Wedding beer!

Not mine, but I'm making a case of beer for a present for some friends. It's a modified version of something I made previously which has turned out very well.

12 litres total

2.7kg pale malt
400g golden naked oats

10g columbus @ 15 minutes
10g citra @ 15 minutes
15g columbus @ 5 minutes
15g citra @ 5 minutes

25g columbus dry hop
25g citra dry hop

Maybe I'll get myself another hop for dry hopping to give it something else. I was going to get some centennial but decided against it after checking my bank account, but it might need something else. I've not got anything appropriate in my freezer (I think a batch as a gift is not the time for experimenting with adding Bramling Cross into the mix...).

Original gravity 1054, approximately 38IBUs. Using third generation WLP051 California V yeast, and probably my last time using this as I've started overbuilding starters now, rather than harvesting from trub.

Pitched at 19ºC, sitting happily at that right now and hopefully I'll keep it around that as best as I can.

Urgh came home to find it at 22.5°C. Quickly replenished the wet tshirt and it's dropping down. I'm going to have to keep it at 21° to try and avoid stalling. Not ideal, but never mind. How I wish I had a brewfridge...

How did it turn out Sven945?

I'm putting together a brew for my wedding and I'm stuck at the first hurdle: the audience...... do I brew to please the many (average lager drinkers) or do I brew to please the few (real ale fans, myself included)....

Any advice from anyone would be much appreciated

Also I now only have 2 months to sort this out.....

I brewed the beer for my wedding and the weddings of others. At most events there will be a handful oif people who enjoy a good beer and the rest who just want a lager, but when people find out it was "home made by that guy there" they become much more interested and open minded.

For my wedding I made the beers I enjoy: an IIPA, Belgian tripel, and a pilsner. However, I don't recommend making anything too strong as usually non beer drinkers tend to avoid strong beers. At other weddings I usually make an IPA/pale ale - this is an American style IPA "entry level" type beer at most up to 6%; a pils or helles type lager for the non beer drinkers who want something a bit "easier", but any all grain lager will come out way nicer than any generic lager and people will like it a lot more; I like to go for a stout for a third beer, or maybe let the bride/groom choose it if they have any strong feelings. Stout might not sound like the best choice but they are versatile styles andcan be very flavourful and real crowd pleasers.

If you want any specific recipes let me know, I'm really happy to share any. With 2 months you can knock these kinds of beers.

westonweiss said:

How did it turn out Sven945?

I'm putting together a brew for my wedding and I'm stuck at the first hurdle: the audience...... do I brew to please the many (average lager drinkers) or do I brew to please the few (real ale fans, myself included)....

Any advice from anyone would be much appreciated

Also I now only have 2 months to sort this out.....

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Its YOUR wedding, the guests can just lump it if they don't like it!

Also I should have added @sven945 if you wanted to add another hop to the dry hop cascade is a good mix with what you have there and it's pretty cheap, usually cheaper than centennial.

Our daughter is getting wed next July.Was asked if i would brew some beers,answer,NO.
Although i have brewed some (imho) very nice beers i don't think i would attempt to supply the wedding. Too much difference in peoples tastes.
Sorry i don't really agree 'with well they drink it or lump it'.Personally i would much prefer to have some sort of choice of brew even if it's bog standard lagers or pale's/bitters. Plus i wouldn't feel very comfortable if it all went t##s up:whistle:
Awaiting some flak:lol::lol:

chub1 said:

Our daughter is getting wed next July.Was asked if i would brew some beers,answer,NO.
Although i have brewed some (imho) very nice beers i don't think i would attempt to supply the wedding. Too much difference in peoples tastes.
Sorry i don't really agree 'with well they drink it or lump it'.Personally i would much prefer to have some sort of choice of brew even if it's bog standard lagers or pale's/bitters. Plus i wouldn't feel very comfortable if it all went t##s up:whistle:
Awaiting some flak:lol::lol:

Click to expand...

I have found there isn't much of a headache involved, the worst that has happened has been my beers were stored in a car on the hottest day of the year and one of the bottles exploded. Father of the groom got quite angry and said "we're not serving them, they are off!" Easily fixed, I said they weren't off and I'll try them on the day. They were good beers, everyone thought so and the entire lot went in half an hour or something.

Also as I say, when they realise the beer is not generic lager people tend to drink it an appreciate it. I've done 3 weddings including my own, the beer always goes. It won't be to everyone's taste, but if you serve Peroni and London Pride you'll have the same issue.

I really enjoy brewing for events, I really appreciate the feedback I get and it gets me brewing different beers to what I normally would make.

westonweiss said:

How did it turn out Sven945?

I'm putting together a brew for my wedding and I'm stuck at the first hurdle: the audience...... do I brew to please the many (average lager drinkers) or do I brew to please the few (real ale fans, myself included)....

