Help with wedding reception beers

Victory Prima Pils or Helles

 

be hard to eat the Horderves playing edward 40 hands lol

 

It depends on the public i guess. Weddings around here will involve not only beer but champagne, red and white wines, cocktails and liquors at different times of the party-meal. Leaving my preferences aside i would keep it simple and stick to a decent Helles on tap plus some local craft beers by the bottle (IPAS or Pale Ales, Porters..), if anyone interested. Personally i might like a strong Belgian like La Chouffe by-after the desserts, as there is time for heavier cocktails later.

 

And costs more

 

A tap of straight Lambic would be brilliant for the aperitifs in June though, if dreaming is allowed.

 

In PA? Troegs Sunshine Pils... cuz at least its fan friendly

 

I was just at a wedding last night and they had both SNPA and Miller Lite. It was perfect. SNPA is very sessionable and no sensible person is going to expect that you get more fancy than that for a mass gathering like a wedding.

If you want to go with a PA beer, substitute Victory Headwaters, Troegs Solid Sender or Stoudt's American Pale Ale for SNPA.

Don't over-think this.

 

September wedding here, so maybe a bit different.

We brought in a couple of our own kegs, Horseheads Pumpkin Ale and Chemung Canal Towpath Ale (cream ale). Both 7.2% that don't taste like it. The Pumpkin was gone with 2 hours left. People got absolutely obliterated, which translated into the best wedding I've ever been too (you can say I'm biased, but it really was the most fun wedding I've been to).

I would recommend staying away from anything hoppy, dark, or dry. A good refreshing high ABV beer leads to a good time. Southern Tier 3 citrus peel out might be a good one for June.

 

Good luck brother!

 

Congratulations!! I would serve something light... a few Pales maybe....no hammer beers with high abv...just asking for trouble

 

That sucks dude. I think you have to go more lager-y. I still wonder Yuengling?

 

Congrats my brother! I got married back in October and it's been wonderful ever since. Knowing I didn't want an average reception, I had some hard decisions to make. Ended up going with a keg of Schlafly Oktoberfest and a keg of 4 Hands Single Speed. My Budweiser only brother in law loved the single speed! You'd be suprised how many people enjoy almost any kind of free drinks! I was also made the musical play list bc no DJ is going to ruin my reception with some half ass country and cotton eyed Joe! Grateful Dead! And my wife is super cool too!

 

Well stated and the best surprises are the happy ones.

 

Don't get too many kegs (1/2) .... I went with three (Lager Light, FW Union Jack & Two Bros Sidekick XPA), had 160 people (who can drink, but also spent alot of time dancing & not at the table or standing around just straight drinking), and they BARELY had a dent in them.... i was leaving for 2 weeks and none of my friends had/have kegerators, so the beer store guys (hopefully) drank the 50%+ that was left in the kegs.

I really think you should stick with lighter stuff, esp. in June, it can easily get up to 100 degrees around here.

Victory Summer Love is good too, we had cases of that for the cocktail hour.

Of course, head down to DE for liquor, wine, beer... etc...

Had to get kegs from a PA distro given i had no where to get three cold and then transported over (i was actually surprised at how FEW delivered - talking big ones like kunda beverage, who was under 5 miles from the venue). i have literally no ties / have never even been to the store, but these guys were incredibly great to deal with (sending prices over email, responsive, etc..) if you're in the philly burbs:

http://www.dibeverage.com/


Hit me up with a PM if you want a booze calculator based on what you think people like, I made one in excel that's pretty easy to use and detailed (I model / do analysis for a living, so nerded out on it), so does it on a ratio of beer/wine/liquor per person, then breaks down kegs/handles/bottles down to a drink level

 

I wouldn't stress over beer, I'm sure it will be a great party if you have kegs of Miller Lite and something like Prima Pils or Sunshine Pils. Even light beer drinkers will more than likely partake in the Prima/ Sunshine if given a chance. You want something better but more personal bring a few special beers for those that enjoy it, and keep them seperate so no one can accidentally get into your stash. Simple easy, everyone's happy.

 

Seeing that you are from PA like me, you have a wide selection to choose from in terms of local breweries. Actually, Victory Brewing catered my entire wedding back in 2010. They were super reasonable, and their keg prices were barely more than a crappy macro brew. I think we ended up with Victory Throwback Lager to appease the BMC individuals, and then had Whirlwind Whit because it was a summer wedding, followed up with Donnybrook Stout for easing drinking, and Hop Devil. This was pre-Dirtwolf otherwise I would have chosen that.

There were people who swore they would only drink BMC, but never heard a single complaint. All kegs kicked by 11:00. We also ended up consuming 56 bottles of wine and roughly twenty handles of liquor.