The Beer Olympics started in 2007 with a Question of "How come we never did something like that". The planning began and on September 8th, 2007 the First Annual Beer Olympics took place. After a successful event, planning for the next year began immeidately. What was originally planned as a day of fun, has turned into a tradition which continues to see an increase in participants and spectators as interest in the event continues to grow. Planning your own Beer Olympics event may seem easy at first but there are many things that one should consider before hosting their own Beer Olympics. Here we will highlight some of the areas that need to be thought of in order to have a successful day of fun competetion.

Selecting a Date

  This can be one of the most difficult tasks of the hosting a Beer Olympics. What you will quickly learn is that NO day will work for everybody. It seems to be easiest to select a handful of people who you really want or need at the event and work around them. Everybody else will have to work around the day selected.

Team Selection

   This can go a couple of different ways. The method we use is that we allow people to select a partner and then those partnerships are randomly drawn from a hat and combined to form teams of four. We have considered allowing individuals to form and enter their own teams but found that randomly combining people aids in the overall enjoyment of the day as people get to know one another while competing.

Time/Schedule

  The age old saying that "time flys when your having fun" is an understatement during a Beer Olympics. We try to kick off the event at noon in an attempt to get all the events in before dark. Keep in mind that some events take longer than others, such as Beirut. We have found that starting off with events that get teams through at a quicker pace, such as Flip Cup , get everyone involved more quickly and sets the stage for the rest of the day. You will find it is difficult to keep all teams playing at different events because you never know which teams will be available to play a new event until they win or lose at a different event. You do also not want to have the same teams playing each other over and over again. Recruiting a few of your trusted friends or having desiginated referee's to assist in keeping track of the games can really help out in getting teams to where they need to be and also limit "down" times for teams.

Event Selection

   Now there is no limit to your imagination here. We have stuck with some of the more commonly used games which can be an advantage because most everybody knows how and has played them at some point. We do try to mix it up each year with a different event or just change which ones we use to keep it interesting. These are the events we have used with a PDF attachment which has a description of the game as well as the rulles we have used:

Beirut (2 Tables) -Rules Used

Survivor Flip Cup - Rules Used

Beer Dodge - Rules Used

Obstacle Course - Rules Used

Beer Can Toss - Rules Used

Ladder Golf (2 Sets)- Rules Used

Baggo - Rules Used

Team Relay Race - Rules Used

Pitcher Race - Rules Used

Civil War - Rules Used

Beer and Food

   Obviously the amount of beer used is in direct proportion to the number of Olympians you have. For our event, we focus more on the competetion and fun as opposed to overall consumption. On average, each participant will drink approximately 1 beer per event but most people will be socially drinking in between events as well. Our consumption has been between 2-3 kegs for approximately 30-40 people. Be aware that there will be a lot of spillage and wasted beer throughout the day and it is better to have extra then come up short just before the final event. As it can be a terrible idea to drink on an empty stomach, pizza is served as the Olympians arrive and the games are haulted for approxiamtely an hour for a BBQ after the first few events are completed.

Scoring and Awards

    If you looked at the Rules for each event, you are aware that different scoring is used for different events Some of the events, such as Flip Cup and Ciivil War are played like a single elimination tournament with winning teams acquiring points for each victory. Some of the other events, such as the Obstacle Course and The Pitcher Race are scored based on time, with points being awarded to the fastest teams. The team which accumulates the most points is crowned champion. The winning team gets their names engraved on the official Beer Olympics plaque and, if all team members attend the following year, are given the opportunity to stay as a team and defend their title. Champions are also awarded a bottle of booze for first place, while second place gets growlers from a local brewery and third place get an assorment of nips to split up.

Give Aways

   Certainly not a necessity but definitely fun, each year we have something for the Olympians to take home with them.