Last night all I had around to drink was old beer that I hadn’t bothered drain-pouring yet. This made me question how to make these old beers taste better. What can be done?
I filtered the results and brought the best to you.
Turns out, you will need a French press. I don’t have one so I say you can just kind of mix in the things some other way – but you’ll probably get better results using a French press (something I now am adding to my wish list).
There are two main ideas to bring new life to your old beer, but I want to quickly list all of the best ones here before we get into detail:
Mixing the beer with citrus or coffee in a French Press.
Okay, so, the most serious of the beer re-fresh ideas is using a French press. But what do you press with your beer? Try these:
Remove the zest of a grapefruit (orange or lime could work too). Take that zest and half a grapefruit (with the peel removed) and put them through a French press. Take that and put it on the top of your beer (I obviously don’t know how French presses work). Gives your beer a fresh citrus vibe that overtakes the cardboard. Good for Pales and IPAs or any beer that can take on citrus.
Take cocoa nibs and put them through the French press process with your beer. Good for tart beers.
Take freshly ground coffee and put your beer through the French press process. Works best on Stouts but I think it would add something to most styles.
Slice half a mango, and use the French press process. Good for West Coast IPAs.
For Lager and Ambers it doesn’t matter, they already wack and there is no helping them…ZING!🤣
Not every idea for brightening your beer involves a French press. Another great (and easier) idea to try is adding a couple of drops of a Bitter. Let’s listen to Cara tell us about bitters and think about which ones would be good for the style of beer we want to taste fresh again:
So yeah, now I gotta get a French press – and never use it for coffee. Speaking of, here is a list of equipment and other items that would help you have a good beer freshening system:
The best looking (to me) French press that is nicely rated – you can see the beer you’re pressing without obstructions: Bodum Brazil French Press.
You are looking for the best beer gift ideas for yourself or the rad beer geek in your life, and I am here to give them to you. I am always looking for gift ideas so I thought you probably do too.
Sure, you can wander Amazon or the Internet as a whole and call it a day. No, it’s too basic. You could waste a lot of time that way. You need someone to filter it down for you.
I am a beer geek and also a guy and I know what I would like to get as a gift for Christmas, or birthday, or Father’s Day, or any damn day. I want to give you some good ideas for a beer gift for you or some other awesome person.
My List of Best Beer Gifts For Men (and Women)
Here are some beer geek gifts I would like and I hope it helps you figure out what to buy the beer person in your life. There is a full description of gifts and links to many beer gifts further down in the post, but here are my top eight picks for beer person gifts, if you don’t have time for all that:
In my opinion, a Yeti is the best cooler around. Everything else just tries to be it. Is it expensive? Sure. But keeping beer cold for a long time is worth it.
*Heads up: Most of these links are affiliates of my blog – just something “they” feel you should know.I might make a tiny percentage if you end up buying something.
A Fun Beer Device
I want a Square Keg so much. I am hoping they will send me one. It makes you the cool guy at the tailgate that has draft beer. People will say “Did you see that guy with the square beer thing? It was pretty cool, too bad the guy was such a dork.” I am ready to be that guy.
But you can’t go wrong with this one. Even with Untappd, I still like to keep a log of my thoughts while drinking. A notebook would also be great for home brewers.
A Beer Making Kit and a Brewing Class
There are a lot of brewing kits on Amazon to choose from. The Northern Brewer series of home brewer starter kits, seem to be the best rated – they have many different beer styles, so make sure you’re not getting one with a beer style your person hates.
Bonus quick links to gifts that a person into beer would also like. I am going to keep adding to the list until it becomes the greatest gift idea list for beer geeks of all time!:
Like this party pump, everyone wants to be the person with the party pump.
Good Luck With Your Beer Gifting!
This was a guide I put together for you, a person looking to buy a solid gift for a beer geek. Maybe that person is you, or maybe it’s someone you know. Just know that I am a beer geek and I would love anything here, so I am guessing the beer person in your life would too.
Also, I would like to tell you that the ultimate beer gift you can give is hanging out and enjoying some music with your friend or loved one, with no judgment, just love and appreciation.
I will regularly check back with this post and update it with more beer gifts and gadgets so bookmark this, you fine gift-giving person.
I seriously wanted to find you the best outdoor games to play in a beer garden or just some dang grass or cement somewhere.
I have searched the Internet. I have played some outdoor/lawn games. I drank beer at outside parties. All so I can write this post. Alright, well, not ALL so I could write this post, I also had fun.
But what are the best outdoor games for a beer garden or backyard? You are here for this, so I put together to the top games I would buy for my backyard (if I could afford them all) and/or the games I would expect to see at my local beer garden.
What are good games to play outside for adults or families?
In some states, you are not allowed to operate a beer garden without one of these human-size giant connect-four style, games. At least that is what I hear. They are fun to play for a bit with the kids, as I have done this at multiple beer gardens. It gives you (and whatever child is around), a solid activity. It’s simply a must-have.
