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Surprise Party Necessities: Food, Friends, Beer

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What’s the  secret to throwing a good surprise party? The secret is that the best parties are all about who’s on the guest list. Good food and good beer are certainly an added bonus, but they’re not the most important thing. I know. I know. This is a blog about kegerators and beer, but good friends and close family are “Numéro Uno” without a doubt.

Kegerator Surprise Party

Decorations and gifts are nice, but they don’t solely make for a good party. So, if you are thinking about planning a surprise party for someone close to you, the most important thing is to make sure that the most important people in their life are present – and that those they don’t like are not.

Once the guest list for your surprise party is taken care of, then you want to think about things like food, drinks and entertainment. If the party is for adults, then alcoholic beverages are usually part of the game plan.

If the host of the party has a home bar, complete with a home kegerator that serves delicious, authentic-tasting draught beer, then you’re in luck because kegerators offer a great option for serving the beverages at the party. If you don’t have an authentic beer dispenser like a kegerator, that doesn’t mean your party is ruined, however. You can see if someone you know has a mini kegerator that you can borrow for the evening, which will still dispense great tasting draught beer. The mini kegerator’s size will allow someone else to easily bring it to the party, and then all you’ll need to do is buy a few 5 liter size mini kegs to put in the beer dispenser to keep the beer flowing all night.

If you can’t get your hands on a kegerator for the surprise party, have no fear. A beer cooler filled with some of the guest of honor’s favorite brand of beer in cans or bottles will do the trick just fine. If there are wine drinkers at the party, you can also make sure to have a few bottles of wine on hand as well. You can even opt to have a fully stocked bar, complete with hard liquor, but doing so can get expensive and is a better option if you’re also hiring a professional bartender.

Aside from beer and other alcoholic drinks, you’ll also want to consider food for your surprise party. The type of food you offer will depend in part on how formal or informal you want your party to be, what type of food your guest of honor and his or her friends prefer, and your budget. You can throw a surprise party with a light menu of just chips and snacks or can have a full meal served. You can be as informal as pizza and wings or can have a fully catered affair with upscale appetizers and decadent desserts. You can plan the whole menu and buy all the food yourself, or you can ask each guest at the surprise party to bring a dish and make the party a pot-luck event. The point is, you have a ton of different options when it comes to the food being served at a surprise party, and you’ll find that whatever option you choose will not change the level of fun the party delivers.

So, if you are planning a surprise party for someone, your first order of business should be to make sure you get the guest list right – don’t leave important people off the invitation list and don’t have people on there that don’t belong. Then take care of things like drinks and food – try to find a kegerator or ask if any guests have a mini kegerator so you can all enjoy some great tasting draught beer throughout the party or stock the cooler full of cans or bottles of beer.

Or, if you have more of a wine drinking crowd, make sure you have enough wine on hand. Then choose a menu that suits the overall mood of the party crowd and your budget. After that, if you are interested and still have time and money left over, you can worry about things like decorations, paper goods, invitations and the like. The truth is that the guest of honor is usually so happy that someone took the time out to plan a party just for them, that their gratitude is in the thought and planning that goes into the party, not the little details that serve as “extras” to make the party a bit more special.

Religious Celebrations and Keg Dispensers: What's The Connection?

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Have you ever wondered if there’s a logical connection between religious celebrations and kegerators? Probably not, but in fact, there are many religious celebrations where having a kegerator on hand can add to the festivities. You see, when a bunch of people get together to celebrate a major event, such as a religious celebration, there is often alcoholic beverages, or at least beer and wine present. And if there’s beer, what better way to dispense it than from a keg, housed in an attractive looking kegerator that does the job of keeping it cold and keeping the keg out of sight?

beer churchA church bar/pub that mixes religion and the art of beer making.

Some religious celebrations that you may find kegerators at include bar and bat mitzvahs, christenings, baptisms, holy communions and such. It is not the religious part of the celebration that warrants the use of a kegerator, but the fact that most of these religious events are accompanied by large gatherings of family and friends to celebrate the religious milestones. So, if you are throwing a party with adults in attendance for any type of special event, having a kegerator on hand to dispense the beer can be a highlight of the party.

For some, planning a celebration tied to a religious event includes selecting a professional catering venue to hold and coordinate the event. This means that your religious celebration may take place in a catering hall, restaurant, club or hotel ballroom. Often when an event is held at a formal catering facility, the facility takes care of all food and beverages served at the event, and also supplies servers and bartenders. If this is the case and beer is being served, chances are that behind the bar sits a commercial kegerator, which houses one or more kegs of beer that will then be dispensed to guests on request.

Commercial kegerators are the types seen behind bars at restaurants and pubs (actually, they’re usually not seen because they’re under the counter and out of sight, but you know that they’re there). These types of kegerators can have one or two taps or more and can allow the dining establishment to offer multiple types of draught beer on tap to its patrons.

If you are coordinating the planning of the festivities for your own religious celebration and it will not be occurring at a restaurant or formal catering facility, you may have to arrange to have your own tables and chairs on hand and to set up an area for food and beverages. You can rent the items you need from a party rental company, complete with the long tables required to set up a buffet of food (along with the sterno and serving dishes) and a bar (along with a kegerator full of beer). You can hire your own servers and bartenders, or sometimes the rental company can even provide them for you so you can save yourself the extra step of having to hire wait staff separately.

However you choose to celebrate a religious milestone with your family and friends, you will find that having a keg dispenser can be a handy accompaniment to your celebration. You might never have thought before about the connection between religious celebrations and kegerators – and you might never again – but when it comes to planning a party or celebration, you will quickly see the benefits of having a beer dispenser on hand, if you choose to serve alcoholic beverages at the event.