Have you ever brewed beer before? I'm just curious as it sounds like you haven't from the questions you're asking. I'm not sure ones wedding is the time to do brewing for the first time.

As to suggestions, I'd say the safest would be an IPA of some sort and an ale.

~Matt

i would say an ale would be the better choice because not everyone will drink an ipa but ipa drinkers would still drink an ale, even if reluctantly.

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who's smarter than you're? i'm!

I have brewed beer before. My tastes just usually differ compared to a mass amount of people. I plan on kegging all of the beer and clearing with gelatin as well to get them as clear as possible (besides the hefe). Just looking to see if anyone had done it before and had any suggestions.

CK

I made 250 bottles of wine for my wedding 17 years ago.

I got so burned out I have not done it since then.

If you're brewing 20 gallons why are you only doing two beers? You can do four 5gal brews.

~Matt

i would say an ale would be the better choice because not everyone will drink an ipa but ipa drinkers would still drink an ale, even if reluctantly.

I think he's doing at least two. I'd said IPA because IPA's are harder to mess up and at least if the other one goes sideways you have an IPA :-)

I would think that you would want to stay with something "Light" closer to the "Macro Brews" for one. I've had good luck with Kolsh's which seem to me like a relatively light beer...but with flavor.

~Matt

I am brewing 3 different types since I have 3 taps. (IPA, ale, and hefe) I plan on doubling one so I don't to worry about having the bartender clean a line before hooking up the next beer.

CK

My ex wife's relatives supplied at least triple that amount of red wine at our wedding. She was Italian and that's what they do. Definitely kept the costs down. Strange thing is that my MIL left all the labels on the wine bottles so people might think the wine was store bought. Considering that 80% of the 300 or so wedding guests were from her side, it must have been the worst kept secret ever. :-)

American IPA drinkers should be castrated for having no taste buds.

Are you going to have other things to drink. If you expect most to drink that's 17 oz per person. I would think you might need more than that.

The other thing you need to check out is where you are having the reception. They may not allow you to serve home made alcohol.

Well you're looking at roughly 160 pints, so if wine and mixed drinks are also available, and all 150 aren't drinkers, you should be okay. Know your audience, though. A bunch of 20-something party-ers can go through some suds.

I've brewed for 3 weddings, and the most popular brews were a Fat Tire clone (ambers are crowd pleasers), followed by IPA's for the craft-brew fans. Golden, cream ales were also hits. Belgians can be a bit polarizing. Lagers are almost always winners, you just need twice the time for them to turn out right.

If you can come up with fun names (Til Death do us Porter), or brew with the groom/bride, people also gravitate towards those brews favorably. Wait, are you the groom? People will enjoy that, and cut you slack if you aren't spot-on with your beer skillz.

Brew well, brew interesting but not too strange, and you should be fine with your plan. (Curry hefe, juniper pale, jalapeño beers might be too out-there for mainstream. Save those for your homebrew club)

That's all I've got. Have fun!

I don't think it's a question. Saison.

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Gnothi Seauton.

Ooh, and use danstar's belle saison yeast.

71 dead after drinking poisonous home brew in Mozambique
By Jethro Mullen and Marilia Brocchetto,

http://www.cnn.com/...poisoning/index.html

Making wine or getting married again?

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"Life is fragile - we are all just a slip or a car crash away from being a very different person."

Kilar, reminds me of Jim Jones & Heavens Gate.

Do Not Brew !

Don't do it. Just buy some good beer. A good selection. Nobody wants your shitty beer. Even if it is better than average homebrew, it still won't be close to as good as what you can buy. It is just an exercise in public masturbation on your part.

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

Friend of mine brewed about 8 different styles for his wedding including a barley wine he aged for 2 years. It was incredible, about 11% abv. He's a killer brewer though. I would say unless you can make a few different styles very well skip the home brewing for the wedding.

Even if it is better than average homebrew, it still won't be close to as good as what you can buy.

Yeah...can't agree with this. While without question there are a bunch of really good micro brew stuff out there, it's really not all that difficult to brew a beer that is as good as and average micro brew beer. I don't even consider myself a very good home brewer and have on several occasions brewed the same style of beer better then several micro brews.

That being said if I were going to do this for my own wedding I would probably brew 3-4 times as much as I thought I needed and expect 2/3rds of them to turn out not so good and take the best 1/3 to the wedding.

The hardest part is brewing a beer that people will like. the vast majority of beer drinkers "Like" Budweiser and Miller Lite. Brewing something that crowd likes is very difficult for a home brewer. Believe it or not brewing a water like substance that has some barely noticeable hop like flavor with alcohol in it is a tough task.

~Matt

  
<<Even if it is better than average homebrew, it still won't be close to as good as what you can buy.

Yeah...can't agree with this.>>

I can't agree either. It's not hard to make good craft beer. If the OP makes it, knows he makes it, and has gotten good, sincere comments from friends about his homebrew, by all means, make some. That said, I would also get a case or two of PBR for those beer drinkers who don't have any taste. Then everyone will be happy.

For my wedding back in the early '90s, our reception hall let us cater our own food and do our own liquor (which was a huge savings). We planned to have about 150 attendees. My wife and I sat down and went through the guest list predicting what each person would drink (this guy will drink 3 or 4 scotches, this guy will drink 6 beers, that aunt might have at most 2 glasses of wine, etc.). We were close to spot-on. We had bought some extra bottles just in case, and the local liquor store took back all our unopened bottles.

our reception hall let us cater our own food and do our own liquor (which was a huge savings).

We did the same thing, late 90's. I still have some of the hard liquor :-)

~Matt

I've been homebrewing since 1995. At a wedding there are usually a lot of people who aren't hop heads and aren't used to heavy beers. For occasions like this I find the best style is a Koelsch. It has a little more malt, flavor and complexity than mass market American beers but it isn't so big a step that people won't like it. In fact, when I bring multiple styles to a get together I almost always run out of Koelsch first. I don't have it handy but let me know if you want me to dig up my recipe.
If you have never brewed before find a homebrewer who will show you the ropes. I read everything I could before brewing but my first 2 batches were a little sketchy; you have to brew a few times before you will have the process down. Since this a wedding you don't want them to be guinney pigs for your first batch!

I would appreciate the recipe if you could find it! I have been homebrewing for a few years now. I am currently using an old chest freezer to control all of my fermentation temps so it reduces the off flavors and gets rid of that homebrew "twang" that some people experience. I also plan on cold crashing all of them to get them as clear as possible. Thanks for your help!

Here is my Kolsch recipe. It is always a crowd pleaser because everyone seems to like it including Coors/Bud/Miller drinkers:

Kolsch
Extract recipe: 5 gallon OG 1.045 4.5% abv


Kolsch is an intermediate style between ale and lager. It is fermented like an ale then lagered like a lager.


Note that this recipe has no specialty grains. This is not a typo; it doesn't use any.


If you have very hard water consider bottled water.


6 lbs pale liquid malt extract
1 lb wheat liquid malt extract


1.5 oz Northern Brewer at start
1 oz Tettnang 15min from end of boil


A good cold break is needed for this beer to be its best.


Wyeast 2565


Ferment at about ~60F. This yeast sometimes stalls so you may need to agitate to get it to fully ferment out.


Lager at least 3 weeks at ~40F


If bottling prime with 1 cup corn sugar.