Brew Variety For Party

[jayahhdee]

March next year I am having a party of the engagement variety and being the home brewer that I am feel it is not appropriate to supply sub standard beer (aka macro) and would like to make it all.

After discussing with other people that have held similar parties recently I've decided I want to provide 3 different beers and a total of about 120 litres for 80-90 people (anything left over is mine )

I am thinking a Coopers Pale Ale or LC Bright Ale clone as a standard beer, an IPA for those that are more adventurous and a lighter beer for those that are driving etc. Pale/Bright Ale and IPA are pretty straight forward but I'm a little stuck on the light beer and it seems these are a little tricky to brew as there aren't a lot of recipes floating around.

I'm thinking there will be about 60L of the Pale/Bright Ale, 40L of the IPA and a single keg of the Light.

I've been looking at DrSmurto's Light Amber with a reduced Choc Malt to bring the colour back down a little, has anyone brewed any other light/low alcohol AG brews at around 3%? Looking for any other recipe suggestions, all beer will be served from kegs.

Also any advice from others that have done similar events with the only beer being served is there own would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rowy]

March next year I am having a party of the engagement variety and being the home brewer that I am feel it is not appropriate to supply sub standard beer (aka macro) and would like to make it all.

After discussing with other people that have held similar parties recently I've decided I want to provide 3 different beers and a total of about 120 litres for 80-90 people (anything left over is mine )

I am thinking a Coopers Pale Ale or LC Bright Ale clone as a standard beer, an IPA for those that are more adventurous and a lighter beer for those that are driving etc. Pale/Bright Ale and IPA are pretty straight forward but I'm a little stuck on the light beer and it seems these are a little tricky to brew as there aren't a lot of recipes floating around.

I'm thinking there will be about 60L of the Pale/Bright Ale, 40L of the IPA and a single keg of the Light.

I've been looking at DrSmurto's Light Amber with a reduced Choc Malt to bring the colour back down a little, has anyone brewed any other light/low alcohol AG brews at around 3%? Looking for any other recipe suggestions, all beer will be served from kegs.


Also any advice from others that have done similar events with the only beer being served is there own would be greatly appreciated.

Mate I've organised a shite load of do's over many years and I reckon for 80 or 90 people you might be a bit light on. You only need a dozen or 15 blokes to really give it a nudge and you might pull up short. Nothing worse than a prty that runs out of piss.

 

[bignath]

My concern would be less about your recipes and more to do with the quantity.....

I catered a shin dig last year for 20 people, and took along 2 cornies. It lasted less than an hour.....

You only need most people at the party to pull two or three beers each and things get dicey real fast!

 

[Steve@PMF82]

I've been looking at DrSmurto's Light Amber with a reduced Choc Malt to bring the colour back down a little, has anyone brewed any other light/low alcohol AG brews at around 3%? Looking for any other recipe suggestions, all beer will be served from kegs.

Also any advice from others that have done similar events with the only beer being served is there own would be greatly appreciated.

Ive done the good Drs light amber leaving out the choc, still heaps of colour and flavour from the carabohemian and with a larger % of the base being munich its really malty for low abv.

 

[ledgenko]

I agree with Nath on this one ... I catered for a 40th party last year ... majority of the people were non beer drinkers ... I took 5 kegs and I ran out in a couple of hours ... perhaps even consider 4 - 5 x 50l kegs or start bottling !! I work on about 1 in 3 people will drink a 6 pack ... 1 in 5 will drink 1/2 carton .. 1 in 6 will drink more than 1/2 carton .. so if 1 in 6 people drink 1/2 a carton and you are catering for 120 people ... that means roughly 20 cartons of beer will be required ... so roughly 10 cornies !!! That figure also includes the designated drivers, grannies and "Kardon-AY" drinkers ...

Anyone drastically disagree??? Besides if i am wrong then your Kegerators is looking fly and you have the best excuse to buy more kegs ;-)

Matt

 

[ledgenko]

Oh and sorry .. good choices on styles ... although sometimes it does pay to be a little adventurous ... I have surprised party goers with a challenging beer too .. Chocolate stout .. or double choc porter .. Rice based beers ... Thai ginger beer (using Gaalangaal and a little chilli) or perhaps something really different like Cerny Privot ... There has been much love and interest in the beer ... But as it is a Family kinda ts party dont forget the plain old POR ale so that the shandies can be made for the oldies ....

 

[ledgenko]

Oh and sorry .. good choices on styles ... although sometimes it does pay to be a little adventurous ... I have surprised party goers with a challenging beer too .. Chocolate stout .. or double choc porter .. Rice based beers ... Thai ginger beer (using Gaalangaal and a little chilli) or perhaps something really different like Cerny Privot ... There has been much love and interest in the beer ... But as it is a Family kinda ts party dont forget the plain old POR ale so that the shandies can be made for the oldies ....

 

[kymba]

as the above posts, are you sure about the quantities there? are a large number of your guests exclusive brethren or something?

think, if you were at a reception that went for a few hours - even if you were driving and drinking the lights - you could have X schooners no worries, i would say that X = 4

so if everyone had 4 schooners - 4 x 90 x 420ml = 152 Litres, and i would base that as my minimum, and account for say 10% of blokes that can drink a carton on their own before you are giving your speech

i'd up it to 200L with backups - if you had some 50L megaswill kegs then you'd be set

don't forget, you'll need the gas to drive all these kegs too

 

[Rowy]

I agree with Nath on this one ... I catered for a 40th party last year ... majority of the people were non beer drinkers ... I took 5 kegs and I ran out in a couple of hours ... perhaps even consider 4 - 5 x 50l kegs or start bottling !! I work on about 1 in 3 people will drink a 6 pack ... 1 in 5 will drink 1/2 carton .. 1 in 6 will drink more than 1/2 carton .. so if 1 in 6 people drink 1/2 a carton and you are catering for 120 people ... that means roughly 20 cartons of beer will be required ... so roughly 10 cornies !!! That figure also includes the designated drivers, grannies and "Kardon-AY" drinkers ...

