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Ingredients barley large

Conviviality

Field of barley
Beer rituals
Why chinking glasses?

In the Middle Ages, chinking jars often meant some beer slopped into other jars, and anyone not having chinked jars was suspected of having laced the beer. For fear of getting poisoned, some did without chinking jars and didn’t appear trustworthy themselves. Emperors, kings etc. also feared being poisoned and had their own taster.

Here's looking at you, kid

Looking people in the eyes while chinking glasses also hails from the Middle Ages. Anyone looking into your eyes couldn’t signal others to poison you, at least not with his or her eyes.

Why putting down the glass again, after having chinked glasses?

It cancels out the chinking. When the Bavarians had to chink glasses with the Prussians, they disassociated themselves from them by putting the glass down again. But another story is that this custom goes back to monks who found the jar to heavy to drink from it and had to use both hands, after chinking jars with only one.

Agreeing over a drink to use "Du"

This custom seems to indicate that a shared drink can commit you to each other.

Field of barley
Beer games
Mäxchen

Number of players: 3 – xxx, Utensils: 1 dice shaker, 2 dice, 1 beermat. Game: roll the dice in clockwise rotation. The higher number is a 2-digit number, the lower 1 digit. Two of the same are a double, only to be beaten by a Mäxchen, a 1 and a 2. You always have to roll a higher number than the person before. But the dice stay hidden and only the roller himself/herself knows his/her number and will tell it to his/her neighbour. If the neighbour doesn’t believe it, he or she can check. If the roller has lied, he or she has to take a drink; if he or she hasn’t, the person having made the check must. If a Mäxchen is uncovered, all people have to drink twice. The new round always starts with the loser.

Bier-Pong

Number of players: 2 – 10, Utensils: 20 plastic cups with beer, a table-tennis table, a table-tennis ball. Game: on each half of the table put 10 cups, forming a pyramid, and fill them with beer. Form 2 teams of the same number of players; one for each half of the table. The ball is thrown alternately into a cup of the team opposite. If a team scores, the other team has to drink the cup. Whoever has run out of full cups is the losing team.

Tossing bottle caps or beermats

Number of players: 2. Utensils: beer bottles and bottle caps/beer mats. Game: the players stand 2 metres apart with a bottle in hand each. Each opened bottle is crowned by a bottle cap/beermat, which is to be hit by the opposite party’s tossed bottle cap/beermat. The player whose bottle was thus hit must take a sip from it. The winner may try again. If he or she scores again, the opposite party has to take two sips and so on and so forth. An empty bottle indicates the loser.

 

Zehn kleine Bierlein, die sollten mich erfreun.
Das erste hab ich ausgetrunken, da waren's nur noch neun.

Neun kleine Bierlein, die haben mich angelacht.
Eins hab ich davon weggeputzt, da waren's nur noch acht.

Acht kleine Bierlein, die sind mir noch geblieben.
Das eine habe ich verschluckt, da waren's nur noch sieben.

Von sieben kleinen Bierlein, da trank ich eins auf ex.
Als ich dann sorgsam nachgezählt, da waren's nur noch sechs.

Sechs kleine Bierlein, die sind mein letzter Trumpf.
Dann habe ich eines weggespült, da waren's nur noch fünf.

Bierlieder

man: ooohhh, what is the malted liquor, what
gets you drunker quicker,
what comes in bottles or in cans
men: BEER!
man: cant get enough of it
men: BEER!
man: how we really love it
men: BEER!
man: makes me think i'm a man
men: BEER!
man: i can kiss and hug it
men: BEER!
man: but i'd rather chug it
men: BEER!
man: got my belly up to here
men: BEER!
man: i cannot refuse a
men: BEER!
man: i could really use a
men: BEER, BEER BEER!
men: BEER BEER BEER BEER BEER BEER BEER BEER

Beer-tent games
...
Maßkrug stemmen

One Maß (1 litre) is filled with water or beer. The jar is held at shoulder height with your arm stretched. Nothing must overflow. If you get weaker, you are out. The winner is who lasts longest.

Stiefel trinken

Stiefeltrinken means a boot-shaped glass is passed around. The difficult thing is that because of a vacuum having formed you cannot really take a sip as soon as there is only beer left in the bottom part. But you can avoid the vacuum by evenly turning the glass while drinking. If you don’t, you will get a splash in your face. There are a lot of local rules, e.g. that the last one pays for the next round and that he or she who gets the splash in the face has to drink up.

Bierkrug schubsen

Nothing for the weak, this Bierkrüge schubsen. It’s all about dexterity. You shift or shove a Maß as close as possible to a defined target.

 


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