Sad Trombone.
Dogfish Head will be merging with Boston Beer (Sam Adams) soon. 
Cite.
That is what I came back to post. At least it will be more available if less creative.
I think a merger is better than say selling it to a big brand. But even then, the mentioned in the article deal of Ballast Point selling to Constellation Brands actually made Ballast Point available in Atlanta. And I love their stuff and haven’t seen any downturn in quality. So it’s not all bad.
Sure, but most of Sam Adams beer as well as their various malt beverages are contract brewed as a company they really aren’t any different than PBR or other brand companies. There are some rumors that this is about Boston Beer trying to get a real production facility and that they may follow it up with a purchase of a west coast brewery or possibly Texas area to turn them into more of a production company then a marketing firm.
Read that yesterday…DogFish Head recently came this far west, they have been in our market about a year or so. I REALLY hope Boston Brewing does not fuck them up too much! I am a fan of their Liquid Truth Serum and the rare but tasty 75 minute IPA with a hint of Maple syrup. SeaQuench is also a good lawnmower beer.
FCM…I think a few of us here will ship in (and pick out) the beers and I’ll bring the pizza fixins. You do have a double stacked Bakers Pride stone floor pizza oven don’t you?
All you have to do is set the date and make a few pitchers of lemonade, oh, and a BIG batch of Maryland crab cakes would be nice!!
Time and date?
I’d recommend keeping it simple. 2-3 brands of beer. And, since in my experience a lot of people don’t like beer, but do like wine, consider some inexpensive reds and whites.
I’d also recommend that you consider just going with non-alcoholic beverages. If I was invited to a semi-social, semi-business open house and found that they were only providing non-alcoholic beverages when I arrived, I think I could survive for 2-3 hours!
Even if you know everyone attending well, remember that you, as host, and your business (since it is apparently a business event) are liable for the behavior of your guests. If you just put the beers in a cooler or fridge and allow everyone to take as many as they want, if just one person decides they want 8 beers and then goes out and gets in an accident, you can be held liable.
Most events I have hosted (professional, non-profit, but still technically business events) we have a bar and drink tickets to limit intake or it is a small group that has mostly people who know one another and anyone getting drunk is going to have someone more sober taking their keys away.
At the very least, controlling how much individuals get (even if it is just someone handing the beers out and cutting off anyone obviously inebriated) will limit your exposure.
Constellation Brands seem to be making a pretty serious move in the direction of premium/imported beer, wine and spirits- the only value stuff they seem to be retaining is their cheap wine business (they are the company founded on "Wild Irish Rose, after all). So I’m not surprised that they’d leave Ballast Point alone as well as expand distribution.
I’d argue against getting a light beer; your goal at the party isn’t to really satisfy anyone, but provide something everyone can accept. So that means you’re looking at full strength American/Mexican/N. European pilsners in all likelihood. Stuff like Budweiser, MGD, Coors Banquet, Corona, Modelo Especial, Cerveza Sol, Bohemia, Pacifico, Heineken, Beck’s, Grolsch, etc…
I think I’d stay away from wits (Shock Top, Blue Moon). A lot of people like them, but a lot don’t. Nobody hates a standard full-strength pilsner, unless they’re the snootiest of beer snobs.
Get some bottles, peel off the labels, and ask the people there to tell you what it is and what they think of it. What it is doesn’t matter that much. Beer snobbery is a lot like wine snobbery. A lot of people can barely tell the difference and couldn’t reliably tell you what a good or a bad beer was. They’re just going to react how they think they’re supposed to react to whatever you bring. Short circuit the whole process by making it a mystery and see how they look at each other and struggle to figure out if they’re supposed to like that beer or not.
Yeah, okay, so you probably don’t want to turn this gathering into a social experiment. I would, though.
Get some bud light or miller lite, some Heinekin, and some completely random local beer. You’ll cover most of the bases. People will be happy enough.
I’d stay away from anything labeled IPA, too hoppy for many beer drinkers.
Stay away from Corona, unless you want people asking for limes.
I like SenorBeef’s list, something lite, something mainstream, something local.
I’d go upscale mainstream like Sam Adams rather than Bud, but it’s more of a “know your audience” thing.
Then again. I recently was offered a taste of a beer a local brewery planned to release soon. I told the brewer I liked it, and it reminded me of a beer I’d had before, one of Sweetwater’s 420 line. He was gobsmacked. The beer was based on that beer.
You’re quite the comedian, aren’t you! 
I don’t have a pizza oven, but I have a pizza stone. And crab cakes??? Um, we’re a little LLC - the closest we can afford to crab cakes would be tuna salad with Old Bay in it! 
I’ve got a smoker, so I’m thinking pulled pork and maybe smoked chicken wings. Or ribs. I dunno, the food part is easy for me.
Yeah, there may be some truth to beer snobbery, but it has to do with more extreme flavor profiles than subtle differences. Just about anyone can tell the difference between a Light beer and an IPA for example.
I remember a few weeks ago I was at Mercedes Benz Stadium (in Atlanta) and saw a beer tap for Elysian Space Dust IPA at a concession stand. I eagerly ordered it. Took a sip as I was walking away and realized instantly it was a lager - went back and the manager informed them that the Elysian Space Dust IPA had run out (they just hadn’t taken the taps off yet) and gave me a refund.
Just got a couple of Sweetwaters tee shirts …free of course, I don’t pay companies to advertise their products, no matter how much i enjoy them…OK, it cost me a custom built Pie, but I did not have to pay for that either.
I’ve had it, but the beer I was talking about is just the 420 extra pale ale.
I swear, you can taste the dank stickiness in the beer!
I actually enjoy that beer quite a lot. My pot smoking days are behind me, but I’ll always enjoy the smell - and that beer has plenty of scent memories wafting up from it. I ordered it at a bar the other day, and a couple a few seats away were trying to figure out who walked in with a pocket full of weed.
True… I’d guess that absent some sort of particularly notable flavor, it’s going to be kind of hard to distinguish products within a category that actually adhere to that category.
For example, I’d probably be hard pressed to tell which one was which between Modelo Especial, Corona or Dos Equis, if they were all equally fresh, and I was blindfolded. I’d be able to tell they weren’t all the same, but I’d have no idea which was which.
I’d second the recommendation to have a couple of bottles each of white and red wine available. I know a lot of beer haters.
I’ve drunk a lot of cheap beer in my day (especially on camping trips), but I won’t drink Bud Lite. Nasty.
I think Yuengling would be the perfect compromise beer. I’m bummed that I live too far west to find it. It’s light but… and here’s the important part, it has flavor. That’s what most ‘Lite’ beers lack (well, besides a g and an h).
I always get a hoppy IPA, a milder wheat beer, and a light(er) beer. If there are leftovers, it’s pretty even (and, sorry, but you do want some bottles or cans left. If you’re running low, some people* will cut back and not take a second beer.
*My wife is Asian, Norwegian, and Lutheran. She’d worry that she’s using too much of your tap water and try to pace herself…
Sam Adams is a good quality beer that everyone seems to like.
It’s fancy enough to keep the blue collar guys and the snobby “oh so refined” crowd happy.
Coors is good for the folks that like very mild tasting beer.
This would be a good compromise if you want to only buy one beer.