Kegs at a Wedding Reception

[jnolanevans]

I need help! I"m getting married in 10 days and to cut down on spending money we decided to get a couple kegs for the reception (instead of bottles). I've been put in charge of it now, and i don't really know what to do. We're getting Bud Light and Amber Bock. Here are some of my questions:

1. How long can a keg sit without being on ice?
2. How long does it need to be iced before served?
3. What is the best way to ice it? (garbage can? tub?)
4. How many glasses of beer come in a keg?
5. how do you avoid foam?

thanks a lot. i might have missed some important questions so whatever you feel you can give me, i'll take it. Thanks.

j

[Larry Tapper]

Don't let them get warm, 40 degrees or colder till3-4 hrs before use.It depends on how you are going to serve it, pinic pumps cold plate or direct draw system. Garbage cans worh well. about 180-12oz glass to a 1/2 barrel,15.75 gal in the kind you are using. The foam thing can depend on how you are dispense it. Would need to know more.

[edramshaw]

Find out who in your area rents kegerators or cold plates and have them set you up. A cold plate is one of those coolers with a faucet or two out the front that you pack with ice and it helps keeps the beer cold. Either way you should be able to find something. We rent them for weddings all the time. I would avoid using the hand pump types as they are notorious for problems. Good luck and congratulations.

[indianaroller]

1. Once you take it off ice/out of a cooler I would say 2 - 3 hours.
2. It will come chilled from the store. I would keep ice on it the whole time.
3. A new trash can with a 17 inch base would work great.
4. 165 12oz. cups
5. Let the keg sit for atleast 2 hours before tapping it. You should be able to pour the first glass or two with out pumping because the keg already has pressure.

Just make sure that you have the kegs at your reception 2 hours before it starts. When it starts, tap them. Go easy on the pumping. Its that easy.

[oneandonlychaz]

I've found the best method for despensing kegs without a kegerator is to get one of those brute 32 gallon trashcans (the bigger industrial ones) Bring the keg home and immediately lift it into the trashcan. 3 16lb bags of ice are just about perfect for the ones we use. Let it sit for a few hours and than tap and serve. You might wanna add another 16lb bag of ice to it right as your serving it but as long as you dont get too crazy on the pumping you should be fine. It will hold its temp for a while. I picked up 2 kegs one night @ 10pm and put them on ice as said than at about 8am when we tapped them i threw another 16lb bag of ice on both trashcans and i served ice cold beer (38-40 degrees) all morning

[psychodad]

Originally Posted by oneandonlychaz

i served ice cold beer (38-40 degrees) all morning

Breakfast of champions.

[oneandonlychaz]

of course we had a kegs n eggs that morning. We killed 2 kegs by noon. Gotta love being in college

[shuko]

Whatever you do, be sure to get 2 or 3 plastic pitchers per keg.

Even if the beer foams a lot, this will allow you to pour and let it settle. It also allows you to "buffer" between people or for one person to bring beer to several people.

[jfs999]

Just to play a little devils advocate here and if your truly trying to save money, you might want to check keg prices in your area and compare it to case prices. In our area a 1/2 keg of Bud lite runs around $95.00 and then you still have a $30.00 deposit per keg (which is refundable upon return of the keg). I've often seen cases of Miller lite and Bud lite on sale for $12.99 which comes to around $104.00 for 8 cases. A 1/2 keg contains roughly 7 1/2 cases of beer and if you figure in the amount lost by foam and people not familiar with proper pouring you could easily lose 10 to 12 beers out of your keg. Last , but not least, if you don't finish the keg, it will go bad in a couple of days if your using a typical hand pump tap. Cans, on the other hand, can be saved for another day.

[cubby_swans]

Cans..... They are superior beer holders. But the masses don't know that, and most people still think cans have an inferior product in them. So even though the beer in the can is as good as or better than the bottled product, I still wouldn't serve cans of beer at a wedding.

To the OP, if you don't keep the kegs cold from the point you get them until the time they are tapped, you run the risk of the beer going sour. Talk to your liquor stores. Some may have enough room to store the kegs for you until you need them.

The best way to ice it is any container that will hold the keg, and ice. So yeah, a tub, or garbage can. Please don't use a used garbage can at your wedding, though.

165 12oz glasses of beer in a 1/2 barrel.

And how do you avoid foam... depends on what your tapping it with. A kegerator? A jockey box? Or a party pump?

[psychodad]

I've seen plenty of cans served at wedding receptions around here. Of course around here is in the armpit of Kansas and they slug it right from the can.

If I were serving beer at a wedding, I'd think that presentation would be important. Draught beer served properly as a first choice, bottled beer served properly second an Igloo cooler full of silver cans way down on the list below third.

BTW, this thread is over two years old. The OP may be trying to decide what to celebrate the divorce with by now.

[cubby_swans]

Originally Posted by psychodad

BTW, this thread is over two years old. The OP may be trying to decide what to celebrate the divorce with by now.

Hah.... I just saw the 5-09 part of it. Didn't even notice the '07 part. Trying to decide what to celebrate the divorce part is a no brainer. $8 bottles at a strip club. And we have some pretty good ones here in St. Louis. I haven't been in years. It's probably $10 a beer by now.

[lsb188]

Originally Posted by cubby_swans

Cans..... They are superior beer holders. But the masses don't know that, and most people still think cans have an inferior product in them.

