Beer runs out before anything else at a posada, and always for the same reason: people buy for how much fits in the fridge, not for how much gets drunk.
The sum
Three beers per adult. This isn't a three-hour party, it's a posada, and it starts at eight. Twenty adults is sixty beers, which is five twelve-packs. If people stay late, six.
Twelve-packs, never sixes
Two sixes cost more than one twelve in almost every brand, and nobody has ever saved half a beer. Two different brands as well, because there's always somebody who won't drink Corona and somebody who only drinks Modelo.
The half of the house that isn’t drinking beer
This is the buy that gets missed every December. Canned micheladas solve the people who want one without setting up a station of lime, salt and sauce in the kitchen. And a cold party pack of Smirnoff Ice disappears faster than the beer, because it's sweet and doesn't taste of alcohol.
Ice
One bag per twelve beers, and fill the cooler an hour before, not on the night. A warm beer dropped into ice takes forty minutes to get cold and the guests have already arrived.
If it’s at your house
Buy over. Unopened beer doesn't spoil and there's always another posada. Buying exactly enough is how the ice runs out at eleven.
Beverage World Package Store
6731 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Doraville, GA 30360. (770) 441-0001. Open 10am to 9pm Monday to Wednesday, 10am to 11pm Thursday to Saturday, and 11am to 9pm Sunday. Delivery from $4.99.
On our shelf right now
Prices and stock read from our own inventory when this page was built.