Homebrew Wedding Recipes
An Autumn Ceremony
When Brian Carpenter’s twin sister Autumn decided to marry Tevis Underwood, he and his wife Karen wanted to do something special. So they got together to make the “Bridal Brew.”
Because the wedding was in October, Brian made a Märzen. The Carpenter “brewery” is in New York and the wedding was held in Tacoma, Wash., so they carfeully packed 100 bottles in garbage bag-lined duffle bags for the plane trip west. “Amazingly,” recalls Brian, “only two bottles were broken en route.”
Since Brian started brewing late, Autumn and Tevis gave the beer out as favors. Brian announced that everyone should drink it at the couple’s one-month anniversary. A guest called to tell them “We popped the bottle open (then), and it was smooth and great!”
Brian’s Bridal Brew
(10 gallons)
Ingredients:
• 6 lbs. light dried extract
• 3 lbs. pilsner malt
• 3 lbs. Munich malt
• 0.5 lbs. cara-pils malt
• 0.5 lbs. English crystal malt (60° Lovibond)
• 2 oz. chocolate malt
• 4 oz. Pearl hops (7.5% alpha)
• 2 oz. Tettnanger hops
• 2 oz. Hallertauer hops
• Lager yeast
Step by Step:
Soak the malts in four gallons of 150° F water for 45 minutes. Sparge and add the extract, six gallons of water, and the Pearl hops and bring to a boil. After 45 minutes add half the Hallertauer hops. For the final 10 minutes, add half of the Tettnanger hops and the rest of the Hallertauer hops. Turn off heat and add the remaining Tettnanger hops for three minutes. After cooling add the yeast and follow normal lagering procedures for fermentation, racking, and bottling.
OG = 1.057
FG = 1.026
Home-Grown Hops and a Brewer’s Dozen
At Katherine Glazen and Andy Cutko’s wedding in Glastonbury, Conn., many of the guests gave presents. Some gave something old or something new, but the most highly prized gifts were the cases of something brewed.
All the brewers in attendance brought a case of their own homebrewed wedding beer for the reception. The offerings included “Union Ale,” “Paramour Alt,” “Love Potions Number One and Two,” and Steve Kreckman’s contribution, “Kiss Me Kate” raspberry wheat. The guests toasted the happy couple with the beer of their choice. “All in all,” Steve says, “there were at least a dozen cases of homebrew.”
Katherine also observed an age-old tradition of giving gifts to her guests in thanks for sharing her special event. The bride gave all the brewers bags of hops grown on her Connecticut farm! The ultimate party favor!
Kiss Me Kate Raspberry Wheat
(3 gallons)
Ingredients:
• 1 tbsp. light dry malt extract
• 1 pint water (for starter)
• 3.3 lb. can Brewferm Framboise
• 1.4 lb. can Alexander’s wheat “Kicker” syrup
• 1 tsp. Irish moss
• Wyeast 1056 American ale yeast (instead of the yeast provided with the Breferm kit)
• 3/4 cup priming sugar
Step by Step:
Make one pint of starter wort by boiling the malt extract in the water. Start yeast in the cooled starter wort one day prior to brewing. Boil extracts and Irish moss for 10 minutes (the Framboise is pre-hopped). Pitch yeast when cool.
Rack to secondary after one to two weeks. Bottle with priming sugar after one week in secondary.
OG = 1.046
FG = 1.012
Getting the Hall on Time
When Chuck Dutart got married, he knew what he wanted to serve at the reception: his dad’s homebrew.
Tom Dutart, Chuck’s dad, was looking forward to providing the beer for the event. Until just before the wedding date, arrangements seemed to be going well.
Then, the manager of the reception hall called to say he had double-booked. In spite of their carefully laid plans, Chuck and his bride, Faye, had to scramble at the last minute for a place to hold the celebration.
A new hall was found, but the manager insisted on providing all the drinks served at the wedding. In other words, no homebrew. Tom didn’t want to disappoint his son, but he was in no position to argue.
“But homebrewers never quit,” says Tom, so he bottled his trademark brew, chose a name that suited the special occasion, and gave it as a gift to the guests as they departed. He also gave some “Matrimoniale” to the catering crew. “The husband of one of the cooks thought it was so good that he wanted to buy a case of it!” Tom didn’t sell it, though. It was a brew to be enjoyed in honor of Chuck and Faye’s marriage.
