We hear you are throwing a party and we were wondering – WHERE IS OUR INVITE? We kid. Seriously, planning parties or gatherings of any type or size can be a little stressful. All the little details swimming around in your brain in circles is enough to make you woozy. Thankfully, one thing you don’t have to worry about is how much beer you need. We have that covered!

But first, you have a couple of questions to answer:

• How many people are you inviting?
• How long will they be at the event?
• Will you be serving other beverages?

In general, plan on two drinks per guest during the first hour of your party, and one each hour after that. If you are serving multiple beverages, vary the quantities based on what you think the most and least popular drinks will be among your guests. Round up your estimates, don’t round down.

If you are serving both beer and wine, the general rule is to plan on 60 percent of your guests drinking wine and 40 percent drinking beer. But you know your friends and those number may need to be adjusted. We are guessing there will be more beer drinkers, am I right?

For the beverage glasses, you should definitely plan on multiple glasses per guest unless you use drink markers, or are going all bottle and can. Guests often forget where they place a drink or they may change beverages over the course of the party, requiring a new glass.

Should I just get a keg?

A “mini” keg holds 5.16 gallons or approximately 55 servings of a 12-ounce bottle of beer. A quarter or “pony” keg holds 7.75 gallons or 82 12-ounce servings. A half barrel keg is 15.5 gallons of beer which is approximately equal to 165 12-ounce servings of beer. That may sound like a lot of beer – until you start doing the math. Based on the guidelines above, 30 people at a 4 hour event will drink approximately 150 servings! Of course, you also have to take into consideration that a keg will limit you to one variety of beer.

If you end up with more alcohol than you need, just keep the party going! Remember to enjoy your party. But enjoy responsibly by also providing plenty of water, soft drinks and non-alcoholic beverages – and make sure everyone who’s drinking has food to eat!