Any advice from anyone would be much appreciated

Also I now only have 2 months to sort this out.....

Click to expand...

I'd recommend something like what I made, though I would say that wouldn't I! I think a fairly hoppy IPA, about 5%, would be good for "everyone". This one is a present for the couple (mostly the groom) rather than to be drunk at the wedding, so perhaps I should have gone for a double IPA (he likes his stronger beers) but I felt there was more to go wrong. Also with this brew there was change can to do a trial run.

jceg316 said:

I brewed the beer for my wedding and the weddings of others. At most events there will be a handful oif people who enjoy a good beer and the rest who just want a lager, but when people find out it was "home made by that guy there" they become much more interested and open minded.

For my wedding I made the beers I enjoy: an IIPA, Belgian tripel, and a pilsner. However, I don't recommend making anything too strong as usually non beer drinkers tend to avoid strong beers. At other weddings I usually make an IPA/pale ale - this is an American style IPA "entry level" type beer at most up to 6%; a pils or helles type lager for the non beer drinkers who want something a bit "easier", but any all grain lager will come out way nicer than any generic lager and people will like it a lot more; I like to go for a stout for a third beer, or maybe let the bride/groom choose it if they have any strong feelings. Stout might not sound like the best choice but they are versatile styles andcan be very flavourful and real crowd pleasers.

If you want any specific recipes let me know, I'm really happy to share any. With 2 months you can knock these kinds of beers.

Click to expand...

I would really appreciate that jceg! - I would definitely be interested in an IPA recipe and a tried and tested pilsner. I've not tried to brew a belgian tripel before, is likely to give me difficulties? I suppose it wouldnt hurt to give it a try?
I will certainly be keeping it below 6%, I'm marrying a Scot and they get pi$$ed of 60 shilling ales.....so......need I say more :lol:

britton said:

Its YOUR wedding, the guests can just lump it if they don't like it!

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Good point Britton. And at worst, I end up with a tonne of leftover homebrew for me and my buddies to drink :grin:

westonweiss said:

I would really appreciate that jceg! - I would definitely be interested in an IPA recipe and a tried and tested pilsner. I've not tried to brew a belgian tripel before, is likely to give me difficulties? I suppose it wouldnt hurt to give it a try?
I will certainly be keeping it below 6%, I'm marrying a Scot and they get pi$$ed of 60 shilling ales.....so......need I say more :lol:

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I'd like to add congratulations for your wedding!

Here are recipes for the weddings I have done. It might say something like "light cara (US)", I've not used US caramalt, I just couldn't be bothered to search for UK light caramalt.

Here are the recipes for my wedding:
IIPA: https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/concrete-goat
Belgian Tripel: https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/archduke-franz-ferdinhandz
Lager: https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/pedigree-chump-15555e

I'd like to add that I wouldn't make these for anyone else's wedding. At the time I Was into my strong beers - DIPAs, Belgian ales etc - and that's what I wanted to drink so that's what I made. Every bottle went by the end of the evening though. I made 300 bottles for 280 people, there was also wine, whiskey, cocktails etc.

My friend's wedding:

Pale ale: https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/the-mechanicals
Lager: https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/the-fairies

They wanted a total of 70 beers for ~100 people, so 35 of each batch. For the pale ale I was going for generic but good quality pale you might find in Brewdog.

My brother in law's wedding:

IPA: https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/tuchain-ipa
Lager: https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/husain-pils
Stout: https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/latrice

Long story but ended up making 4 batches of 50 bottles each for 250 people. The IPA came out at 6%, I fermented it cooler so it didn't attenuate as much.
The stout is a copy of a Brewdog recipe but I forget which one, but changed slightly to suit the ingredients I had in stock. It came out at ~5%. I seemed to have lost the 4th recipe but it was a standard pale ale.

For all these lagers I ferment them like an ale and have never done any lagering, still comes out really well and like a lager.

Thank you jceg! I've just ordered what I didn't already have so next weekend is brew weekend :grin:

westonweiss said:

Thank you jceg! I've just ordered what I didn't already have so next weekend is brew weekend :grin:

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My pleasure! What have you decided to brew?

I'm going to try all three in the interests of Risk Management

A bit of taste testing with the groomsmen should help me decide which is most suitable as a Reception drink and which will be the 250ml / 500ml favour waiting on the table for guys to drink / take home with them.
I still need to come to some sort of arrangement with the bar provider as to whether I can have something on the bar that people can go up and order (I've been told there could be some issues with insurance as the bar provider cannot guarantee where the beer has come from and how likely it is to make someone ill....). Plus my keg has recently given up the ghost so I would have to buy a new one in the next few weeks..... not sure my wife-to-be will allow that.....

Fingers crossed for a successful Brew Day! I'll keep you posted

Thanks again!