What kind of beer & wine should I serve?

Beer - Do you have Yeungling in your area if not I would do a Sam Adams

Wine - Dry white savignon Blanc maybe a Chateau Ste. Michele

Thanks for the options. I think I may do the blush wine and scratch the sweet red and pick something a little more dry.

What about a cidar like redds or angry orchard?? and for wine I would do chardonnay too.

I'm doing a lager (Yuengling... I know some people may not know what that is because it's only sold on the east coast) and a light beer, probably coors light. For wines we're offering one white and one red, made by a local winery that has fantastic wines, the red is a sweet concord wine and I haven't found anyone that doesn't like it yet, it's fantastic!

If you have it out there, Hot to Trot by 14 Hands has some pretty cheap, decent white and red blend options. It's usually on sale at the grocery store.

Also, most grocery stores should give you a 6-bottle or 12-bottle discount.

Cost Plus World Market frequently has wine sales too if you have one of those by you.

Is there a costco that sells alchohol near you?

I'd skip the moscato and go with a chardonnay, and add a merlot.

I second the Costco reccomendation. They are the best for buying bulk beer and wine!

I agree with everyone else. Skip two sweet wines and do this instead:

Red - Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon

White: Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc

Blush if you must...white zinfandel. Otherwise I would choose either a second red or white option.

Beer:

Sam Adams or Yuengling for a decent cheaper amber

Guinness

Bud or Miller for the people who insist on drinking gross beer. Sorry...I'm really biased here.

I'm from Maryland and we don't have alcohol in grocery stores or wholesale place

Yeah! maybe I will do yuengling. Perfect!

Alaskan Amber is also a good medium-dark beer that a lot of people like, if you have it in your area. I think it might be $6-7 a 6 pack or you can get a keg.

Mmm. Yuengling. We don't have that in Texas, so whenever I go to DC or above, I wrap a six pack or two in my suitcase and bring it back.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale would be my beer choice, and a cab sav for wine.

I like the idea of cutting the Moscato and doing an easy combo of red, white (chardonnay?) and blush. Or ... I'd sub the blush for sparkling wine if I had my druthers. It's my absolute favorite and super celebratory! Cava is Spanish sparkling wine (made in caves originally, hence "cava") and it's a great bang for buck. You can get sparkling rose, too.

A sweet red is not a deal-breaker in my opinion, because reds are fuller and the sweet will be intermingled with more bold flavors, but whites are so crisp that the sweet can get overpowering really quickly. Moscato is, in my opinion, a non-wine drinker's wine. I'd go with something cleaner, especially to go along with dinner.

I also love Guinness for a dark beer choice, but that might be too dark for some folks.

I'll rescind my Guinness suggestion since you're getting married in June -- that might be too wintery!

@Kim I know you'll be able to return bottles back to the liquor store if they don't get consumed but I honestly think you'll save more money by buying a keg. This website is a good resource for approximating how much people will drink at an event. You just enter in # of people, length of time, what you're drinking and it calculates the how much. It might enable you to choose some better beer selections or do 4 beer types instead of just 3.

http://www.evite.com/pages/party/drink-calculator

Chardonnay, Merlot, and some kind of blush like pink moscato. Can't go wrong with those.

I had bud light and yuengling mainly because the country club charged more if they weren't domestic.

Here is a bar list:

Beer

Samuel Adams

Summer Ale

Porch Rocker

Blueberry Hill Lager

Shiner Bock (this is beer made in Texas)

Red wine

Cabernet Sauvignon

Merlot

Pinot Noir

White wine

Chardonnay

Pinot Grigio

Sauvignon Blancs

The beer FH picked and the wine we just copied a list from someone else.

I would do Zinfandel over Cab or Merlot. Go for an Old Vine Zinfandel and it will have tons of fruit so that some of the drinkers might think it's sweet but really it's dry so it will appeal to dry drinkers too. Cab can be overwhelming and especially the ones that are at a cheap price point. A mass distributed decent Zinfandel is 7 Deadly Zins…you can't go wrong with that.

As for white I would have something off dry but maybe not Moscato. Some Rieslings or Gerwurtztraminers have sugar to them but a little less than a Moscato. Sutter Home actually makes a very inexpensive Gerwurtz and people will love it. You could toss in a Chardonnay but I think the Gerwurtz will be great, especially if you don't have hardcore wine people.

As for beer I would go kegs, they will probably be cheaper in the long run. Is there a local brewery? We are having beer and ciders from small breweries we love…including one from the FH's hometown!

If sam adams is too expensive, i would try and find a lager to balance for the beer drinkers.