I'm making a beer list for my wedding in late December in San Diego and trying to come up with a good beer list. The wedding itself is relatively small (60 people-ish). Since my fiance and I both like craft beer we want to highlight it including having the suggested toasting beverage be beer. Since we aren't having a large number of people we figured we'd have bottles rather than getting a keg so we can have a larger variety. What beers to have? I was thinking a wit for the non-beer drinkers, and a stout (possibly imperial) and/or barleywine seeing as its winter, and an IPA/DIPA because its San Diego. Any suggestions?
What kind of budget are you working with? Would you be having someone pouring the beers where you could split a bomber between several people or are you looking mostly to get 12 ouncers? Several of the Costcos have been having some pretty decent local bombers over the last few months, generally for better prices than you can find anywhere else, even the breweries. However, they probably have a lot of turnover, so you may not really know what you might find. Ballast Point Wahoo Wheat could be a good choice for the non-beer drinkers. Alesmith Speedway Stout or Ballast Point Victory at Sea would be a couple of great choices for a stout/porter and should be fairly easy to find. I think I heard Speedway was at some Costcos for a bit. I'd probably say Alesmith Old Numbskull would be my top choice of barleywine readily available. As far as IPAs, I would suggest getting a group together and take a trip out to Alpine and pick up a variety of Nelson, Duet and/or Pure Hoppiness. I think the limit per bottle per person is down to 3 or maybe 4, so it'd be good to go with a bit of a group if you want to get a decent supply. Maybe a groomsmen celebration? They have some great food at their pub just next door. I think a selection of those would give you a great sampling of some of San Diego's finest. Cheers!
Sarge, bombers could work as long as they arent terribly expensive bombers since all the beer will be poured into glasses. I was thinking about Costco, if they get the next batch of Enjoy By I may pull the trigger on a case. The current one is pretty awesome.
