The concept of trading hard-to-find beers among fans has been around for a long time and chances are that if you’re a self-proclaimed “beer geek” you’ve either traded beer yourself or have friends who do. I first wrote about (well to be fair, Josh @ brewsandbooks.com wrote a guest post and I published it) the phenomenon in October of last year here — but the tradition of beer trading goes much beyond that — and its popularity has only increased with the burgeoning trend of special beer release days, such as Kate Day at the Portsmouth Brewery, Dark Lord Day from Three Floyds, the release of Sexual Chocolate from Foothills, Vagabond from Allagash; the list goes on, across the country.

The results of a disc golf themed "beer-it-forward" trade conducted by Russ from TwinBeer.com

So it’s interesting to see the trend getting some media attention outside of the beer world. The large food & drink themed site, Chow.com, recently wrote a piece on the rising popularity of beer trading (please ignore the gross inaccuracies about Kate Day in the opening paragraph; no one ‘reserved bottles the day before’) with instructions on how to trade (or how people get away with it currently, since it is technically illegal) and a list of some of the more sought-after beers people are looking to trade for on the popular beer forum, BeerAdvocate.

Check out the piece for yourself; who knows what you’d be able to snag for that bottle of Black Tuesday from The Bruery you’ve been stashing away. Do any of the readers out there have any experience with beer trading? Please share (if you are willing & able) in the comment section!

If you live on the east coast, chances are you’re rained in tonight and what better way to spend a wet Friday evening than watching the first 2008 Presidentail Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. And what better way to make it through the debate than by playing a fun little drinking game with a small group of your closest friends. Not sure how to play? Here’s a smattering of some of the Presidentail Debate Drinking Games spotted around the Interwebs today:

• Debate Watching Isn’t Just For Politicos [npr.org] – pretty thin and generic but worthy of inclusion for the comical fact that it comes at the recommendation of National Public Radio
• The Presidential Debate Drinking Game [Comedy Central's Indecision 2008] – wacky off-the-wall rules… would you expect any less from the folks at Comedy Central?
• Obama-McCain Presidential Debate Drinking Game [theseminal.com] – this one is pretty intense with lots of different drinks being required. Thankfully the site includes links to drink recipes for the more obscure required shots and things.
• Presidential Debate Drinking Game [The Official Blog of Author D. H. Schleicher] – This one breaks down the games nicely with generic rules for each debate and then debate-specific rules for foreign policy, the economy, etc.
• 2008 Presidential Debate Drinking Game [tvgrapevine.com] – a forum discussion with on-going rules.

And last but not least, this YouTube video from howcast.com – complete with visual instructions. Enjoy!

No one likes Mondays, plain and simple. And quite frankly, I’m hard pressed to think of a better day of the week to pour myself a pint of my favorite bitter. So, with that in mind, I’ve posted a YouTube video below which is, in my opinion, the perfect drinking game/song for battling a case of the Mondays: The Barley Mow. Just pour yourself a pint, follow & sing along, take a sip when everyone shouts “good luck” and try and keep up.

Cheers!