Cheapish beer for parties

I looked into getting kegs before but it's an expensive way to do it, I guess it's a bit of a pain in the arse for breweries to do individual ones, plus dispensing equipment plus deposit etc. You could try polypins which would give you fresh, unpastuerised beer but again tend to be a bit pricy compared to cheap supermarket beer

eg, I just searched for polypins, loads more to chose from


https://www.harveys.org.uk/shop/dra...ypin-36-pints-20l-sedimented-best-bitter.html
https://www.hooky.co.uk/product/polypins-and-minipins.ashx

One thing you could do is order online from one of the continental beer shops who offer better prices than the uk beer shops if you want something a bit different from london pride. With the delivery charges spread over a large order it can be good value

see this thread
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/online-purchasing.264238/


Another thing might be to find a local micro who would give you a cask of their beer, you'll still need a deposit and to be able to keep it at a proper temp etc though

 

Are mini kegs more reasonably priced per pint?

For my birthday my local let me buy a cask at cost.

 

Larger Tesco stores sell mini kegs for around £16. I've seen St Peter's amongst the selection.

 

The cheapest way would probably be bulk buying cans of London Pride (or Hobgoblin etc) if you really want it to be ale.

That or brew something yourself, which can work out really cheap if you have the equipment, and good if you know what you're doing.

 

Sounds like one hell of a party. If it was 50 of my mates for 4 days it would be an expensive feat (If I had 50 mates that is....) Cans is the way to go.

 

The only way to go is casks/pins. Are you friendly with any of your landlord's?

I did exactly this over Christmas, but only for one night and 7 real ale drinkers with two pins. 72 pints not accounting for any loss. So 10 pints each and they all went somehow. Could probably bring this cost down even further depending on what you take. I was very specific in my requests.

All this from a truly great and underrated local brewer via my favourite local landlord for £100 including delivery, beer engines, cooler, glasses, set-up and tapping a couple of days later. You can get people to chip in for the novelty factor of being able to pull their own pints too. Really impresses people having casks of beer in your house. Nothing really special about drinking cans of beer. And out of 50 guests I'd imagine a few would be snobby like me and not like drinking anything that didn't come out of glass or a cask!

 

contact one of your local breweries, see if they are happy to sell you a firkin, or two. You may be surprised.