Forget trying to swallow the enormous charcoal filled pills that are “Chaser” and step into the future with the Blowfish pill. The pill is made up of 1,000 milligrams of aspirin, 120 milligrams of caffeine and some sort of medicine to help your upset stomach. It’s the first hangover pill approved by the FDA, but I’m still not sure it’ll help cure all of the effects of a long night of drinking. I seem to have luck by either alternating beer and water or just drinking mixed drinks so that I’m getting more water than liquor at the same time, it seems to work for me, but everyone’s different.

source: Washington Post

I’m not a huge beer connoisseur, but I have friends that believe they are. I’ll have a beer or two when we go out, but due to the massive hangovers I always seem to have I tend to stick to hard liquor… cause that makes sense. Anyways, if you’re unfamiliar with 3 Floyds Brewing they are responsible for beers like Gumball Head, Zombie Dust and then their extremely rare beers like Dark Lord. Correct me if I’m wrong, but they only sell Dark Lord on 1 day and it’s a limited run so people line up for the stuff. They also have other seasonal beers that each come out in a certain month, but Dark Lord is the only one that is only sold for 1 day and that’s it.

So apparently last weekend 3 Floyds had an anniversary party at which they were giving away (or selling?) XV Anniversary Baller Stout. It would seem as though a lot of people were not happy with the way the event was handled and decided to voice their concerns on multiple beer drinking websites. Well 3 Floyds got wind of the bad press and decided to release the following [awesome] statement:

Update: Apparently the statement below was written as satire and was NOT the official response from 3 Floyds. Guess I should have looked into it a bit more, oh well, it’s still amusing to read.

It has come to our attention that many of the attendees of our 3 Floyds XV Anniversary party were less than thrilled with the organization and overall flow of the event. We’ve heard complains that people waited 3 hours to gain entrance to the party with pre-paid tickets, we’ve heard complaints that people waited in line for extra long periods of time to get our Baller Stout bottles, and we heard complaints that many of the speciality draft offerings we anticipated on pouring either never showed up, or blew quicker than anticipated. Since the end of April, we’ve been proudly hanging our hat on the fact that Dark Lord Day didn’t have any of these issues, yet somehow, we are getting the exact opposite response for this past weekend’s party. We would like to address these concerns with just a few bullet points.

• Why don’t you find a better brewery in the surrounding area? Oh that’s right,you can’t!
• Even though there were 4,000 less people at this event compared to DLD, we thought it wasn’t worth paying for extra resources or beer. We simply don’t care.
• You’re a stupid part monkey part sheep who will be back for DLD and our next anniversary party, hopefully we can make it even worse for you.
• You’re a stupid part monkey part sheep who will be miserable at our event and still fork over $50 for one of our rare beers.
• We are metal as f*ck.
• No matter how many years we throw parties, we will only note the mistakes, and not correct them. It’s a waste of time and we will still rake in more dough each year.
• We line our pockets with your money,your tears and Satan, and we are very grateful for that.

I hope this addresses the situation in a nutshell, and we hope to see you come out to our next party, Dark Lord Day 2012, which is slated for late Spring. We’ll be sure to keep all of the concerns you’ve expressed over at BeerAdvocate andRateBeer in mind while we cover our d*cks in aluminum foil and proceed to make love to your backside.

Three Floyds Management*

It sounds as though these guys are pretty confident in their product and the fact that just because a few people didn’t enjoy themselves at the party, they will still be racking in the cash come DLD (Dark Lord Day). As far as I’m concerned, this is one of the greatest responses to online criticism ever. Just because of this I want to try every beer they make, and I don’t even really like beer and I sure as hell am not “metal as f*ck! So 3 Floyds Brewing, we raise this glass to you, good show. [This statement can no longer be held true, since, alas, this response is fake...]

http://www.3floyds.com/

If you’re looking for a quick and easy drinking game, give Indian Poker (also called Blind Man’s Bluff) a whirl. It’s just about the easiest poker game in the world to play and simple to modify into a drinking game. Since it just involves each player being dealt one card you can also play with a large group without worry of running out of cards, so there’s no limit to how many people can play unless you have more than 52 people (at which point the party is likely into full swing anyway with no need for drinking games).

As far as the rules, everyone is dealt a single card, which they place on their forehead without looking at it, so that every other player can see the card. Each player sees everyone elses cards but not their own; be sure to pull curtains over windows and hide any reflective surface that might tempt some players to cheat. After everyone checks out all the cards, the dealer counts to three. If you want to stay in and think you have the highest card, you keep your card on your forehead; if you don’t think you have the highest card, you drop your card on the table.

