It’s truly wild to see all of the innovative ways in which businesses are working to accommodate these new frustrating pandemic social norms. One seafood restaurant in Maryland is keeping patrons at a safe distance by turning them to human bumper cars. Another joint in Germany is achieving the same effect with foam pool noodles strapped to customers’ heads.

But easily the most ingenious thing we’ve yet to see come out of this new 6-feet rule is from the Mexican lager, Dos Equis. You may remember Dos Equis as the beer brand behind those massively popular “Most Interesting Man In The World” ads.

But now, in addition to thirsty, Dos Equis is insisting you stay safe and healthy. Now you can drink a whole new kind of responsibly, as the makers of the pilsner-style lager unveiled the very first social distancing beer cooler.

The Seis-Foot Cooler is, as you’d guess, six feet in length, providing the perfect buffer zone between you and a buddy looking to pound a few cold ones in the back yard. It’s essentially two smaller coolers with no storage space in between, but this novelty cooler is still bound to be a hit at your next gathering of no more than six people.

Dos Equis is graciously giving away a few of these coolers for free. All you have to do is buy any Dos Equis product and submit a photo of your receipt right here to enter!

Stay health-conscious, my friends.

How’s your Father’s Day been?

Turns out I shouldn’t have been subtly laying clues for my wife to get me some good bourbon or some good beer, and instead I should have moved to Germany where fathers have somehow hacked the system and found the world’s most amazing way to celebrate Father’s Day.

Germans sometimes get a bad rap for being humorless and severe, but there’s no denying they know how to drink. It’s no mistake that they started Oktoberfest, which I used to think was the world’s greatest celebration. And then I learned about the German Father’s Day.

We posted about it on Facebook. Check this out:

I won’t lie, they almost lost me with “going on hikes” but they quickly won me back with “wagons of food and booze.” It’s like a state-sanctioned tailgate that takes place, I dunno, in the woods? With a bunch of your friends? And no kids in sight?

Even better is the fact that it’s held on a Thursday. Obviously, after a day of booze-fueled hiking, none of these dads go to work on Friday, thereby extending Father’s Day into a 4-day weekend. This allows dads to recover from their day of debauchery and meat sweats while also giving them a few extra days with which they are free to celebrate themselves with their families, without whom none of us would be dads.

Finally, take a look at the wagon in that image. The “Papa Mobile” is fashionably decorated, there is a grill on it, and there are several glasses and even what looks like a keg of some kind.

I am not German, but I’ve never wanted to be one so badly. Forget making the day after the Super Bowl a national holiday, let’s adopt the German Father’s Day! We could technically celebrate both. Mach Schnell!

It doesn’t get much better than a beer in one hand, hot dog in the other. (Unless it’s in your pillow.) It’s basically “10 and 2” for cookouts. But haven’t you ever wished that perhaps, someday, maybe we could combine the two? No? Never even crossed your mind? That actually sounds sort of gross to you?

Well, too bad. Because Sheetz, a popular convenience store/restaurant based in Pennsylvania, has rolled out a limited edition craft beer that’s brewed with, yes, hot dog.

Last summer, Sheetz got together with Rusty Rail Brewing to release its first store-brand beer, Project Coffee Hopz, brewed with their very own Sheetz Brothers Sumatra coffee beans.

Later in August, they broke ground with Project Blueberry Muffinz, which is exactly what it sounds like. A morning beer if we’ve ever seen one.

But Sheetz has really outdone themselves this year. Teaming up with Pennsylvania’s own Neshaminy Creek Brewing, they rolled out a brand new ABV India Pale Ale. Light. Crisp. Dry-hopped with Nugget and Centennial hops.

Oh, and hot dogs. They tossed a bunch of Sheetz brand hot dogs in the brew kettle. Yep.

Introducing…

PROJECT HOP DOGZ

The beer, described by Sheetz as “refreshing and dry, with delicate hop flavors of citrus and pine,” hit shelves at 128 locations across Pennsylvania this memorial day weekend.

“Don’t worry, the beer does not taste like hot dogs!” reassures Neshaminy’s head brewer, Jason Ranck. “We thought it was just a fun concept and the perfect beer for pairing with Sheetz Hot Dogz and warm-weather activities.”

Sheetz and Neshaminy’s hope to spread some much-needed good energy with this otherworldly concoction. “[It’s] a surprise that’ll engender smiles, laughter, and conversation—something we could all use more of right now,” Jason continued.

