Craft Beer Wedding - PLEASE ADVISE!

That's my wedding day too! Congrats, and cheers!

 

9 or 10 half barrels?

A 1240 pint wedding, sounds like a hell of a party

 

play to the crowd, not to the nerd. Though I had some BCS, KBS, and dark lord available for friends in my own cooler, the beer on tap was three floyds gumballhead, half acre daisy cutter, goose island 312 & oatmeal stout, revolution's wit, and a few cases of new glarus fat squirrel & spotted cow. You're in michigan so I'd go with some decent gateways from founders or bells grandma can get behind like two hearted (maybe too much abv), oberon for sure, & founders oatmeal stout & all day. Go lightish in alcohol unless you want rowdy folks, your uncle is used to drinking 4% swill, dont introduce him to 7% beers. But again, its your call, this is what I did and my two cents.

 

also your beer estimation seems pretty high. I would change all those half's to sixth's or maybe just about 5 1/2's. Probably more than half your wedding folk will be drinking wine, champagne and mixed drinks.

 

See if kuhnhenn has a keg of the fluffer for you, low abv tasty ipa that is close to Detroit. And to reckon what has been said, 9 half barrels rivals a giant frat party...if you are doing half barrels I would keep it to things like Oberon and why not some fat tire (it appeals to the bmc crowd).

You mentioned seasonals and shorts...I have no idea if they will do it but try and get a keg off strawberry shorts cake.

 

Out of those "beer drinkers," how many will want BMC, with maybe a few requests for Guinness? How many of your guests will be quietly grumbling about the lack of "real beer" if all you have is stuff non-beer geeks never heard of?

From what I've seen at most recent weddings, beer selection has been limited to bottles of whatever the venue's distributor uses (InBev or MillerCoors). The last time I was at a wedding where they had beer on tap, it was Miller, Guinness, and maybe Spotted Cow. (Wedding was in WI; Spotted Cow is very mainstream there.)

My girl and I have had the "what if we got married..." conversations, and the subject of drink selection came up. My initial instinct was like yours: craft all the way (both beers and cocktails). She pointed out that doing that during the reception was a) cost prohibitive (have to pay the venue to bring in outside liquor, plus no bulk rate) b) likely to alienate the extended family who don't care about that stuff. We though it'd be a better idea to have that stuff available during any after party and/or during any event between the ceremony and the reception (the pre-ception).

Sorry if this isn't as helpful as other replies

 

That's a nifty venue, then. Most places in Chicago are pretty strict on making you use their liquor.

I'd recommend having a pilsner... or at least a pale lager of some sort. Then make sure the bartenders know to pour that when they ask for something "like Bud." Because you really don't want Mrs. Ojgio's uncle/father/brother grumbling about why you didn't have any "normal" beer instead of all that fancy shit.

Seriously, long-running family feuds have started over less. I wish I were joking. You gotta play to the crowd somewhat.

 

I'd consider adding Bell's Amber to your list of choices. It's a great gate-way craft beer for the BMC crowd. I've been to weddings that have had it previously and it was well received.

 

price point on three floyds was reasonable and normal (despite them not being normal ((you still got it nick))). Also the new glaurs was there in place of BMC, for the few uncles that griped about it, I made a lovely sign that said this cream ale tastes close and better then your beloved swill lager, and its made without rice and adjuncts. Doesn't shorts make a good lager, I know their hoppy ones are damn tasty.

 

We did this 2 years ago in K-Zoo

180 people

We brought 6 cases of Zombie Dust, 2 cases of Founders Cerise, had a keg of Oberon, and a keg of Labatt Blue Light (trust me, some people will want it). I also had a cooler of BCBS variants for me and the wedding party, paired Bramble with Wedding cake.

Keep in mind that many people will drink liquor, wine, and bubbly as well. And some of your friend who start the night drinking 2 hearted or similar will end the night drinking bourbon.

 

I would watch alcohol levels on whatever you choose. If you have a bunch of people used to drinking 4% Bud Light and then give them 6% beers, you might have people pretty sloppy quickly. People are probably going to drink to excess since it's a wedding and you want to give them something close to what they are used to

 

We did easily that many at my wedding. Of course it was all bud or miller, but no problem. We were over a dozen if I remember correct.

I wanted to do some craft, but while I love it and my wife loves it and SOME of our friends do, my whole family and my wife's whole family are macro people. You might not WANT Bud/Miller/Coors at your wedding, but a large majority of your guests do. And you want them to have fun.

In all honesty, I'd do a 50/50 split of craft/macro if I were you. If I were me, doing my own wedding again I'd probably get a half barrel or two of craft and watch it go mostly ignored.

 

I'm far to lazy to read what's been posted already but I figured I'd ask a simple question....

Does your venue allow you to bring your own booze? I had to set up a fucking distribution relationship to get Short's at my wedding and my venue still fucked me and up-charged the shit out of the kegs even though I did all the work.

A lot of places that provide it will not let you bring in your own shit.