If you fold and drop out, you take one drink. If you stay in and win, congratulations, no drink for you. If you stay in and lose, though, that’s three drinks. If you stay in and tie with another player for the highest card, every player who ties for high card has to chug their entire drink. While you won’t need the same poker skills and strategy as if you were playing poker games online, you can still bluff, talk other players into folding, etc., as you don’t necessarily have to have the highest starting card to be the winner in the end.

If you saw our post about the Qwest field beer cup issue then you know what you’re in for with this video. Apparently Qwest Field isn’t the only stadium that is ripping people off when they buy a large beer. The guy in the video above has a small and a large cup, essentially the small is $5 for a beer and the large is $8 for a beer. The small beer is filled almost to the top with water, but once he pours it into the large cup you realize that it’s almost exactly the same amount of liquid to fill the large as it is the small, yet it was $3 more… Now in the case of Qwest Field they have come out and said that they were “accidentally” using the wrong cups for the small beers so in fact those people who ordered a small were getting a better deal… somehow I don’t believe that. It sounds to me like they just got caught so had to come up with some excuse to spin it their way.

If you happen to check out a sporting event at a stadium, arena or wherever, get your hands on a small and large beer cup and see if you got ripped off. I have a feeling this is more widespread than just these 2 stadiums.

Our first thought when we saw Pong Deck was “How did we not think of this?”. It’s just that simple of an idea that you’d think would have been around since the invention of beer pong itself, but apparently it took a couple kids from Chicago to make it a reality. The game comes packaged in a very simple, yet effective, hockey puck-style container that holds your entire Pong Deck, Deck. Each deck contains 50 cards which are made up of drinking cards and action cards. There are 18 unique cards spread throughout the deck and can range from having to do a hook shot on your next throw all the way to just straight up chugging a beer. The cards themselves appear to have a protective coating to them which prevents them from getting damaged if they get wet, which is bound to happen. This also makes them extremely easy to clean if you need to.

The game is as easy to play as it sounds. While you’re setting up your cups for a game of beer pong, just place 1 card from the shuffled deck under each cup, once a player hits that cup on other side of the table, the other team must do whatever the card says…. that’s it! As long as you know how to play beer pong and can read, then this game is extremely straight forward. None of the cards are confusing and the artwork on them is pretty cool.

We had a blast testing these out this weekend, it’s amazing how one action card can change the whole dynamic of the game. Like I said above, I’m not quite sure how we’ll ever go back to playing normal beer pong. Pong Deck is a cheap, great way to spice up a game that can get old after a while. So with that said, we can’t recommend this enough, so head on over to pongdeck.com and pick up your own deck for as low as $9.99.

Pong Deck

The Setup: First bet your friend that you think you can drink 3 full glasses of beer (must be pint glasses) before he/she can finish 3 shots. The only rules are that you are not allowed to touch each others glasses/shots and they must wait to take the first shot after you’ve finished with your first glass of beer.

The Trick: Take your time drinking your first beer, your buddy can’t take their first shot until it’s gone anyways so there’s no rush… Once you finish the beer take your pint glass and turn it over, upside down, over top of your friend’s last shot glass… since the rules state that you cannot touch each others glasses you win since he won’t be able to take the last shot due to the fact that he can’t get to it without touching your glass…

Make it interesting and bet the round of drinks on the trick.

If you’re looking for a unique way to stock your cabinets with drinking glasses and don’t want to spend a lot of money… and you want to get drunk on top of it, then this trick is for you.

It’s extremely simple to do if you have the right tools, those tools being the following: a piece of string, an empty beer bottle, nail polish remover, a lighter, sandpaper and a sink/bucket full of cold water.

What you’re going to do is take a string and tie it around the bottle where you want to cut it, do this before you soak it so that you can get the correct fit. Next you’ll soak the string in the nail polish remover and place it around the bottle. Light the string with the lighter and pick up the bottle, slowly rotate it around in a circle like you see in the video above. After 30 or so seconds, dunk the top of the bottle into the water and the glass should “pop” from the sudden change in temperature, thus breaking the bottom at it’s weakest point, the place you just heated up.

