Planning the banquet for your wedding can be very stressful and exhausting, especially when nearing the wedding date. There’s choosing the right foods that everyone will enjoy, not to mention choosing the perfect drinks and alcoholic beverages to serve during the celebration.
There are several considerations when it comes to choosing the best beer to serve at your wedding banquet. Some people won’t be drinking, some will only be drinking cocktails, some will only be drinking beer, and others will be drinking more than their fair share. That said, it’s best to be over prepared in these situations and have a variety of beer for your guests to enjoy.
Serving Beer at Your Wedding
Creating a budget and figuring out how many people will be attending your banquet will help you know how much beer to get. A good ratio is 1/3 beer, 1/3 wine, and 1/3 liquor or champagne. With this ratio, it’s estimated that for 100 guests, you will need 30 to 40 beers per hour.
The season that you have your wedding in can also affect your guests’ preferences. In the winter, try dark stouts and barley wine. In the fall, it’s best to have stout, amber ale, or something seasonal, like Oktoberfest. In the spring, Belgium Dubbel, Berliner Weisse, or even Bock are all good choices. In the end, it’s your decision to pick the varieties of beer you think your guests will enjoy.
Food pairing is another factor to take into consideration when choosing wedding beers. Seafood goes well with an IPA, Porter, or a stout beer. Steak goes well with a pale ale, amber ale, or even a lager beer. Chicken goes well with blonde ales and fruity beers.
You’ll also want to consider how the beer will be distributed, whether it comes in a keg, glass bottles, or cans. A keg can hold about 160 beers, so this is good option if you know your guests will be drinking a lot. However, choosing bottles or cans will bring a variety of different kinds of beer to the table, and your guests have more options to choose from.
Best Beers for Your Wedding
Now that you understand the various factors that go into choosing the perfect wedding beers, you can start looking at the different kinds of beers:
- Imported Beers
- Domestic Beers
- IPAs and/or fruity IPAs
- Stouts
- Beer Alternatives / Non-Alcoholic Beers
- Lagers
And for the adventurous couples planning to brew their own wedding beer, the Infusion Spiral System is the best option for infusing barrel-aged flavor into your brews. Our patented design can help you create the best beers for your wedding—learn more on our website.