Home games

Friday nights in when you're missing the pub

Are you missing the pub? No problem! We have a number of ways to bring that same pub experience home. First things first, you need some beers, of course! We suggest picking up one of our pre-packed cases or go full pub mode with a home beer tap! With our SUB Starter Packs you get everything you need to get your home bar up and running. A pint pulling machine and a selection of kegs that will delight every beer drinker. If you want some suggestions of what SUB Kegs to stock your “home pub” with, then read our Top 5 SUB Kegs of the moment. And what's a pub without snacks? Take advice from our Pub Snacks article, suggestions for classic snacks and beers to pair with them.

Now for some entertainment. Keep it classy with a beer tasting, we’ve got some great suggestions and tips for how to set that up. Or what about a pub quiz?! Since lockdown we’ve been amazed with all the fun and innovative ways to keep the spirit of the pub alive, and the classic pub quiz is a great example of this. The legendary Hackney pub, The Pembury Tavern, now under stewardship of our pals Five Points host a Virtual Pub Quiz every Monday. Or join The Quiz Team, the trivia buffs who run host the quiz at The Flask in Highgate. Camden Town Brewery’s virtual taproom are also hosting a fortnightly quiz on Thursdays through their Instagram page. FYI they also have lots of other beer related fun things to check out.  If you would rather be the host, then you can easily find ready made questions like these from the Radio Times or write your own.

Not feeling a pub quiz?! Also not a problem, pop over to The Covid Arms, an online pub comedy night. Lots of brewers are also hatching up interesting ways to keep people stimulated and enjoying beer. From BrewDog’s Online Bar, weekly 4pm Friday sessions with Beavertown to charitable live music sessions with Fourpure, check out our page on how to support and stay up to date! Alternatively stream curated comedy from Soho Theatre on Demand, productions of Fleabag and Jessie Cave’s – I loved her are available.

If you're not ready for the night to end, swing by Smule. Smule, a virtual karaoke app, lets you sing a whole roster of classic tunes along with your friends, remotely. Just like the karaoke booth! You’ll probably want a beers for this one, so make sure you've stocked up.

Lockdown games

The digital edit

Ok so you can't play a traditional board games, but we live in an age of incredible technology, allowing you to still play games with your pals… just online this time. With most of these, you can video call one another through any of the video options above, so it really feels like you're together. Get some beers, pick a game and get playing!

• Jackbox Party Packs are fun, easy to play party games each containing a variety of different challenges. Tasks might include drawing weird doodles, writing jokes or answering trivia questions. It's easy to play, when you start a game, you'll be given a unique room code, all players can enter this and play along together. Jackbox even has  a blog post  explaining everything. 
• Skribbl  is a kind of Pictionary you can play for free. Create a private channel and send your friends the link to play together.
• Board Game Arena  and Tabletopia have some great modern games, create a premium account to invite your friends. Or if you want to go old school play, Uno , Monopoly and chess .
• Act It Out : The Act It Out game can be livestreamed via Twitch, Youtube or Mixer. The host has to portray or draw different things and viewers can collect answers and points through the chat. Available on  PS4  and  PC .
• Psych App  - Somewhat like Cards Against Humanity but with more control over the answers. Download the app and enter participants names. The app will then send a series of questions to which everybody anonymously answers. The aim of the game is to provide the most convincing false answer. Players then pick the most outrageous or best answer to the question, the player who wins the most rounds is the winner!
• Werewolf – Sometimes known as Mafia, this is usually a dinner party game. The best way to describe it is as adult wink murder. Each player is assigned a different role and by deduction, strategy and lies you must determine who the werewolves are! There is an online version that allocates roles and moves the game along with plotline and instructions. Everyone logs on to the game portal to play, but you will also want to stream a video separately for this one. You will want to see your friends faces; it might give some clues about who’s lying!
• Rummikub - The classic tile strategy game in online version! Challenge friends and other players from all around the world, who will get rid of all their tiles first?!

Party games for adults

The silly edit

Below is a collection of the best house party games for adults. Not “drinking games” per se, but games you will probably want a few beers for. These are silly and a lot of fun. Some can be played with your household, depending on how many you live with or adapting to play on video.

• The Beerwulf box game - a take on the traditional cereal box game, this one calls for some limbering up. Firstly, buy your Beerwulf Beer Case, either pre-packed or hand-picked. When it arrives put your beers in the fridge, and there you have it, an empty box. Each round, players try and pick up the box using only their mouth. Anything goes, as long as hands don’t touch the floor. Each round you rip another section off the box to make it shorter and harder to reach. Continue going until everyone is out and someone is crowned the winner. Either play this with flat mates or do it virtually and all remove the same amount of cardboard each round.
• Charades- You can come up with ideas yourself to act out to other players. If you want to cramp it up a notch, a more sophisticated version would be to use a charades idea generator.
• Beer buzz- Everyone goes on video, go around the group counting up from one (two, three, four etc). Each player can say up to three numbers at a time. For example, one player might say 'one, two'. The following player might say 'three, four, five', and so on. However, you can't say any number that has a seven in it, or any number that is multiple of seven, 7, 14, 21 etc. Instead, you must replace the number with a beer like 'Heineken'. When someone says ‘Heineken’, the direction changes and count starts going the opposite way the other way around. To make it more difficult add in another number like 3 and replace this with “Amstel”. It gets harder as it goes along!

To add an extra competitive layer, include some forfeits. Loser has to send the winner some beer! Draught Kegs make excellent prizes, as will a case of beer. 

No contact needed; fresh beers delivered straight to their door, for free!