Want to serve 3 keg beers at wedding reception. Best setup?

[DaveLinger]

Hi everyone!

I have a kegerator at my house (one of the ~$500 self-contained units) that I run a few 1/6 or 1/2 barrels through each year, and I'm relatively happy with it. It doesn't have great temperature control, but other than that it gets the job done.

I am getting married this year, in September, and at my reception, I want to offer 3 beers on tap: Guinness, Woodchuck Cider, and probably Blue Moon. These would be half-barrels.

My understanding is, refrigeration aside, to run these three beers, I'd need:

* 2 sanke keg couplers
* 1 Guinness keg coupler
* 1 dual-product co2 regulator
* 1 single-product co2/nitrogen regulator
* 2 normal beer faucets
* 1 Guinness/stout faucet

Plus beer line and gas line, a co2 tank, and a beer gas tank.

I already have most of that stuff. I'd just need the two-product co2 regulator, an additional faucet, and an additional sanke coupler.

But when it comes to refrigeration, what's my best bet here? Should I try to find a chest freezer large enough to fit THREE half barrels and build a legit keezer? Or should I buy/rent two more regular-ass kegerators and run each one separately?

 

[bob1852]

Plastic tubs and ice....

 

[DaveLinger]

I suppose that is a possibility. I could do tubs and ice, and run the beer lines to a tower in a table or something - that way it'd still look professional on the "customer-facing" side.

 

[BNolt17]

Considering that it is your wedding you probably want to make it look nice, but honestly you could just build a jockey box and not really need to worry about refrigeration. All 3 beer lines running into a cooler of ice, kegs remain at room temperature and the beer line cools the beer. That's what most breweries/distributors do for multiple beers for beer festivals.

As far as what you need, I believe that you have it all. If are ok with serving the Woodchuck and Blue Moon at the same setting, you could just get a Y connector for the CO2. It would save you some cash.

 

[firerat]

Should I try to find a chest freezer large enough to fit THREE half barrels and build a legit keezer?

Yes, yes you should.

Plastic tubs and ice....

This will be sufficient, albeit not as fun, cool, and pretty.

 

[DaveLinger]

Considering that it is your wedding you probably want to make it look nice, but honestly you could just build a jockey box and not really need to worry about refrigeration. All 3 beer lines running into a cooler of ice, kegs remain at room temperature and the beer line cools the beer. That's what most breweries/distributors do for multiple beers for beer festivals.

As far as what you need, I believe that you have it all. If are ok with serving the Woodchuck and Blue Moon at the same setting, you could just get a Y connector for the CO2. It would save you some cash.

Is there no issue with storing the beer at room temp, and cooling it as you serve it? I would have guessed it'd be over-carbonated or something along those lines - but if it comes out no different than a cold keg, then a jockey box sounds great. Presumably I could just run some long coils of 1/4" beer line into and then out of a big cooler filled with ice.

Edit: Just looked into this - apparently you need a VERY LONG coil for adequate cooling (~100ft), and legit jockey boxes use metal coils, and they're very expensive. So I'd either need to pay up for metal coils, or use even more vinyl beer line, and potentially run into pressure issues - and it'll still be super expensive.

 

[Auger]

Or look at something like this:

http://www.micromatic.com/cold-plates/8-inch-x-14-inch-cold-plate-3-product-cp-0814-3

I found a used one in the classifieds here a while back for a great deal. Even new, its cheaper than a chest freezer.

 

[DaveLinger]

Or look at something like this:

http://www.micromatic.com/cold-plates/8-inch-x-14-inch-cold-plate-3-product-cp-0814-3

I found a used one in the classifieds here a while back for a great deal. Even new, its cheaper than a chest freezer.

Yeah, that's not bad at all. Would the idea just be to submerge that whole thing in a cooler filled with ice and water?

Is there a standard of how much of a temperature differential I can expect?

 

[BNolt17]

I've never done one, I just knew that it could be done. Didn't realize that it would be so expensive. Given that, my recommendation would be to tell your soon to be wife that as a wedding gift for yourself, you want to make a kick ass keezer for the wedding so that every time you tap a beer you can remember that special day, or some other romantical non-sense!!