Before you use your new glass to drink out of you’re going to want to sand down the top edges so you don’t cut yourself when drinking out of them. The video above doesn’t show the sanding part, but hopefully you’re smart enough to know that you’ll cut the hell out of your face if you try to drink out of the freshly broken bottle.

This trick also works with wine bottles (or any bottle really), so if you want to do something creative with those this will work also, although it may require a bit longer burn on the string to heat the bottle a bit more.

Have you ever found yourself out in the middle of the woods with a bottle of wine and a glass, but no cork screw? If that sounds like a situation you could possibly find yourself in then this trick is for you.

Essentially all you need to open a wine bottle is a towel, or something to wrap around the bottle so you can get a good grip, and a tree. Just wrap the towel around the bottle and gently, but firmly, hit the bottom of the bottle against the tree and the cork will slowly being to pop itself out. Sure it’ll appear as though you’re giving the tree a hand job, but once it’s done you can finally enjoy that nice glass of wine you’ve been waiting for.

Update: It appears as though the venue has changed for the party to the Alhambra Palace. For more details check out the website below.

This Friday, January 14, 2011, The Alhambra Palace is hosting the official birthday party for Miami Heat star, and Chicago native, Dwyane Wade… and everyone is invited! All you have to do is purchase your tickets at http://www.dwadebirthday.com and show up at the venue. The event is being hosted to Common and is sure to be a good time. If you buy 2 tickets online right now it will only cost you $40 (for the pair). There are sure to be celebrity sightings at the venue so what are you waiting for? Doors open at 9PM.

Common performing live for the biggest All Star weekend celebration in Chicago. Before the big games this weekend comeparty this Friday, Jan 14th with the  Chicago Bears, Chicago Bulls, & Miami Heat players as we kick off the All-star  weekend & celebrate Dwyane Wades Birthday with Common performing Live. This will be the biggest red carpet celebrity All Star celebration of the year, you don’t want to miss it. Partyall night @ the Congress Theater with 6 of Chicago’s top DJ’s spinning allnight!. Invited guest celebrating Dwyane Wades birthday &
Chicago All Star celebrity weekend:
Lebron James, Derick Rose, Vince Vaughn, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah, Chris Bosh, Devin Hester, Lance Briggs, Jay Cutler,Tommie Harris,  Johnny Knox, Brian Urlacher, Julis Peppers, Gabriel Union and more surprise celebrity performances! Chicago sports fans & music fans you don’t want to miss this!

http://www.dwadebirthday.com

Looking for a new bar to check out this week, well you’re in luck as the owners of the popular bar Bull & Bear are opening their new venture, Public House, Thursday January 13, 2011. Located at 400 N. State St. in Chicago’s River North area, this 10,000 sq. ft. bar/restaurant hosts some of the latest in beer/liquor dispensing technology. Not only do they have 25 beers on tap plus their own Public House brew thanks to Goose Island, they also claim to have over 100 different types of beer in general for you to enjoy. And the best part is, for most of them you don’t even have to leave the table.

With 12 table tap booths spread throughout the bar, you and your guests can order your favorite beers without even having to leave the table. And unlike other places that have table taps, Public House’s taps will also dispense liquor. Drinks are charged by the ounce and servers must approve you for up to 24 ounces before you can begin to pour. Once you hit the 24 ounce limit you will need to request the waitress to re-enable the tap, but only if she deems that are you not too intoxicated. Each table tap is also outfitted with an LED screen which will tell you exactly how many ounces you’ve had to drink. It seems like a pretty cool system for those who get annoyed with slow service.

Aside from the novelty of the table taps, Public House also offers up a great place to watch the game. With 27 plasma TV’s spread throughout as well as one 84″ HD Wall, you’re sure to have a good view of the game from every seat in the house. And if you’re looking to throw a private party, the elevated private room boasts 1000 sq. ft. of space as well as the latest in Wall Tender technology. So what are you waiting for, get your friends together and hit up Public House this Thursday, January 13, 2011, for the grand opening. There will be celebrities and promotions going on all weekend so stop on in or check after the jump for a rundown of what you can expect for the grand opening.

Website: http://www.publichousechicago.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrbrewchicago
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/PublicHouseChicago

DON’T FORGET! If you’ve been to Public House Chicago, let everyone know how the bathrooms were! There’s nothing worse than a dirty bathroom when you’re out drinking at a bar, so why not warn others. Check out www.barsquat.com for the latest Chicago Bar Bathroom Reviews.

[image courtesy of Metromix]