Beer and Root Beer Tasting Party

This weekend we celebrated by husband’s birthday. Since I’m always planning parties for other people, I wanted to make his celebration special too. It was a really small get together with mostly family, so we decided to do a beer tasting, and for the non-drinkers among us, a root beer tasting. It was so much fun!

I went root beer shopping early and was able to find 7 varieties at my local Loblaws, a few were from the health food section. I was really surprised at how many there were. I added one more to come with 8 in total.

For the beer we had 12 varieties, including some light lager, dark lager and ale. For both tasting we bought a couple of each type, and served the tastes in 3 oz disposable shot glasses. This was enough for everyone to try everything, and return to their favourites.

While we tasted, we gave each drink a score from 1 to 5, ranging from a number 1 being “I’d almost choose water over this, but at least it’s still beer” to number 5 being “I’d give up watching F1 (by guy’s fav.) or golfing, or riding my motorbike…(choose the appropriate answer), to have this beer again. My husband made up these great score cards, using the logo from each beer or root beer, so everyone could remember their favs.

I used simple white tubs for the beers, and added Martha’s chalkboard labels. I also embellished with “cheers” which became our party theme food!

I used this great old wash tub for the root beer.

I made a simple centre piece with some spring flowers, and a menu board.

The “cheers” sign was put together from various letters from different collections. I really love the different sizes and finishes together. Top Tip: I used a little blue tac to help hold them all up on the table.

We started off the party with some really easy munches. I made veggies and dip, and then had a great time at the bulk store and west Indian grocery finding all kinds of fun nuts, chips and snack mixes. These were a real hit with everyone, who seemed to enjoy all the different varieties.

For lunch my father-in-law made curry (thanks Bob!) we also had fried rice, chow mein with roasted chicken and roti -a favourite menu of my Guyanese family and super easy for me, since it was mostly take-out!

For the table I went with my new fav. brown kraft paper. I used white dishes, and bundled up cutlery and napkins in mini paper bags tied with twine. I stamped “Cheers” on to wooden veneer business cards, punched a hole and tied them on to the bags.

I love the rustic feel of all the brown paper, and twine, and felt like it went with the beer theme really well.

Since it was Easter weekend, I created a fun Easter table for the kids in the same rustic natural colour palette, see the details here.

Next it was dessert time!

For dessert I made cupcakes. Keeping with our beer theme, I made Guinness Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I made these sweet “cheers” cupcake picks from brown paper, rubber stamps and twine. Love how rustic they turned out.

For the kids, I made some simple vanilla cupcakes. Some I left plain, but for some I cut out a small piece from the top and added a 1/2 teaspoon of raspberry jam.

They were really yummy. I made little bunny toppers to match the Easter table. Love their little cotton tails!

We also had nest cookies, see the recipe here, and a fruit tray.

It was such a lovely afternoon. We started the party at noon, and enjoyed eating and drinking the day way together.

Happy Birthday Roland, we love you even more than Beer!

This post is linked up at Between Naps on the Porch, and A Stroll Thru Life.