 

[DaveLinger]

i've never done one, i just knew that it could be done. Didn't realize that it would be so expensive. Given that, my recommendation would be to tell your soon to be wife that as a wedding gift for yourself, you want to make a kick ass keezer for the wedding so that every time you tap a beer you can remember that special day, or some other romantical non-sense!!

Haha, it's worth a shot!

 

[Rhaop]

I brewed three kegs for my wedding, 3 way manifold for the gas, picnic taps

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1456948297.579745.jpg

 

[Rhaop]

We had probably 15-20 people drinking beer and the kegs floated almost the same time after about 2 hours lol

 

[Horseshoot]

One question: Is the wedding being catered? If so, some companies will offer this service. Obviously it would be more money. But it is a thought.

Another thought that occurred to me. Are you looking at a keeper build, or a "through the bar" beer tower setup in your future? If so, at least some of the things you buy could later be used in one of those setups. If you really don't see yourself with one of those setups, down the road, then buying equipment just for the wedding might be a waste of money. In that case, the catering idea might work better, and be more economical. When I buy equipment, I always try to think how I can use it as my system grows.

Congrats on the wedding! Sounds like the reception is going to be a lot of fun! Cheers!

Mike

 

[DaveLinger]

One question: Is the wedding being catered? If so, some companies will offer this service. Obviously it would be more money. But it is a thought.

Another thought that occurred to me. Are you looking at a keeper build, or a "through the bar" beer tower setup in your future? If so, at least some of the things you buy could later be used in one of those setups. If you really don't see yourself with one of those setups, down the road, then buying equipment just for the wedding might be a waste of money. In that case, the catering idea might work better, and be more economical. When I buy equipment, I always try to think how I can use it as my system grows.

Congrats on the wedding! Sounds like the reception is going to be a lot of fun! Cheers!

Mike

The reception IS being catered, but by restaurants who do not usually do catering - I would trust myself sooner than them to ensure that the draft setup is proper.

I could potentially see myself keeping/using a multi-keg draft setup. I already have the one kegerator, so maybe I could build a keezer big enough for TWO kegs, and use my single kegerator in addition at the reception - then sell the single kegerator and keep the dual-keg keezer. That way I don't have to build a massive 3-kegger.

 

[cbier60]

2-tap jockeybox is Morebeer DOTD for $229 (reg $299). I'm not sure how good a deal this is or how good this box is, just know it won't be around for long.

 

[firerat]

If you can see yourself utilizing a keezer after the celebration, then dude go that route.

But make sure you post a thread detailing how you did it with lots of pictures.

I love pictures.

 

[Baja_Brewer]

Plastic tubs and ice....

Under a table with a table cloth on it and a tower mounted to the top. Maybe cut a hole in the table and put the lines straight up to reduce the amount the lines are exposed. #ProperGlassware on either side if the tap on the table. I bet you could do this whole setup for <$100 if you pick up cheap sanke couplers and already have a tower and CO2 tank.

 

[DaveLinger]

Under a table with a table cloth on it and a tower mounted to the top. Maybe cut a hole in the table and put the lines straight up to reduce the amount the lines are exposed. #ProperGlassware on either side if the tap on the table. I bet you could do this whole setup for <$100 if you pick up cheap sanke couplers and already have a tower and CO2 tank.

Regardless of the cooling method, the wife wants to go with a "faucets mounted against a vertical wall/panel" look, I learned today.

So that will save some money on buying a three-faucet tower.

I've been adding up the costs, and I think I'm going to go with the dual-keg keezer. I can pick up a compatible freezer on craigslist for probably $100 or less, temp controller on Amazon for under $20, then I just need one more keg coupler, one more co2 regulator, 3 shanks, one more faucet, and lots of tubing.

I'm just uneasy about the idea of a jockey box. I've never seen one in action or had any beer from one. I'm afraid I'll get it all setup and the beer will come out flat or something like that and everyone will say "oh yeah that's how it always is with a jockey box, didn't you know?"

