Back in September, Tim and I bought a house. Finally, after two full months of home improvements, this past Saturday we hosted a big ol’ housewarming bash. Naturally we went way overboard with food and beer. So I thought I’d do a little piece on brewing and cooking for a large party. I’ll focus on the beer for this post. Tips on cooking for a crowd will be my next!

We had about 20 guests, which is juuust big enough to make it a pretty elaborate production. Plus, since we still had a handful of “maybe” responses to our invite, we decided to play it safe. (Note: “play it safe” = “way overboard”)

We brewed five corny kegs of beer (5 gallons a piece) over the course of three weeks (started about a month before the party). We tried to be as diverse as possible so that everyone could find something they liked. This was especially important because beer was the only beverage we served. (Soda is for the weak.)

Five homebrews on tap!

The Pale Ale was the biggest crowd-pleaser, as usual. This was the go-to beer after people had tried all the others. So the lesson here is to make sure you brew a solid session beer when brewing for a crowd. (Especially if your guests are likely to drink a hefty amount!)

The beer that got the most rave reviews was our Pumpkin Ale. One of our friends said that she felt like she was “drinking Christmas… in a really good way!” This was good news for us as it was our third year brewing a Pumpkin Ale, and we felt like we finally hit the nail on the head this year.

Everyone also seemed to dig the other three beers (IPA, Belgian Trippel, and Stout). Those of our friends that were not quite as familiar with the styles became noticeably inebriated after having a pint of the Trippel. People seemed pretty impressed by the mystique of the Stout on nitro too.

All in all, I think we covered a broad range of styles. We also held ourselves back from creating anything too crazy, since not all our friends are as into beer as we are. As much as we would have loved to go nuts and get really creative and funky, we were trying to cater to a crowd that wasn’t necessarily there for crazy beers. (One thing’s for sure though, holding ourselves back is not something we’ll do in our brewery someday!)

Next up: Cooking for a crowd