I’m voting that Liz of The Papered Nest wins the prize for Wife-of-The-Year-Award for this amazing “Pots & Pig” Beer Tasting Party she threw for her husband’s 30th birthday! I know my husband would be in hog heaven, (pun intended, *wink*) if I threw him a party centered around beer + bacon!

Even the party invitations were bottles of beer… what guest wouldn’t like to receive that invite, right? Liz also did a great job including unique beer-related elements throughout the party such as Pubcakes, Beer Caramels, and Guiness Marshmallows. It’s an added bonus that all of those items are sweet too! Creative use of vintage crates, twine, Ball mason jars, chalkboard signs, mini woven baskets, and bundles of wheat topped off this incredible party. Don’t forget about all of the hand stamped wooden utensils too! (If you’re interested in purchasing a styling kit to style your own event, check out The Papered Nest.)

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Liz…

“When it came to planing my husbands 30th birthday party there was no doubt in my mind that it had to be a ‘Pots and Pig’ party! What could be better than combining his two favorite things, Rotisserie and BEER. And that’s how our beer tasting party began!

My first thought was obviously the invitations. After a bit of research I ordered customized beer labels online to co-ordinate with the party color scheme, black and brown from My Own Labels. After soaking the beer bottles overnight the labels pulled off with out too much elbow grease and were ready for the cutom labels – these had all the details of the party except one. I allocated every couple/single with a category of beer that they were asked to bring a CHILLED 6 pack in, (we ended up with 12 categories, 2 6-packs in each, which I can tell you is a LOT of beer!). Their allocated beer category was printed on kraft paper and tied with raffia around the neck of the bottle. I enlisted a friend to help me hand deliver the invitations.

My good friend Melissa and myself have recently opened a party supply store on etsy, The Papered Nest. We have designed Party Styling kits with the basics to style a table at any party so I combined the Black and Brown kits to style this party.

On the day I set the party up in our yard. We had two tables at either end of the yard and one against the house; one for food, one for drinks (other than beer!) and the last for the beer tasting station. There were ice tubs and a 10” wooden coaster for each category, two sample bottles, from every beer, sat on each coaster with a zink placecard for labels. There was a small table at each end of the tasting station. The right side was covered with 4 oz tasting glasses that all had a ‘cheers’ tag in the bottom that I hand stamped and punched, then applied to the outside of the glass. The other end table had pencils and cards for those who chose to ‘rate it’ or ‘hate it’ for the beers they sampled. Just for a bit of fun there was also a voting card for their favorite beer, which a prize was later awarded to the person who brought it!

Behind the table I decorated with extra large homemade paper rosettes and garland I made by lacing scalloped circles (that I punched from the left over rosette paper) on to black crepe paper.

The drinks table had ball glasses decorated with the drink accessories that come with the party styling kit. Which includes the striped paper straws, co-ordinating twine and tag stamped with ‘cheers’. There was also a couple of non-beer drinks, beer related snacks, and a delicious Elderflower sangria (Sangris Flora) for those of us who don’t like beer! I used the labels and ribbon from the party styling kits to label the food and drinks.

The last table was for the food since the party started at noon, we served the spit-roasted pig for lunch. The guys at GR Catering came and set up their station in our driveway where they finished off the cooking of the pig, a bit of entertainment for some of the guests! Along with that was an array of sides, one of which was a beer potato salad in keeping with the theme. The food was labelled with the rest of the ribbon and tags, and the table was decorated with the hand dyed doilies (also from the kit), a vintage crate, and 2 bundles of Blackbeard wheat which I wrapped with burlap and tied with ribbon. The hand stamped wooden cutlery is also homemade from The Papered Nest.

After lunch the table converted to a ‘beer’ dessert table. We served ‘Pubcakes’ from a local bakery which are cupcakes made with beer! Each PubCake focuses on the flavors that complement the type of beer used, some examples are ‘Irish Carbomb’ :Guinness®, Irish Cream frosting, and chocolate whiskey ganache. And ‘Cup O’ Hefen’ :Ballast Point® Wahoo Wheat, coriander, and citrus buttercream. Delicious! Also served were Guiness marshmallows from WonderMade, beer caramels from Alaskan Dermish’s Dessert Specialties and a homemade Beer and Bacon Birthday cake (inspired by this blog post/recipe. The beer deserts were definitely a hit!

I loved planning the party, everyone had a lot of fun and most importantly the birthday boy got to enjoy his 3 favorite things: Beer, Bacon & Buddies!“