Imma gettin' married and brewin' beer!

[Edmund Barker]

Hey all,

I'm getting married in January and planning on brewing beer as gifts to all the guests. What I want from you all is a recipe for a fun, unique summer beer that I can reproduce easily (roughly 3X30L brews). It'll bottle condition for 2-3 months. Let me know if you need any more info, but I want to cast a wide to allow some outside-the-square thinking.

There may be a bottle or 2 in it for the winning idea!

Cheers

Ed

[Dai]

Hey Edmund,

First of all, a big congratulations.  Also, I take my hat off to any partner that knowingly marries an all-grain home brewer too :).  I got into all-grain after my nuptials, so it was too late for my lovely wife.

I reckon you need to think about the guests that you plan to invite.  If you were inviting everyone on Real Beer, then you could basically make what you want, and probably more hops the better.  However, I remember back to my wedding and a large amount of the money we put on the bar went on DB Radlers :(, so an uber hopped IPA may not be the ticket!  A nice session beer would be good...

If you are making a 3 batches, however, may be you could mix it up a bit- see our Hamilton Brewers website for my mild (which is really nice, but not too 'challenging') and an IPA recipe that won our IPA challenge (https://sites.google.com/site/hamiltonbrewersassociation/recipes)

Also, Greig's Ordinary Bitter is really a nice drop that wont make any Radler drinkers wet their pants too (http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/group/therecipeexchange/forum/topic...).

Good luck, and hope you are still brewing this time next year :)

[Edmund Barker]

Thanks for the advice and the congratulations Dai :)

I'll be BIABing, as I'm still fairly new to brewing. That said, I've been brewing good beer, so am confident that I can make something kick ass.

The audience is all over the show from youngish hipsters to old people, so I'll never make everyone happy. We'll do handmade labels though, so hopefully everyone will enjoy the novelty.

Are you a Waikato brewer? I'm a Wellingtonian now, but hale from the great village of Waihou, just outside of Te Aroha. We're getting married at the old Waihou School, which has been converted into a function centre.

[Dai]

I don't come from the Tron, but have lived here since 2001.  Love it, too.  If you manage to get over to the big smoke when you are up in Waihou, you'll notice that we now have some awesome pubs and restaurants that sell great beer- may be even rivaling Wellington, in a small way ;)

[Edmund Barker]

That's good to hear. What are the best craft friendly pubs there at the mo Dai?

[Dai]

There are a few around:  The Ruakura Campus Club is pretty good, but you need to be a member or be signed in; http://www.ruakura-club.co.nz/bar.htm.  Gothenburg Restaurant makes great food (http://gothenburg.co.nz/ and nearly always has 666 Brewing beer on tap (666brewing.com), along with an amazing selection in the fridge.  House on Hood has a great selection of regular craft beers, like Emersons, Crouchers, Tuatara, but try their Mighty Ale (made by Crouchers) cos it is awesome (http://www.houseonhood.co.nz/).  They also have a couple of guest taps that change weekly.  There is also Good George, which is a brewpub in Frankton, that has just opened too (http://www.goodgeorge.co.nz/).  If you just want some takeaway, the Hamilton Wine Company have a fill-your-own system going that is a bit like what you get at Regionals, but not quite as grand! (http://hamiltonwine.co.nz/events/fill-your-own-craft-beer-is-here/).  Oh, and check out Shunters Yard for lunch.  It is in Matangi, just out off the Tron- their Pils is pretty good and the food at the cafe will keep the missus happy! (http://woodsideestate.co.nz/brewery.html)