Skip to main content

DIY Beer Olympics

beer olympics
Image used with permission by copyright holder

With the 2016 Summer Olympic Games happening now, this is the perfect time to evaluate your own fitness level. Maybe your pommel horse game isn’t quite what it used to be, but I’m willing to bet your beer drinking skills are at an all-time high. Instead of just sitting on the couch and watching “real” athletes compete on television, get some friends together and host your own Beer Olympics with these simple contests of skill and stamina.

Related: Ready to Rio? 2016 Olympic Sports to Watch

The Beer Mile

Recommended Videos

We’ve talked about this one before. There are several rules to follow for an official beer mile race, but the gist is this: drink a twelve ounce beer, then run a quarter mile. Repeat that three times and you have a beer mile. The keys to a successful run are 1) don’t take in too much air, and 2) don’t vomit. Good luck with that!

Beer Pong

A one-on-one tournament style game perfect for bracket lovers, this event sees opponents bounce table tennis balls into cups filled with beer. If your ball makes it in, your competition has to drink the contents of the cup. Mayhem inevitably ensues.

The Dizzy Bat Relay

You may have seen this event between innings at a minor league baseball game or remember it from your third grade field day. Two or more teams line up and take turns running to a coach, then putting their head down on one end of a baseball bat and spinning around it 10 times. The grand finale involves stumbling back to tag the next teammate in line. The Beer Olympics twist is to consume a beer before taking your spins. Expect more falling.

Bean Bag Toss

The bean bag toss (or “cornhole” if you’re nasty) is a leisurely pursuit where participants attempt to lob a square bag filled with beans into a hole in a wooden ramp. Basically, you just stand around and drink until someone claims to win.

To make your beer olympics event even more memorable, divide your friends into country teams. Once chosen, team members can only drink beer from those regions. Take it further and wear native dress and (attempt to) speak the local language. Have an opening ceremony parade down your street. Appoint a non-drinking friend to be the “rules enforcer” and settle international disputes. The possibilities go on and on.

Regardless of how amazing your beer olympics intentions are, be sure to drink responsibly. Keep consumption and physical effort at reasonable levels and provide lots of drinking water and sober rides home. Nobody wants an international incident.

Related Post: Running the Beer Mile

Lee Heidel
Lee Heidel is the managing editor of Brew/Drink/Run, a website and podcast that promotes brewing your own beer, consuming the…
Bud Light’s no longer the most popular beer on draft
There's a new macro beer leader
Beer

After a long run, Bud Light is no longer king. The best-selling draft beer in America is now Michelob. It's a humbling stretch for the mega beer, which first lost out to Modelo Especial last summer as the best-selling overall beer in the land.

There's no one reason for the change but experts have been pointing to both failed as campaigns by Bud Light as well as a move by consumers towards healthier, lower calorie beers. The newest info comes from Draftline Technologies, which looks at what's being poured in bars around the nation, among other things.

Read more
Ferment Brewing Company and Oregon Wildlife Foundation offer collab beer
An ale for frog safety
Ferment Red Legged Ale.

One of our favorite west coast breweries has teamed up with a local critter advocacy group in the name of our amphibian friends. Ferment Brewing has dropped the Red Legged Ale in partnership with the Oregon Wildlife Foundation (OWF), working together to support red-legged frogs of the Pacific Northwest.

Every year around this time, red-legged frogs move from Forest Park in Portland to wetlands closer to the Columbia River Gorge to lay eggs. It's a dangerous journey these days, given all the highways and roads in the area that have paved over their ancient migration route. The solution? Not just a delicious beer that helps support the cause, but a push for a protected route for the amphibians as well.

Read more
Pure Madness Brewery Group launches beer trio for winter
Two new IPAs and a lager
Loose Boots Lager.

The group behind crafty west coast labels Roadhouse Brewing Co. and Melvin Brewing just dropped three beers for winter. What are they? Two IPAs and a crisp lager.

Parent company Pure Madness Brewery Group oversees the two labels above. The new beers include Roahouse's Haze King Hazy IPA and Loose Boots Après IPA and Melvin's Jackson Hole Lager. The first beer is brand new while the latter pair is part of a seasonal re-release, the Loose Boots dressed in a new label.

Read more