I'm curious - why do you feel a can is superior to a bottle? I always *assumed* a bottle would provide a better flavor by not transfering any metallic taste to the beer. Is there a scientific reason, or perhaps something to do with the manufacturing process that renders the can the better vehicle? Very interesting observation...I look forward to hearing your explanation.

[doug ellis]

Originally Posted by lsb188

I'm curious - why do you feel a can is superior to a bottle? I always *assumed* a bottle would provide a better flavor by not transfering any metallic taste to the beer. Is there a scientific reason, or perhaps something to do with the manufacturing process that renders the can the better vehicle? Very interesting observation...I look forward to hearing your explanation.

I am not siding with anyone on this, but can's have a coating inside so you shouldn't have any metallic taste at all. What keg beer has is the lack of pasteurization, and this to me beats can's or bottle's hands down.
What would be interesting to know though, is the marriage still on!

[lsb188]

Originally Posted by doug ellis

What keg beer has is the lack of pasteurization, and this to me beats can's or bottle's hands down.

That is absolutely true....my question was merely one of curiosity, as it will be a rare event I drink beer from a can or a bottle going forward!

[psychodad]

Keg beer is not the only unpasteurized beer. There are a great many beers sold in bottles that are not pasteurized. I think that one thing that makes draught beer taste better to people is that is served from a glass and not swigged from the can or bottle allowing the aroma to influence the taste. For this reason, the only time I drink a beer straight from the bottle is if there is not a glass on hand for serving.

While I don't consider myself a beer snob, I can be quite biased when it comes to beer. I can think of very few beers that come in cans that I wish to drink. The breweries that do can their beers I believe do so not because cans are superior as far as the beer is concerned, but because it is what makes most sense from an economical standpoint for them. And these large scale breweries I believe are the ones least concerned with the originality or variety of their beers.

The Boston Beer Company is a good example of what sets a good brewery apart from the macros. While aside from their Boston Lager I'm not a huge Sam Adams buyer, I like that they can and do brew up a wide variety of beers. Their marketing abilities allow these beers to be publicized alongside these beers that advertise "drinkability", "triple hopped" and "cold filtered".

To make a long story short... My dislike for canned beer is not the can, but the beer inside it.

[BrewGuru]

Not sure what markets you are in, but there is a variety of GREAT microbrew in cans available out there...

Cans protect beer by not allowing any exposure to light, especially hop fractionating UV, and by having a much lower ullage (the amount left unfilled), which usually contains some air, and therefore O2, by which the beer can oxidize. They are lightweight so the costs in energy and fuel to transport them from their place of origin to place of consumption and minor journeys in-between are reduced, making them more 'green' and Aluminum is highly recyclable.

Some canning breweries that I know of:

Oskar Blues - Lyons, CO & Longmont, CO:
Dale's Pale Ale
Gordon - Imperial Red / IPA hybrid
Ten Fidy - Imperial Stout
Old Chub - Scottish
Mama's Little Yella Pils - Pilsner style lager

New Belgium Brewing - Fort Collins, CO
Fat Tire - Belgian Style Amber Ale

Caldera - Ashland, OR
IPA
Pale
Amber

21st. Amendment - San Francisco, CA
IPA
Watermelon Wheat

Surly Brewing - Brooklyn Center, MN
Bender - canned year round in 16 oz. cans
Furious - canned year round in 16 oz. cans
Bitter Brewer - canned in the Spring in 16 oz. cans
CynicAle - canned in the summer time in 16 oz. cans
SurlyFest - canned in the Fall in 16 oz. cans

Sly Fox - Royersford, PA
Phoenix - Pale Ale
Pils
Dunkel
Weisse

Mogollon Brewing - Flagstaff, AZ
5 beers

[psychodad]

The only one of those that I've seen available around her is the Fat Tire. And I don't know that I've seen it in cans, but I do seem to recall maybe seeing it packaged that way. Without passing judgement on the other beers, Fat tire however is still one of those beers that I think is very average.

[orenci]

Originally Posted by psychodad

The only one of those that I've seen available around her is the Fat Tire. And I don't know that I've seen it in cans, but I do seem to recall maybe seeing it packaged that way. Without passing judgement on the other beers, Fat tire however is still one of those beers that I think is very average.

Some of my personal favs are the Sly Fox out of PA...
Maybe I am just a little prejudice being that I was raised in PA!

[cubby_swans]

Aside from the ones mentioned by BrewGuru, earlier, around here we get Big Sky Moose Drool and Trout Slayer in cans, Boulevard Wheat in Aluminum bottles, and some others I can't think of off the top of my head. Of the ones BrewGuru mentioned, I've had Oskar Blues, Surly, and Caldera, and those guys make some absolutely fantastic beer. None of them have a very wide distribution, though. Still, there are quite a few craft beers in cans, and more coming out all the time.

The can as a container itself is superior to bottles in every way.

• Cans, for YEARS have had a microfilm liner that prevents the liquid in the can from touching the metal.
  
• No light can penetrate the can, so skunking a beer is impossible.
  
• It weighs less, and is more compact, so shipping costs less. And that means I can fit more in my cooler.
  
• It is 100 percent recyclable
  
• Many outdoor activities do not allow glass containers