And fortunately for me, my wife happens to be one of them. Against her better judgement, she bravely said yes to a lifetime of gurgling fermentors, stovetop boilovers, and the occasional incident in which I attempt to rack six gallons of beer into a 5-gallon carboy.
So when the time came to plan our wedding, we could have chosen a bridal ale, but we agreed that I should brew all of the beer for the reception. Having never served 100+ guests before, I found the task was a bit of an undertaking. It wasn’t difficult, but it did require some forethought and patience. Here are a few things I learned.
Keep it simple.
The beer geek devil on my left shoulder would have had us serve eight different shades of ale from blonde to black. The practically minded angel to my right, however, warned that complexity would equal frustration. In the end, I decided on two styles with broad appeal—an American pale ale and an Irish red ale—that satisfied craft nerds and casual imbibers alike. These two styles also required minimal aging, which meant that I had time to brew replacements if anything went wrong.