Beer for 60 people

Beer_Pirate

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I've been asked by my brother to provide 60 people's worth of beer for a gathering in a few months (not selling or taking anything in exchange, and in a private setting on private property, following all rules and regs, etc). Given that these will be families, how much beer should I have ready to serve? My initial thoughts were about 30 gallons, but that may be overshooting a bit. It's better to have than not have, but I don't want to have a ton left over taking up keg space during prime brewing weather.
 
Are they all drinkers? Are some of them heavy drinkers? I'd guestimate a keg per 15-20 people should be relatively safe assuming they're a normal distribution. I emptied a keg around Christmas in a day with around 12 people but they're a drinking crowd.
 
I brewed for a wedding party of 100 and I took my keezer and taps with 4 kegs full plus we bought a lager keg and had a bunch of wine, all of my kegs but one were gone, it had 1/4 left and it was the double ipa, first one gone was my hoppy wheat so the lighter lower alcohol beers went first, now these were all young people 25 to 35 i'm guessing, the crowd would make a difference
 
If you don’t know whether they all drink, I bet 2 kegs would do. That’s 53 twelve oz beers per keg, 106 total. Almost enough for 2 per person. If only half of them drink, that’s almost 4 per person. Not all who drink will drink a lot. Based on that math, I’d make 15 gallons. Let me know how close I was!!
 
Assuming 2/3 of the people will drink, I guess I should shoot for 3 kegs? They're not a huge drinking crowd (never seen any of them finish 4 beers in an outing), but this is celebrating a college graduation (so they'll likely drink more than they would otherwise). That's almost 4 beers per person, and if it runs out I guess we can have backup cases of things they won't taste anyways. Thanks all! I'll probably do a wheat, a pale ale, and an amber unless anyone else has thoughts on easy drinking early summer party beers.
 
A...no matter what you do, it's not technically legal to provide beer for anyone other than your immediate household or to brew an amount over (in most states) 200 gallons, assuming that you're married.
B...I've gone through 25 to 30 gallons for a couple of parties where the guest count was probably between 80 and 100. It's very dependent on time of day, whether the party is pretty laid back or more raucous, how many taps and how many different beers you have for folks to sample and last but not least. Also a factor is beer style and whether it's really good, easy drinking beer. Lager, Cream Ale, Ordinary Bitter, Blonde, Pale Ale on the lighter side will be consumed at a far higher rate than big, complex IPAs or heavy stouts.Keep the balance toward the more crowd-pleasing styles. Definitely keep the ABV in check...nobody needs the liability of a guest taking too much advantage of a free-flowing 8% beer. Session beers of 5% or even less should make up the bulk of your offerings. If you want to do a Belgian or IPA or Stout, keep it under 6.5 and post the ABV very plainly on all the selections.
If it was me, and the guest list was definitely held to 60 for an evening party with dancing, etc, I'd count on 4 taps with backup kegs of the 2 styles that are likely to be most popular for a total of 30 gallons and you'll probably have a 2-5 half-kegs left. For an afternoon gathering or something with a definite time limit or that's likely to be a little more laid back, 3 taps/4 kegs might be fine, especially if there's wine, too
Have fun!:)
 
A...no matter what you do, it's not technically legal to provide beer for anyone other than your immediate household or to brew an amount over (in most states) 200 gallons, assuming that you're married.
In North Carolina, the following is a direct quote from the general statute regarding beer (Chapter 18B-306): "An individual may make, possess, and transport native wines and malt beverages for his own use and for the use of his family and guests. Native wines shall be made principally from honey, grapes, or other fruit or grain grown in this State, or from wine kits containing honey, grapes, or other fruit or grain concentrates, and shall have only that alcoholic content produced by natural fermentation. Malt beverages may be made by use of malt beverage kits containing grain extracts or concentrates. Wine kits and malt beverage kits may be sold in this State. No ABC permit is required to make beverages pursuant to this section."
I think that it's legal to serve to guests as long as I'm not selling or exchanging for goods/services. I appreciate the heads up though! And I may shoot for 4 kegs then... If it runs out I'll take it as a compliment :D

Edit: Initially posted an explanation of the GS instead of the statute itself.
 
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"An individual may make, possess, and transport native wines and malt beverages for his own use and for the use of his family and guests.
Nice! :) Most states have statutes that are worded in such a way as to constrain, at least theoretically, the amount and use of homebrew. Not that anybody ever got busted for having a huge party and serving their own beer.
My brewing club was invited to serve beer at a huge charity block party where we had 7 taps running and the neighborhood host brew club had at least 5...plus there were 4 local breweries represented with a couple of beers on tap each. There must have been at least 500 people, maybe substantially more.
 
Nice! :) Most states have statutes that are worded in such a way as to constrain, at least theoretically, the amount and use of homebrew. Not that anybody ever got busted for having a huge party and serving their own beer.
My brewing club was invited to serve beer at a huge charity block party where we had 7 taps running and the neighborhood host brew club had at least 5...plus there were 4 local breweries represented with a couple of beers on tap each. There must have been at least 500 people, maybe substantially more.
That sounds like a helluva party!
 
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That sounds like a helluva party!
Yeah, it was pretty unbelievable. A philanthropist and his neighbors threw a huge block party every year (though I believe that may have been the last one because it was getting too big) and had a huge food drive for the local food bank. There was a band and and barbeque food trailer, other donated food, big screen TV for watching the World Series that was on that night...pretty awesome.
 
........ it's not technically legal to provide beer for anyone other than your immediate household or to brew an amount over (in most states) 200 gallons .....
...... B...I've gone through 25 to 30 gallons for a couple of parties where the guest count was probably between 80 and 100......

Which means you put us ALL at risk, every last one of us.

Around here when the judges pronounce sentence for your 201st gallon, or for giving a friend a beer, they cite "The J.A. rule .. the straw colored beer that broke the (proverbial) camel's back."
 
the straw colored beer that broke the (proverbial) camel's back."
Knowing that most of us will upon occasion push the boundries, I wonder if there are any instances of homebrewers actually running afoul. I have a feeling that if someone was running a sizeable bootleg brewery operation and got too loose with it, things would get nasty in a hurry, and I know that when there is licensing involved, there's very little tolerance for anything that's not completely on the up and up, but I don't think I've ever heard of any private citizens being hassled about how much they brew or who drinks it.
Any anecdotes?
 
funny I have a Sheriff that lives 2 doors down and you can see my brewery from his house and he's never said a word
 
Around here most law enforcement officers don't know the laws pertaining to homebrew or home made wine. And they really don't care. They have better things to do.
 
Around here most law enforcement officers don't know the laws pertaining to homebrew or home made wine. And they really don't care. They have better things to do.
Ditto here. I've never heard of anyone busted for brewing too much beer.
 
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Without trying to meter how much I brew, I've ended up with right around 200 gallons for the last couple of years. I suspect that this year may be a little less. Some of the guys in my brew club brew a LOT of beer. Its' not unusual to see 8 to 10 beers on tap at any given time.
 
I brewed 285 gallons from 1-1-17 to 1-1-18. Not sure of the law.

Edit: I looked up the Michigan statute and it appears 200 gallons is the maximum amount of allowed home brew. whoops
 
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