Matrimoniale
(5 gallons)
Ingredients:
• 9 lbs. Alexander’s pale malt
• 1/2 lb. crushed 60° Lovibond caramel malt
• 3.25 oz. Cascade hops
• Wyeast 1056
• 3/4 cup priming sugar
Step-by-Step:
Steep caramel malt in two gallons of 160° F water for 30 minutes in a grain bag. Remove grain bag from the water and rinse with two gallons of 160° F water. Add pale malt, adjust volume to 5.5 gallons, and bring wort to a boil. When it boils, add 1.5 oz. Cascade hops. Boil for 60 minutes and add .75 oz. Cascade. Boil for five more minutes and turn off heat.
Cool wort to 70° to 80° F and add yeast. Ferment at room temperature until complete, rack to a secondary fermenter, and dry hop with 1 oz. Cascade. Hold beer at room temperature for 24 to 30 hours. Transfer to a bottling bucket. Add priming sugar, bottle, hold for at least two weeks before refrigerating the finished beer.
Here Comes the Bride’s Brew
The first time Gail Walker made beer, she served it at her wedding.
Gail and fiance Jamie Keating, an avid homebrewer, were given a trip to a San Francisco brew-on-premise, Brew City, as an engagement gift. They invited two friends to come —Tighe, Jamie’s brewing partner, and Gailen, like Gail a brewing novice.
“Jamie and Tighe considered themselves the ‘real’ homebrewers,” says Gailen. “They humored us by taking us along.”
The group chose a pale ale recipe, then began to measure ingredients. That’s when the guys decided to go buy some beer to drink while they brewed (hey, it’s important). Gail and Gailen continued mixing, measuring…while the guys consumed their beer, talked to the other brewers, and examined the equipment.
“They never did get around to helping with the brew,” says Gailen. “Don’t tell them this, but we didn’t miss them.”
Gail and Gailen (with a little help from the groom) bottled the brew in six ouncers (“It took forever!”) to give to the wedding guests as favors.
The wedding guests all enjoyed the beer (except for Tighe and Jamie, who grumbled about “beginners”).
“When Gail told everyone that we had brewed all the beer, everyone laughed,” says Gailen. Seems the guys were known far and wide as the brewmasters of the family, and no one believed that the “girls” had done the brewing.
Jamie and Gail’s Wedding Veil Ale
(14 gallons)
Ingredients:
• 2 lbs., 8 oz. wheat malt
• 2 lbs. crystal malt (20° Lovibond)
• 8 oz. crystal malt (60° Lovibond)
• 1 lb. Vienna malt
• 4 qts. pale malt syrup
• 2 qts. extra pale malt syrup
• 2 qts. amber malt syrup
• 6.5 oz. Cluster hops
• 8 oz. Cascade hops
• 0.3 oz. Irish moss
• Nottingham’s ale yeast
Step-by-step:
Mash the grains at 158° F for 30 minutes. Add the malt syrups and boil for 15 minutes. Add 5.5 ounces Cluster and 5 ounces Cascade and boil for 40 minutes. Add 1.5 ounces Cascade and Irish moss and boil for five minutes. Dry hop with the rest of the Cascade and Cluster.
Vows to be Different
Rich Holmes is not what you would call a traditionalist. His credo (ironically, penned by Miss Manners) is “Not every tradition, however entrenched, is attractive. Some should be closed down immediately.” This includes serving champagne or the “store-bought” stuff at your own wedding.
For his own wedding Rich didn’t just brew a beer — he made four of them! The guests raved about Old Dog Porter, New Tricks Brown Ale, Blue Blazes Red Ale, and Borrowed Bottle Gingered Golden Ale.
“The Gingered Ale was really bottled in borrowed bottles, since I didn’t have eight cases of empties sitting around,” he says.
Borrowed Bottle Gingered Golden Ale
(5 gallons)
Ingredients:
• 3.5 lb. light dry malt extract
• 1 oz. East Kent Goldings hops
• 1.5 lb. orange blossom honey
• 1/2 tsp. Irish moss
• 0.5 oz. Fuggles hops
• Yeast Labs A04 British ale yeast (or other ale yeast)
• 5 oz. fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 2/3 cup priming sugar
Step by Step:
Dissolve light dry malt extract in five gallons of water and stir while bringing to the boil. Add East Kent Goldings hops and boil for 45 minutes. Add honey and Irish moss and boil for an additional 15 minutes. Add Fuggles finishing hops and turn off heat to kettle. Adjust wort volume to five gallons. Original gravity should be between 1.042 and 1.046.
Cool wort to 70° to 80° F and add yeast. Ferment at room temperature until fermentation stops. Rack beer to secondary fermenter and add the fresh, grated ginger. Bottle beer after leaving it in the secondary fermenter for four days.