 

[bob1852]

Regardless of the cooling method, the wife wants to go with a "faucets mounted against a vertical wall/panel" look, I learned today.

Who is going to be serving the beer?

If you have bartenders, they'll usually fill up pitchers from kegs during slow times so they can pour to guests from the pitchers during peak serving time to save time...

I'd hate for you to spend time/money on a fancier serving method that ends up not being used/appreciated...

 

[DaveLinger]

Who is going to be serving the beer?

If you have bartenders, they'll usually fill up pitchers from kegs during slow times so they can pour to guests from the pitchers during peak serving time to save time...

I'd hate for you to spend time/money on a fancier serving method that ends up not being used/appreciated...

My understanding is that there will either be one server/bartender who will stand there and "operate" the faucets and pour wine, or it will be people serving themselves. Not sure yet. For our crowd, I don't think we'd have any trouble with people being rough/rowdy with the equipment, but it may be a liability to have the alcohol self-serve.

 

[NickTheGreat]

Is the venue okay with you doing this? Or are you at a venue who's not equipped to serve beer?

I'd use this as a chance to build a nice keezer, but I'd think a commercial beer keezer would be different than a homebrew one.

 

[DaveLinger]

Is the venue okay with you doing this? Or are you at a venue who's not equipped to serve beer?

I'd use this as a chance to build a nice keezer, but I'd think a commercial beer keezer would be different than a homebrew one.

The venue was chosen specifically because they allowed me to bring in my own outside catering and serve my own alcohol. Virtually every other one I found required you to use their (expensive) in-house catering, which I really wanted to avoid.

 

[crusader1612]

I got married 2 weeks ago.
I served all Homebrew at the weddingfor 100 Guests.

Went perfectly.

I carted up 2x Kegerators (1 of a friends) to the venue (In-laws farm)
And serves from there. 3 5gal kegs in each.
I also had a Beer engine available and served from a bag. That I chilled in the fridge leading up and laid out about an hour prior to the ceremony.

worked a treat, the bag was gone in 2 hours (served in half pints.)
In the end I had 10 litres of american amber remaing, and that was it...

 

[summerofgeorge]

Where are you located? Have you thought about trying to borrow some equipment? Maybe someone on the forum would help you out in exchange for some beer or a wedding invite.

You could probably build some sort of wall for mounting the taps and then have the kegs hidden behind so the method of cooling may not matter. There have been a few of these for weddings on the forum.

If there's a server, will they be behind a bar? Again, if this is the case, it would be easy enough to make something that looks presentable to the crowd but isn't too fancy on the back end...business in the front, party in the back.

 

[Goliath86]

(Hopefully this photo comes up)
I didn't bother reading the entire thread, but that's because I second the motion for tubs with ice. Because that's what we did for our reception.... And I made all the beer...(I would avoid the stress that goes along with making 4 different 1/2bbls of beer if I had to do it again)

However, for my reception, we built this... Its basically a facade that sits in front, to dress up the tubs with ice... It also left plenty of room for liquor, a tip jar, and cups on the shelf.

 

[Rhaop]

(Hopefully this photo comes up)
I didn't bother reading the entire thread, but that's because I second the motion for tubs with ice. Because that's what we did for our reception.... And I made all the beer...(I would avoid the stress that goes along with making 4 different 1/2bbls of beer if I had to do it again)

However, for my reception, we built this... Its basically a facade that sits in front, to dress up the tubs with ice... It also left plenty of room for liquor, a tip jar, and cups on the shelf.

Nice, that beats my big ol tub of ice and cornys by a mile

 

[crusader1612]

(Hopefully this photo comes up)
I didn't bother reading the entire thread, but that's because I second the motion for tubs with ice. Because that's what we did for our reception.... And I made all the beer...(I would avoid the stress that goes along with making 4 different 1/2bbls of beer if I had to do it again)

However, for my reception, we built this... Its basically a facade that sits in front, to dress up the tubs with ice... It also left plenty of room for liquor, a tip jar, and cups on the shelf.

Looks great.

I used my tardis kegerator and standard one from a friend.
3beers 10g each and 1x 5g of brown ale through a friends beer engine.