Craft Beer Wedding - PLEASE ADVISE!

Lucky son of a bitch.

 

There have been some great suggestions here...I know you can go to a brewery and just get kegs...They do it at witchs hat....With that said, I know this will be frowned upon by some, but I do believe your guests would appreciate something like Locals Light by Shorts..

 

For my wedding, I had oberon, 2 Hearted, Edmund fitzgerald, and bud light. I thought it was a nice balance.

 

I was lucky and had to bring my own. That is the U.P. for you.

 

Lots of good advice here and I'm going through a similar process for our upcoming wedding. My advice would be keep the ABV low and make sure there are mostly approachable beers for the less adventurous crowd. We're in a good position where the vast majority of our friends drink craft beer and my family will drink any beer even if they usually go for Bud Light when given a choice.

In our unique situation (I'm mostly gypsy brewing it) craft beer is cheaper than Bud Light so we will definitely not be having any swill. I'm planning to brew a Hefeweizen which her parents liked last time and a pale ale at least in addition to sours that will be reserved for the wedding party.

It's your wedding. Do what you want. It's irrational for someone to be mad for not having "their beer". I don't complain to the bride and groom when they only offer BMC at weddings. I just drink wine and have a good time anyway.

 

Mostly I agree with the people who recommend having a keg of Labatt or sometihng like that to appease the BMC masses, but you make a really good point about it being ridiculous for someone to get mad for not having "their" beer at "your" wedding. Like you said, I don't get pissed at the bride and groom for weddings I've been to where, if I'm lucky, the "craftiest" option is Blue Moon or Fat Tire.

 

Fat Tire is "crafty?"

 

Again, I understand why people bringing up BMC Beers to appease those kind of drinkers..Thats why I said Locals Light...Its better than bud light imo and its totally local which adds to it...

 

I think thats still far tooo much beer; good luck drinking even half that.

Michigan, right? Not Wisconsin....

 

What part of metro detroit are you in? bell's 2 hearted, oberon and any basic founders shouldn't be a problem getting. i will say that getting specialty short's beers will be tough. a lot of the beers are allocated and it's hard sometimes for good accounts to get them. if you want prices, let me know. i can get you pretty close to exact. deposit sucks though. $30 a barrel adds up. just BM me if i can assist you.

 

Ha, I didn't really mean to imply that New Belgium isn't craft, but rather, when your other options are all BMC AALs, an amber doesn't feel like enough of a departure as far as flavor goes; I'd hope for a PA at least, if not an IPA. SNPA, Two-Hearted, etc.

 

6 pints is a lot of beer to consume for the average person. Especially if some of your guests plan on driving home afterwards. But hey, better to be overprepared!

 

I missed whether or not you are for sure having liquor and wine. If so, there are a couple of things to consider. Even the people that generally go for beer at a bar tend to have a couple of drinks before switching to beer at a wedding. Either they think it is classier, or they want to "woohoo! cash in" on a free bar. I'd also figure a much bigger percentage of the women will have wine vs beer (either because they honestly prefer it or because they think it is more appropriate for their dress-up fancy outing).

You might want to break down your demographic into categories and into how many drinks people will generally range from. Outside of grandma, nobody generally has just 1, but lots of people might only have 2 (drivers, lightweights, older folk, people with small children, people who duck out early)

I'd probably figure 90% of each category to fall between:
Spirit drinkers only: 2-6
Mixed drinkers only: 2-8
Wine drinkers only: 2-6
Beer drinkers only: 2-8
People that hit the kegs after two drinks/wine: 2 drinks, 2-6 beers
Teetotalers: zero drinks

I'd take my average on the high side of right down the middle and try to work out the percentages I think my population is.

How long is your reception? I think 6 beers for half the guests as an average is either very optimistic or overestimating.

tl;dr -- I think counting half the guests as full time beer drinkers might be too much.

 

Seriously, on the shorts stuff, hit up @Brianw508 he can help you a lot with the shorts stuff

 

Here's pricing, DH Amber $142.00
Oberon $133
2 Hearted $145
Local's is either $90 or $100.
I don't have the exact shorts cost in my emails like I do the others. But remember there's $30 deposit per barrel. Those are retailers cost. So you'll know what it's bring marked up