a real note. American Honey Pale Ale is always what my friends and family go for. Definitely need a Stout preferably Oatmeal (personal favorite). Belgian Blonde/ Saison, also an Amber or Irish Red for the meek.

 

[btbnl]

IIPA, American Style Barleywine, RIS, Belgian Quad

That would be one hell of an event!

 

[MVKTR2]

That would be one hell of an event!

Indeed!

 

[b-boy]

I do a party every August. Last time I had 5-taps with a jockey Box.

I had hefe, hoppy pale ale, aussie bitters, oatmeal stout, Kentucky common. I also broke out some bottles of Belgian quad.

The hefe and the aussie bitters were the biggest hits.

 

[JayDubWill]

Unfortunately statistically it is probably something along the lines of:

Bud light, mille lite, coors light, and either blue moon or shock top.

I would personally go with , IPA, PA, Pilsner, and a brown ale. Brown is an ok compromise between Amber/red and a porter, without committing to either, and will please most people that prefer darker ales.

Unfortunate is right, but I agree. So translating this to homebrewtalk I would go with: BierMuncher's Cream of Three Crops, Da Yooper's House Pale Ale, BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde, and my own spot on clone of Blue Moon. Probably racked onto some blueberries for a week or two. Recipe upon request. and an invite to the party.

 

[ZebulonBrewer]

I had this problem last summer:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/my-homebrew-my-wedding-489271/

For the TL;DR crowd, it was a strawberry blonde, honey orange hefeweizen, and an IPA (Citra, Galaxy, and Cascade). Everyone loved it. This was in Ohio. In August. Outside. Very hot (~85 Fahrenheit)

The beers you pick should depend on the season/cirmcumstances. I like darker beers as much as the rest of us, but I knew this was outside in summer, so I went lighter (I even toned down the IPA to ~5.2% vs. 6.5%). If you're indoors in the spring (i.e. brewing now for the event) I would go:

Dry Irish Stout
American Amber Ale
American Cream Ale
English Special Bitters

 

[Phunhog]

I would be less concerned about individual beer styles. My four would be something light( Blonde, Cream ale, Pilsner, etc), something dark( stout, porter, schwartzbier), something hoppy ( IPA, DIPA), and something "interesting" ( spiced beer, fruit beer, funky Belgian).

 

[WI_Wino]

In wisconsin, whiskey old fashioneds on tap one, an amber, a pale ale/ipa, and some generic white wine to round it out.

 

[maffew222]

As a former bartender in the Bay Area, those who said IPA, IPA, Pilsener, Wheat Beer are pretty dang close. As far as tweaking that, it just depends on your event. Doing a hoppy pale (Think Drake's 1500, Cellarmaker, Faction) we found could satisfy any IPA drinker. Anyone not interested in that kind of thing really just wanted more abv and wasn't concerned about flavor.

As much as I love stouts/porters, you're talking about pleasing 15% or less of the total population in the Bay. Luckily with this time of year is really a great excuse to have a dark beer. I would suggest a porter over a stout. We were lucky to have backup bottles whenever a dark beer wasn't on draft.

So my personal vote would be IPA, Pale Ale, Pils/Blond/Belgian Wit, Porter. The light beers are interchangeable enough that the one light beer drinker is going to be either totally fine with light beer, or all they really want is their coors/budlite/whatever anyway and it won't matter. Or they want liquor.

 

[Zepth]

My keezer has 4 taps, 3@ 2.4 vol, 1 @ variable. The 3 will usually have: 1x crowdpleaser (Cent blonde, cali common), one IPA (or IIPA, or black IPA), one experiment of the month (currently a rye lager, almost done carbing). The variable is what I'll rotate for hefe or stout. I'm planning to give it a saison and porter at some point as well.

Long answer short: Variety.

 

[MVKTR2]

How you brew what you brew also comes into play. For instance if you're making an APA I'd go lighter on the hop bitterness than usual and keep the color extra light. However keep it hop forward with dry hops etc. The average light lager consumer equates color with BAD, don't give them the excuse.

Similarly make one of the beers all about the grain. A munich based blonde smash with Tradition or Hallertau hops is a fine brew. If you take this approach with 3 of the 4 brews I think it'd be okay to beat em over the head with flavor with the 4th beer. Make some new craft beer/homebrew converts and have fun!

 

[Onkel_Udo]

So for the crowd I used to serve at my yearly "We survived our families" post Christmas party we had a mixture of Ex/Current-Bar/Restaurant folks and Corporate Tools (I had a foot in both areas).

