So, you want to serve beer at your event but don't know where to start? We are here to help! The first thing to consider is how many people are attending and what styles of beer they will want. If you are serving just one keg you should probably choose a neutral beer that everyone will enjoy. The first thought on this would probably be to choose a keg from a well known conglomerate brewery like Bud, Miller, Coors or Modelo. A better option would be to choose a specialty or microbrewery beer.

The best case scenario would be to have more than one beer on tap - but that is not always possible. The problem with picking a beer like Bud Light, Coors Light, or Miller Lite is that you will likely alienate a lot of guests that are beer connoisseurs. However, picking a double IPA or some other strong tasting beer will not be popular with those guests that do not like hoppy or more flavorful beers. The good news is that finding a happy medium is not difficult. Most beer aficionados and less adventurous beer drinks can agree on a good German lager, blonde ale, pilsner, or some other palatable style. Almost all local or small breweries will have some style that will appeal to the vast majority of your guests. Ask a few of your guests for their opinion or try a few beers locally and find one that you believe will have mass appeal with your guests.

Serving more than one beer? This makes it a lot easier. Pick one beer like we have described above and then pick a more flavorful beer that is not over the top. Examples would be a pale ale, a dark lager, a red ale, etc. A lot of beer choice depends on the crowd. If you are hosting the event, you will most likely know the demographics of the crowd and this can help a lot in deciding what beers to pick.

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What size Keg should I choose? - First you need to determine the number of guests and how long they will be at the event. Also, keep in mind that some of your guests will not drink beer. I normally assume that each guest will drink about a beer per hour, but this could be two if the event only lasts an hour. So, if you have 50 guests for two hours, they will on average consume two beers each or 100 beers. Kegs come in three sizes:

• Sixth Barrel - (also the size that most homebrewers use) is about 5 gallons of beer. This equates to 53 beers in 12 ounce glasses, but remember, you will have some waste, so we will call this 50 beers. These are great when you are trying to have some variety of beers on tap as you can have multiple types of beer without having too much of one style. There are more styles of beer served in Sixth barrels than any other keg size.
• Quarter Barrel - These kegs hold 7.7 gallons of beer or about 82 beers. Not as many beers come in this size, but this depends on your local brewers and distributors.
• Half Barrel - This is a popular size as well and it holds 15.5 gallons of beer or a whopping 165, 12 ounce beers!

Coupler Type? - A beer coupler is the part of the draft system that actually attaches to the keg. It is what opens the keg to let the beer flow out. There are several types of beer couplers, but the vast, vast majority of kegs you purchase in the USA are Sanke D. In the past a lot of imports used different couplers, but most of them now are contract brewed in the USA, so they use a Sanke D as well. Notable exceptions are Guiness which uses a U Coupler and some German Beers that use a and some British beers that use a G Coupler. Again, probably 99+% of beers sold in the USA use a D Coupler!

So let's say you are hosting a wedding with 100 guests and the reception will last 4 hours. That means that each guest, on average, will consume 4 beers, so you will need a minimum of 400 12 ounce pours. You could pick one half barrel of a lager beer, a second half barrel of a blonde ale, a sixth barrel of a pale ale or IPA and maybe a sixth barrel of a more malty beer like a red ale or brown ale. This would give you plenty of beer (436 glasses) You might even want to buy less beer if you believe some of your guests will drink liquor or you have a high number of guests who do not drink.

If you have beer left, it can be consumed later if you dispense the beer with CO2. If you use a common hand pump it will introduce oxygen and cause the beer to oxidize which gives it a very bad off flavor and the beer goes flat. We will go more into dispensing in the next section.

Dispensing your beer - I could write an entire article on this subject alone, but I will try to keep this section as concise as possible. First, we will cover the two main ways to dispense beer at a party.

• Hand Pump (or Party Pump) - This is the least expensive way to dispense beer and it works fairly well if you are going to consume all of the beer that day. Remember, you are pushing the beer out with air, which contains oxygen, so the beer will quickly lose carbonation and get oxidized. This means it will be undrinkable the next day. Here are some different types of hand pumps:
  • Pony Pump - This is the least expensive method for dispensing beer at a party. They are not very durable, but will work well for a few events and they do have a release on them which will allow you to relieve pressure from the keg if it gets over pumped.
  • Picnic Pump - This pump is more durable and also includes a pressure relief valve. It is offered in a 4” and 8” version. The 8” allows you to pump the keg up with less effort. These pumps can give you years of service if properly maintained.
  • UberTap - This is a very unique pump that allows you to serve 3 beers at the same time. This is good for very high volume events.

• CO2 Draft Beer Systems - This is our preferred method for dispensing beer. These systems use CO2 to push the beer out of the keg. This makes it much easier (you don’t have to pump), consistent (always serving at the same pressure) and eliminates wasted beer after the event because serving with CO2 preserves the beer for future consumption. There are three main types of these systems and on the title of each I will provide a link for complete kits of that type.
  • Basic Event Kits - These kits allow you to serve with CO2, but don’t require any additional build out. They just use a simple hand held faucet.
  • Shank Kits - These kits have a beer shank and beer faucet like you would see in a bar. You can build a serving station with a facade that utilizes these shanks. We just built one and will put a link in this article soon. If you click on the link below you can see this setup in the background.
  • Tower Kits - These use a beer tower like you would see in a bar. Here is a link that will show you how we built one for a friend's wedding.
  • Jockey Box - This is a very common way to serve beer at an event. You fill the ice chest with ice, which covers a coil with beer in it. This cools the beer for a perfect serve. They also look clean at an event because the beer is served from faucets on the ice chest. What more information, we have an excellent article and accompanying video showing you how to build one yourself!

What do I put the beer in? - Believe it or not the most popular item is a trash can….it is not what you think. We use a new trash can that is often NSF approved (food grade). A good example would be a 32 Gallon Rubbermaid Brute trash can. Buy one new and never use it for trash and it is extremely sanitary.

Need help? - If you don’t see the exact solution you need for your event or need additional information we can help. Email us at help@kegconnection.com or call us at 325-356-5204. We have been designing and using draft beer systems for over 20 years and we can help you get what you need at an affordable price.