Beerfest

Over my years, I’ve picked up many a drinking game (after all, who doesn’t like to increase their boozing fun with some friendly competition and laughs?). Here are some of my favourites:

Beer Pong

Playing in teams of two, Beer Pong is the art of throwing (or bouncing) ping pong balls across a table into cups on the other end. Depending on which cup you hit, you might be in line for bonus cups to be eliminated, which are then drunk by your foes. Eliminate all of your opponent’s cups and you win. At the Sip Advisor headquarters, I am the host of an annual Beer Pong tournament. This year will mark the fourth edition of the event, which has featured some of the finest pongers among my circle of friends and associates. We’re always trying to adapt our house rules to make the experience flow smoothly and provide guests with a great time. While it’s been three years since I last tasted championship glory in the inaugural tournament, I look to finally return to the winner’s circle this year and be the complete annoying, narcissist, ass I know I can be. Last note, always respect house rules where you’re playing!

Even Jesus played Beer Pong… looks like a shutout is brewing!

Flippy Cup

Another very active drinking game, which features teams of three to five competing to down their beer and flip their cup, situated on the edge of the table, onto its top in a relay-style race. This game inspires great camaraderie amongst your mates and also vicious feuds with your opponents (or that one person on your team who costs you every race because they just can’t get the core concept of the game). It’s best to break up into teams (boys vs. girls, city yuppies vs. country bumpkins, or however you want to split the group) and duel it out in a best-of-seven series. Once the series has been decided, switch the teams up and go again. This game can get a little messy, so you might want to play outside, or on a table you don’t mind trashing a little before it’s cleaned up.

Never Have I Ever

This is the fastest way to get to know your friends more intimately than you ever intended (or possibly wanted). It’s a pretty simple game: sit in a circle of sorts and go around saying something you’ve never done before. Those who have actually done it, have to take a sip of their drink. You can throw anything out there, from feats of daredevilry (wow, that’s actually a word… I thought I was making it up) to actions of a more adult nature. There’s no real ending to this game unless people grow tired of their privacy being invaded or you just don’t have much else left to learn about your peeps. It’s a perfect game for camping and sitting around the fire pit. It can get a little rowdy however, so be careful of noise levels if you’re in a public place at later evening hours.

King’s Cup/Ring of Fire/Sociables

This is a great game when you just want to sit back and chill out, while getting bombed and having a ton of fun. It has multiple names, so use whichever you prefer. You start by laying out a full deck of cards in a ring around the center cup. Each card means something different and house rules can often vary. For example, 2 means you drink, while 3 means me drink, and so on, in other rules, 2 and 3, can mean give out those numbers of drinks.. Some cards have more active rules, like making up a rule that every player has to abide by and proposing a category that people have to name items for. Each time a King is drawn that player pours as much of his or her drink as they want into the centre cup. The game continues until the fourth King is pulled and whoever is unfortunate enough to draw that card has to down the center cup. This game can get interesting fast if everyone is drinking something different as anticipation grows as to who will draw the last king and be forced to drink the mixed brew!

Drink #207: Beer’s Knees

• 1.5 oz Gin
• 1 oz Lemon Juice
• 1 oz Honey Syrup
• Top with Hefeweizen (I used Rickard’s White)
• Garnish with Lemon Wedge

The names and rules of some of these games may be different in your neck of the woods. I’m simply describing them as I know them. If you have any Beer Pong rule suggestions for my upcoming tournament, feel free to pass them along. We might not use the rule, but I always appreciate having options. Same thing goes for drinking games I’ve neglected to mention in this article.

Sip Advisor Bar Notes (4 Sips out of 5):
Lemon Juice tastes really good with Hefeweizen Beer (no surprise there!) and the touch of honey is a nice little bonus, adding a sweet ending to each sip of the beer cocktail.