Honey Wheat at 6.5% ABV
Redneck Pale Ale 6% ABV and about 35 IBU
Poor Man's Porter 4% ABV...actually a mild

I would always get a selection of nice (for Oklahoma in the dark days)IPA's in bottles and other stuff from the visitors. We averaged about 40-50 drinkers and we invariably float the Honey Wheat first...and it later became nicknamed by the female bar employees "Leg-Spreader Ale" so please tone such a beer down on ABV.

 

[btbnl]

This was the menu for Monday's event with the full keezer and 150 cosmologists - Centennial Blonde, and tweaked clones of London Pride, Drake's 1500 and Bell's Two-Hearted Ale.

The SPT ran out first, soon followed by the POLARBEAR, with the BICEP and ACT fairly close behind. I was somewhat surprised that the Bitter ran as fast as the Blonde, but the rates may have been skewed by people preferentially drinking "their" telescope.

 

[ViciousFishes]

As a former bartender in the Bay Area, those who said IPA, IPA, Pilsener, Wheat Beer are pretty dang close. As far as tweaking that, it just depends on your event. Doing a hoppy pale (Think Drake's 1500, Cellarmaker, Faction) we found could satisfy any IPA drinker. Anyone not interested in that kind of thing really just wanted more abv and wasn't concerned about flavor.

As much as I love stouts/porters, you're talking about pleasing 15% or less of the total population in the Bay. Luckily with this time of year is really a great excuse to have a dark beer. I would suggest a porter over a stout. We were lucky to have backup bottles whenever a dark beer wasn't on draft.

So my personal vote would be IPA, Pale Ale, Pils/Blond/Belgian Wit, Porter. The light beers are interchangeable enough that the one light beer drinker is going to be either totally fine with light beer, or all they really want is their coors/budlite/whatever anyway and it won't matter. Or they want liquor.

I buy into this logic. I'd suggest: Pilsner/Blonde, IPA, (English) Pale Ale/ESB (may also satisfy the Amber drinker). Then go Brown, which should have crossover appeal to people who enjoy darker beers, while being approachable to other drinkers once other kegs start floating. I guess my preferences on what to do with 4 taps are expressed in my sig line

 

[DurtyChemist]

An IPA AND. A pale ale seems redundant. Most IPA drinkers will drink a pale ale but I doubt many pale ale drinkers would go for a hoppy IPA. Most people say they like IPAs and they say it drinking a pale ale.

Amber, pale ale, Belgian triple, stout/Porter and maybe a kolsch/SMaSH lager.

 

[DurtyChemist]

This was the menu for Monday's event with the full keezer and 150 cosmologists - Centennial Blonde, and tweaked clones of London Pride, Drake's 1500 and Bell's Two-Hearted Ale.

The SPT ran out first, soon followed by the POLARBEAR, with the BICEP and ACT fairly close behind. I was somewhat surprised that the Bitter ran as fast as the Blonde, but the rates may have been skewed by people preferentially drinking "their" telescope.

American pale ale stops at 50 IBUs so I'd call 70 IBUs an American IPA and not a pale ale. Bicep may have been a better choice for a pale ale with some slight recipe modification but I'll assume it's an ESB which could just be the difference between English and American pale ale.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

~50 ibu hop bomb IPA, oatmeal stout, cherry cider, and a tripel. The BMC crowd can drink water with some yellow food dye.

 

[MVKTR2]

There is actually a post on the first page that expresses almost exactly what I'm saying.

Something:
Hoppy - IPA/APA
Malty - Scottish Export, IRA, Belgian Blonde
Familiar/Simple - Cream Ale brewed with Pilsner malt & Saaz/Noble hops
Adventurous - Chocolate-Mint Stout, Spicy Belgian, Smoked Peach Ale

 

[MVKTR2]

Btw I love this question. It is almost like a 'desert island beer' question with different parameters. "What 4 beers to put on tap for a diverse crowd", might be an even better challenge at 2 or 3.

 

[StopTakingMyUsername]

depends highly on the type of event, and the time of year.

Non-beer-geek event (wedding, sports, music, etc):
probably Pale, pils (or blonde if no lagering capability), cider, and a high abv beer (this would be season dependent, big stout in fall/winter, triple IPA in spring/summer)

Beer-geek event or Beer festival:
IPA, highest ABV beer we have (these will always get a line formed purely for the number), a funky/tart saison, and depending on season a fruited sour (spring/summer) or gnarly BA imperial stout (fall/winter).