Anyone drastically disagree??? Besides if i am wrong then your Kegerators is looking fly and you have the best excuse to buy more kegs ;-)

Matt

About the figure I reckon I always have worked in cartons as I am only new to Homebrewing but 20 slabs would be round about the money as long as they all aren't big pissheads. If they then that's a BYO story I reckon.

 

[ekul]

i've worked at various catering companies, and most men at weddings will drink mid strength lager when getting on it. So maybe a simple mid strength lager for your low alcohol beverage?

Where i worked they had some cracker beers in the fridge but we never sold them. The highest selling beer would have been teds by far, followed by crownies, heineken and corona. Interestingly we never really sold tooheys new or xxxx, i don't think the bottles are fancy enough.

 

[kelbygreen]

ekul thats coz they wont pay the $50 a carton for them but if there free they will drink them. if you work it out if every one drank a equal amount then they would only be able to have 3.5 375ml drinks. I sure as hell know Id be doubling that at least. so if 60+% are none drinkers you may be ok.

 

[ged]

JUst arrived home from a similar party I did for a friend. We had 6 kegs (2 x 3 tap kegerators) and about 20 male adults, plus ladies and kids.

I would do this
- make the LCBA clone, but scale it back to 3.8% - I reckon golden ales still taste great as mid strengths, plenty more hop flavour than a standard mid, beef out the malt bill with a higher proportion of Vienna but keep the alc down.
- make the Coopers Pale or similar Aussie full strength for the classic Aussie drinkers
- make whatever you bloody want for the third beer - an IPA, a Euro lager, an ESB, anything...

ged

 

[yum beer]

mate you wanna really think about the people that are coming to this do, Ive been to many a party with that amount of people and not unheard of to see 13-14 11 gallon kegs disappear.
If you know half of those people wont be drinking or will bring their own..spirits, wine, etc then you might be around the mark, but if youve got a bunch of drinkers you may well
be very short. Dont worry about a light, those who wont it can bring their own, and brew a keg of something in the 6-7% alc range to finish the night off...leave it till later in the night.

 

[jayahhdee]

Awesome replies so far guys, exactly the type of responses I was looking for. I've been basing my numbers off what I've seen at other engagement parties recently and then modifying that to the drinking habits of the guests we will have. The majority of our guests are wine drinkers unlike a number of other do's I've been too where it is the opposite, but keeping that in mind clearly it would be wise to increase the volume of beer by another 2-4 corny's.

@ledgenko I was thinking about having a sneaky 9l corny on the side with something a bit fun, maybe an imperial stout or something for those that are enjoying the beers.

When you have that many beers that you are prepping for a party what do people suggest for carbing the beer, chill, force carb and then put on ice the day before in an big ass esky until needed? Keep in mind the keezer will only fit 4 kegs. Or it is ok to carb them a couple of weeks in advance at 4c and then let them warm up again before chilling the day before? Clearly keeping up to 10 corny's cold is a challenge without a cool room.

 

[kymba]

if they are wine drinkers then make some big, ballsy beers to challenge them...get them lining up at the bar instead of reaching for the brown bros caraffe on the table

give them lots of cara, lots of late hops, and lots of stuff that will get you to 6 - 9%

just imagine the wankery words that will be bandied about!

you have just enough time...GO!

 

[bullsneck]

I agree on the suggestion you need more. A recent party I had for 35 people saw 4.5 cornies go in just under 4 hours! Lots of ladies drinking wine too, but were happy to try a beer because of the novelty factor (being that the beer was home made and served from kegs).

 

[pyrosx]

This isn't a pissup.... It's an engagement party. If there are guys there with the express intention of getting riotously drunk, then they've probably bought a bottle of jim beam already.

Don't get me wrong - getting drunk is awesome an all.... but there'll be grannies and aunties and all sorts of other people attending too - and I LOVE getting drunk in front of said people (how else do you listen to those stories again without puking?) - but will they drink 6 schooners each?

Homebrew is an labour of love - and i'm not sure i'm at the stage where wasting that kind of effort on people who would rather VB or Carlton drought* is actually worth it.

*yep... drought. I meant that

 

[pyrosx]

Also, constructively criticismly:

Do people really drink "light" beer anymore? I reckon most of the people that used to convince themselves that "light" beer was worthwhile are now onto "low carb".

I'd buy a six pack of cascade light and put it in the fridge. If half of it is gone by the end of the night, I'd be really surprised.

Also... for wine: www.graysonline.com.au - just don't bid on the cheap-arse cases i'm trying to buy

 

[ekul]

Usually with a wedding function they'll have a bar tab, so the guests can come up and ask for whatever they want, without having to pay. That is my point, even when people are faced with the choice of free beer they will go for teds, crownies etc etc

ekul thats coz they wont pay the $50 a carton for them but if there free they will drink them. if you work it out if every one drank a equal amount then they would only be able to have 3.5 375ml drinks. I sure as hell know Id be doubling that at least. so if 60+% are none drinkers you may be ok.

 

[mckenry]

Just my 2c without reading entire thread.
I brewed for my own wedding. About 60 guests, so 30 guys. I made 90L and it all went, but not way early.
Now - DO NOT brew a light. Buy that stuff.
I would make a LCBA clone, like you said, an English Pale Ale, and your IPA. Good combo. No point making a black beer, as they just arent popular enough.
mckenry