I imagine you can play this in a basement or a yard somewhere (no beer garden or taproom required).
If you want to keep it classy for your nice backyard, I suggest checking out this one.
We Are Putting On Beer Cans On This
The deadly game of Giggle and Go
I don’t like the name so I am not going to even say it.
But, yes! Finally, a game that can involve our beers. Screw the picture with the water bottle, we all know we are using our beer cans. That can get pretty high stakes too if you have a real craft beer sitting on top that you really don’t want getting busted all over the ground. High Stakes.
Again, Giant Jenga is another must-have for your “kid-friendly” brewery or your own personal use. I like to tackle a giant Jenga like it was a running back – I don’t know why, it’s just fun is all, okay? You’re okay with FUN, aren’t you? Sometimes I hurt myself, does that make you feel better? Good.
Oh hellssss yeah! I didn’t know they had a giant Yahtzee set thing. I feel like this could get annoying to the people in the beer garden who are NOT playing as they will randomly hear someone cry out “YAHTZEE!” (or Yardzee in this case).
But screw them. They are just jealous they aren’t playing. I think I will be getting this one for the house, actually:
If you want to get some custom bags for cornhole, check out my friends at Local Bag Co.
A Pool Table But Golf
Until I started researching for this post, I had no idea this was something that existed. It looks damn fun. The drawback would be needing a large flat and hard surface. And yes I see that it is made for indoors but it looks like I could place it in my backyard or driveway for the day and it would be fine.
Looks like you can play it drunk. With kids. Alone. All the things.
The only question is, would I play golf pool better while buzzed like I do when I play regular pool? Must find out.
Giant beer pong. Yep. Somebody made this. Of freaking course somebody made this. Hey, it’s probably damn fun. Why not? Beer pong is a fun party, lawn game, or drinking game.
I am not sure where I would store this though. But if you have the space…
Pop-A-Shot Official Dual Shot Sport Arcade Basketball Game
Of all the items on this list, this may be the one I would like at my house the most. I literally put it on my personal Amazon wishlist after looking at this one.
Lots of game options. After looking at all that Amazon offers in this category, it looks the best for the price. It would be bold-ish to have bought this for a beer garden – just because it might get messed up. It would be fun while it lasted though.
Alright, well, now we know some cool games to get for outside and big-ass spaces
Yes, the basketball game is top on my personal list. But all of these outdoor games look rad and I kinda want them all. Seriously. Give me a couple of good beers (even if the beers make me sleepy) and one of these games and it will be a good day.
But anyway, I think those are enough things to get you on your way to a playful beer garden or backyard or NYC apartment rooftop. Don’t forget some outside lighting, btw.
Let me know in the comments what is your favorite thing to toss in your backyard is.
A patio beer while I listen for reasons to drink it
I came up with my own beer drinking game. Would you like to know it?
Alright, good.
It’s simple. It’s nerdy. And it requires you to be outside – not the best time of year for this, I know. No, this is not something like the best games for playing in a beer garden or outside, it’s something else. Something for sitting.
My favorite part might be that you can play it by yourself, if you want. Plus, it’s good if you drink beer in the suburbs or in an apartment with a good window seat.
If you are a dork like me that enjoys sitting outside, relaxing with a beer, maybe listening to music, writing in a beer notebook and watching the clouds go by, have I got a drinking game for you!
It is a simple observational drinking game.
This is for beer because beer rules. But hey, I am not the drinking police – use this game with whatever drink you need to.
Here are your Beer Drinking Game For Sitting Outside, prompts.
Drink when you:
See a squirrel.
See or hear a plane.
Hear a car stereo.
Hear your neighbor fumbling around (sweeping, taking garbage out, ect.)
See a bird (one type per session).
Hear or hear a pine-cone, branch or leaf fall.
See a different squirrel.
Hear a train (two drinks).
See a rainbow (down the whole beer).
Hear wind chimes.
Hear a lawnmower.
See a different kind of bird.
Hear a leaf-blower.
Hear kids playing (one session only).
Hear a car horn.
Hear a gunshot (actually just go back inside if that happens).
You could add your own prompts too then print it out – if you have managed to keep a WORKING printer – printers are not easy to keep working.
On a nice spring day, you could get pretty lit playing this Beer Drinking Game For Sitting Outside.
(this game needs a real name)
Anyway, you can play at night too!! Because I also have a NIGHTTIME EDITION!
I mixed in some of the appropriate daytime edition prompts with additional nighttime ones that start at the top of the list.
Take a drink when you:
See a satellite.
See a shooting star (down the rest of your beer).
Hear a bat, owl or any bird, actually.
Hear a cricket (once a session only)
See your FIRST firefly of the night (regional).
Notice a light get turned on.
See or hear a plane.
Hear a car stereo.
Hear your neighbor on their patio (or balcony for apartment dwellers).
Hear a pine-cone, branch or leaf fall.
Hear a train.
Hear wind-chimes.
Hear a gunshot (get back inside until you hear the police sirens).
