I need a drink!

My wedding reception is being held at a venue that only serves beer and wine. That's right, no hard liquor at the wedding. While that may piss some people off, as soon as they realize that it's 2 more free alcohols than they had before they came to the wedding, they'll be fine with it. I've been to several beer & wine weddings, and had a blast. In fact, one of my favorite wedding memories ever - my buddy Paul getting blasted and doing the Harlem shake on the bus back to the hotel - stemmed from a beer and wine only reception.

That being said, I LOVE beer. My last semester at college I luckily only needed 1 regular course and 1 elective course to graduate. The elective course I chose to take: Beer Tasting. I'm not trying to make a, "In college, I majored in alcohol management, and horticulture if you know what I mean" type of joke, I'm actually serious, I took a beer tasting class. Thanks to UNLV for having an incredible course under their hotel management school. It was in this class I learned about beer for about an hour and half, then spent another hour and a half tasting beers we just learned about. Many people would take a sip of the beer, swish it around in their mouths, and dump the rest in the discard bucket. Not my roommate and me (and actually the teachers as well). We quickly established ourselves as the class drunks beer enthusiasts. It was in this class that I honed my love of beer. I cultivated it. I owned it.

Unfortunately at most weddings, I usually pass up my beloved libation. I think the only reason that's the case is because of limited beer selections. When given the option to drink Bud, Bud Light, Miller Light, Amstel Light and maaaaybe, if I'm super lucky a wild card beer like Stella Artois, I tend to go vodka tonic or Jack & coke. I'm not trying to be a beer snob at all, but I think the reason a lot of people shy away from beer is because you present them with options that all taste very similar. If you don't like the taste of one of those options listed above, you probably aren't going to order beer at the reception mentioned above. Weddings usually offer at least 2 varieties of wine that taste distinctly different from one another. Why should your beer be any different? In my eyes giving someone the choice between Bud Light, Miller Light, and Coors Light is not giving them an option. You wouldn't serve 3 different but very similar Pinot Noirs, would you?

So, I'm left with the decision of what beers to have at the wedding. Our venue has a really awesome outdoor kitchen that has a couple drafts that pop out of their granite counter top. So when I say I can get a few kegs, I don't want you to think this is a college keg party. Additionally, some (most) beers just taste better when they're not served in bottles. Plus, don't we all just love having a pint glass full of beer? So I was thinking that I would get a couple small kegs to have beer on tap and then also potentially buying low quantities of many different beers so people could try various brews through the evening.

After watching a documentary called Beer Wars this last weekend, I would really rather not have any Anheuser Busch beers at the wedding. Before you throw your arms in the air and start calling me a snob, or an elitist, please know that it's for the exact opposite reason. I'd much rather introduce people to the little guys out there fighting to at least coexist in the industry. I'd love to show my guests fact that there are other options, and let them know that the Bud Lights (American Style Lagers) are only ONE variety of beer out there, not the definitive and only style. After all, some keywords that we've used when planning our wedding have always been: fresh, local, relaxed, small companies. Why shouldn't our beer reflect that as well?

I do, however, have one concern. If my selections are too far "out there" I run the risk of ostracizing people that just like Bud Lights because they like Bud Light. If I don't supply beer that is familiar, and they genuinely don't care for any of the selections I've picked, they're left with nothing. There's no jack & coke or vodka tonic to fall back on. I'm going to have to find at least one beer that while it isn't Miller, Coors, Bud, still tastes familiar. I seem to remember a beer by the New Belgium Brewing Company (they make Fat Tire) called Blue Paddle that was their answer to the Pilsener Lager. So there are beers out there that would allow my guests to take baby steps into the beer garden. Maybe I need to get back into beer tasting. It'll be horrible for the diet, but it'll make for an enjoyable reception.

If you have any beer suggestions please leave them in the comments!