I have five years to brew a beer ...

[JetSmooth]

My 15 year high school reunion was last night. While drinking an eight dollar Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, i remarked to one of the organizers that, while it was a success, the evening was unnecessarily formal and a little pricey. As a result of the venue being an hour away from our home town and expensive tickets, we had about 50 of 300 grads there. For the 20th, i told him, we need to have it at the local Jaycees hall and make it simpler. Here is where i made my mistake. I offered to brew beer for the event.



I was thinking of doing something that could be bottled in wine bottles and maybe aged somewhat. Then we print up some labels for the occasion and put a bottle on each table for a toast. I'm certainly not trying to make kegs to provide beer the whole night.

Here' my conundrum; looking around the room, I saw more Bud Light and Budweiser bottles than the SN, Sam Adams, and UFO Hefeweisen. I can't show up with a barley wine or something like that. It has to be "winey" I guess. Maybe a dubbel? I haven't done anything more ambitious than a blonde or pale ale yet.

 

[Yooper]

Well, you'd have to use champagne bottles and corks/cages if you want to bottle beer in a wine bottle. Wine bottles aren't designed to hold pressure, and will blow up under pressure. Or the cork will pop out. Or both.

You could make a special mead or wine and bottle it in wine bottles if you want, though.

 

[JetSmooth]

Yeah, I knew I'd have to to champagne corks and cages. Is that something that's really hard to do? I guess I could also maybe find 750ml beet bottles and use crown caps, right? I want to bottle so I don't have to worry about kegging and doing that setup. Thinking about big bottles so I can do one or two per table and not have to bottle up several hundred individual bottles.

 

[Banjoman76]

My initial thought was a Radler or a Shandy might be appropriate.

 

[nebben]

I'd forget about my classmates and just drink the good stuff five years from now. FWIW.

Figure out how to make a good pilsner, and make a ton of that. The rest can do with your regular house amber or whathaveyou. Either way, it's good beer and easy to make (relatively speaking).

 

[JetSmooth]

I'd forget about my classmates and just drink the good stuff five years from now. FWIW.

Figure out how to make a good pilsner, and make a ton of that. The rest can do with your regular house amber or whathaveyou. Either way, it's good beer and easy to make (relatively speaking).

Yeah, but I wowed them this year by showing up to a black tie optional event in a velvet dinner jacket and jeans. Gotta step it up and do something even more impressive next year.

 

[cockybitz]

Well, you'd have to use champagne bottles and corks/cages if you want to bottle beer in a wine bottle. ..................

You could make a special mead or wine and bottle it in wine bottles if you want, though.

Nah, I cap champagne bottles all the time with standard caps. BTW, I 2nd the mead. To acquire champagne bottles just call a place that hosts weddings or the such. They can easily go through 2 or 3 cases for a single occasion.

 

[MacGruber]

I would also second a mead in this case. Let's face it, not everybody appreciates good beer. BMC drinkers will probably not drink what you're offering because it's not their thing. However if you offer a unique honey wine they'll probably be all over it because it's so uncommon.

 

[nealf]

I agree that not everyone appreciates good beer; however, it seems in my opinion that mead is a much more acquired flavor (IME). I would just go with a nice pale ale, a BMC clone (Cream of 3 crops?), and then maybe a batch of mead for the people that like to try new things. You could also toss in some apfelwein for good measure.

 

[Mbart]

If its like any other school assignment, I would just not worry about it until the night before.

 

[patrck17]

I agree that not everyone appreciates good beer; however, it seems in my opinion that mead is a much more acquired flavor (IME). I would just go with a nice pale ale, a BMC clone (Cream of 3 crops?), and then maybe a batch of mead for the people that like to try new things. You could also toss in some apfelwein for good measure.

Be sure to use rice hulls in the cream of three crops recipe. I made this yesterday with no hulls and as soon as I doughed in I was stuck.

 

[JetSmooth]

Nah, I cap champagne bottles all the time with standard caps. BTW, I 2nd the mead. To acquire champagne bottles just call a place that hosts weddings or the such. They can easily go through 2 or 3 cases for a single occasion.

That's a brilliant icea! There's a huge wedding venue here in Baltimore I can probably contact as the time to brew this draws close.

