There are so many things to consider when planning a party, from the location, food and entertainment to managing the guest list. One of the decisions you will have to make along the way is how much alcohol you’ll need.
Hosting a party without enough alcohol will not go down well with your party-goers. Lucky for you, we have over four years’ experience helping party organisers all over Melbourne plan their events with mobile bar and keg hire, and we have learnt a few tricks to help you get your order just right and keep the party pumping.
What’s the guest count?
A good place to start! Also think of the age group of your guests, ratio of male to female - females tend to drink wine or champagne more while males tend to drink more beer.
What’s the occasion?
The amount of alcohol your guests will drink will differ if you are hosting a dinner party compared to a birthday or engagement party. Does the event centre around drinking or is there a dinner or other entertainment that will take the focus off of drinks for periods of time?
How long is your event?
Is this a 2 hour product launch or a 7 hour wedding? You might also want to consider the time of year, people tend to drink more in Summer when the weather is warmer.
What are you serving?
The variety of drinks you plan on serving will change the quantity. The smaller the selection the easier it is to predict and calculate what you think your guests might drink. If you offer a wider selection of drinks including spirits, your guests may switch drink choices more throughout the night. Are you serving wine, beer and spirits?
Rule of thumb
Count on guests consuming two drinks in the first hour of your event and one drink during each following hour. Work out how many drinks your guests will consume throughout the event. Kegs will give you 175 pots from one 50L keg, wine you can assume 5 glasses, a bottle of vodka will give you around 16 drinks give or take. Now all you need to do is add it up!
For example a party catering for a birthday over 5 hours we would recommend the following;
*1 beer keg = 175 pots
*1 wine keg = 200 glasses
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