 

[cockybitz]

Give them time. I'd start collecting 6 months out, since not every wedding has a champagne toast, and getting people to do a separate task to save YOU a bottle is a little difficult. Believe me, I know.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Face it dude. You saw it yourself. They are gonna want something that tastes like Bud or Bud Lite. You have five years to get your lagering process nailed down so you can give them what they want. Laugh if you want, but if you can make that, you can make anything. Or you can just call the organizer and confess that you shouldn't have made your drunken promise.

 

[millsware]

Try to find some of the big flip-top bottles on craigslist or ebay.

 

[JetSmooth]

Actually, I'm thinking of shooting for something like Duvel. Higher alcohol and fruity quality may be a little wine-like. Saw a recipe here for one with a mess of pears, which sounded great. Our school colors were blue and gold. I wonder if I could make a Blueberry/Pear Belgian Strong Ale......

At least I have five years to play with the recipe. Something like that could definitely be served from a champagne bottle.

 

[JNye]

faaack it...if its only a bottle or two per table, its not about getting wasted, its about flavor, knock their socks off with a huge stout. JMO.

 

[Austin_]

While drinking an eight dollar Sierra Nevada Pale Ale...

Here' my conundrum; looking around the room, I saw more Bud Light and Budweiser bottles than the SN, Sam Adams, and UFO Hefeweisen.

If I had to pay $8 for a SNPA, I'd be drinking Bud Light, too.

 

[462studio]

Actually, I'm thinking of shooting for something like Duvel.

This is EXACTLY what I was thinking. Duvel is like the champagne of beer IMO.

 

[jessup]

...use champagne bottles and corks/cages...

i do this for all my specialty beers and it works great. use a regular wine bottle corker and cork the champagne bottles, then use the cage to keep the cap from popping out under pressure. nice presentation overall

 

[JetSmooth]

faaack it...if its only a bottle or two per table, its not about getting wasted, its about flavor, knock their socks off with a huge stout. JMO.

Yeah, but while I enjoy a nice huge stout, I don't think this is the crowd fr that. I'd rather knock their socks off with something complex and full of flavors while still being accessible to some of the folks who fear dark beers.

If I had to pay $8 for a SNPA, I'd be drinking Bud Light, too.

Yeah, that could have been a factor as well. I'll admit to switching to Budweiser for my seventh and eights bottle. Thank goodness they had Bell's in the hotel bar where we went after we got kicked out of the meeting room we were in. Never had it before and now I have to find it locally.

 

[nebben]

...Or, between now and then, brew a ton and get some serious experience. Then, open a brewery and have it supply the beers. The next best thing is to have your own company be serving your "homebrews" to your former classmates. Awesome!

 

[JetSmooth]

...Or, between now and then, brew a ton and get some serious experience. Then, open a brewery and have it supply the beers. The next best thing is to have your own company be serving your "homebrews" to your former classmates. Awesome!

Hahah. That's always the plan. Just don't know how much of a dive my income can take. The more my "day job" career progresses, the unliklier my transition int othe beer industry gets.

 

[JoMarky]

Champagne Beer

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/141

 

[devilishprune]

Champagne Beer

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/141

I didn't see Miller High Life anywhere on that list.

 

[steinsato]

I'd just start making mass quantities of Apfelwein. Easy to make and it ages very well. In 5 years you could have made enough to provide kegs for the whole night if you did that. I realize it isn't beer but hell, you still made it.

 

[eulipion2]

You've got five years: start four batches of mead now, bottle two in wine bottles, carbonate/referment the other two in champagne bottles (one batch in 750 ml, one in 375 ml), then let them mature while you work on your brewing skills over the next few years, culminating in a nice Cream Ale, Hefe, or something similar for the reunion. That way, you have your "lite but good" beer option, your wine option, and your "toast" and commemorative options.

 

[eulipion2]

Oh, and demand free admission for you and your "plus one" for your troubles!

 

[JetSmooth]

Hahah. That sounds like a lot of work.

I don't know if I have the room for all that in the area under my stairs. May have to rent a temp controlled storage space.

 

[eulipion2]

The meads can be bottled well before you have to worry about the beers, then you just need to find a dark, cool, dry place to store them for a few years. If you don't want to bother with yeast in the bottle, force carbonate the champagne mead and bottle with a Beer Gun or counter-pressure bottle filler. A cream ale or hefe just take a couple weeks to a few months, so they can be done fairly late in the game. Then you have all that time in between to brew for you!

I have faith, you can do it!