Very touching. Cheers to these innovators. Now back to the lab. August is just around the corner and we still don’t have a beer that tastes like new car smell.

Click here to see if Project Hop Dogz is available near you. And remember, dog responsibly.

When it comes to takeout, branding, and packaging is everything. No one has mastered this more than McDonald’s and their Happy Meals. And now, as restaurants are forced to get more creative with their business models in the COVID-19 era, at least one is scaling that idea up for adults.

A restaurant in Ohio, the Dunlap Cafe, has started selling Happy Meals for adults. All the normal happy meal components are there; the box, an entrée, a side, even a prize (a Koozie, in this case), and a dessert (a Twizzler). And the reason it’s an adult happy meal and not just a happy meal? It comes with your choice of alcoholic beverage.

#EatLocal the @DunlapCafe is home of the adult happy meal! Burger fries and a “Adult” drink ! Check it out @Local12 pic.twitter.com/qumW7raCgb

— TR Gormley (@McGingeryBeard) May 1, 2020

The restaurant offers different options, depending on your drink of choice. The “Super Basic Box” comes with a PBR or Miller High Life. The “Basic Basic Box” includes a Bud, Bud Light, or Coors Light. The “Soccer Mom Selter Box” comes with a White Claw and they also offer adult happy meals with craft beers and cocktails for a higher fee.

While many families are still breaking up their routines with the occasional takeout meal, hopefully, this trend of adult happy meals continues. It will make quarantine a bit more tolerable if your meal comes with a beer. (Or your local ice cream truck sells booze.)

And honestly, one of the few positives to come from this awfulness is the trend of home beer and alcohol delivery. You can get cocktails and margaritas to-go from restaurants now. Is it the safest trend? Maybe not. Does it rule? Yeah, kind of.

Alcohol sales are through the roof, so no judgment when it comes to doing what you have to do to get through, and the same goes for restaurants trying to get a little more creative to survive.

Picture this: you and a friend are catching up from an abiding distance of six feet. You’re making meaningful connections through a mutual vulnerability, co-opting grievances with which you’ve both yet to fully assimilate.

This calls for a cold one.

But wait. You’re both wearing protective face masks. Dammit. They are, by very function, obstructing your beer holes. What to do? You could go the It’s Always Sunny route:

But if you don’t have a hazmat suit on hand, Phil from Beer Goals (the same genius who invented the beer pillow) has you covered with a nifty way to sip beer while wearing a face mask.

What you’ll need:

• • 1 sandwich bag
  • 1 straw from a kid’s juice box
  • 1 bandana
  • 2 rubber bands
  • 1 delicious beer
  • the knowledge this is for entertainment purposes only

Simply fill the bag with beer, seal in the straw, fold over the bandana, affix the rubber bands, couple more folds, and voila, those “drink responsibly” disclaimers take on a whole new life.

This, of course, just a silly fun thing, and should not be used in place of any real personal protective equipment. “The only thing this is gonna really protect you from is being sober,” Phil admits. “The only thing we’re not social distancing is this beer from going in my mouth. Am I right?”

You can check out Phil’s beer Facebook page right here!

Here at The Dad, we hope you, your families, and communities stay safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the latest information, please utilize online resources from local public health departments, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization to remain as informed as possible.

In our current climate, it’s nice to take a quick mental break. Maybe you let your mind wander off to a happier place, like earlier this year, or even say, 1999. At least you may think you’ve ended up there as you see a rebooted version of Budweiser’s “Whassup” commercial hit the airwaves.

If you were the right age when the commercial hit (between 11-52), you probably went through some regular versions of the “Whassup” with your friends. Some of your friends probably carried it wayyy longer than they should’ve (until years after it stopped being fun), as it could get annoying quickly. But it was still fun for a while! Not long ago we celebrated the commercial’s 20th anniversary.

Budweiser is bringing back the campaign with some former NBA stars, as Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, along with Gabrielle Union, Candace Parker, and DJ D-Nice all appear on a Zoom-esque video chat in the spot. And yeah, the wasssuupping is in full force.

But there is a twist! As with any commercial these days, you can’t just put something out that doesn’t address what we’re going through. So after the wasssupping, it takes a hard turn to PSA, as they get really sincere and ask how they’re doing. The spot is a reminder to check in on your friends during these tough times.

After the group turns real and tells each other to stay safe, Budweiser ends it with a simple message:

“Staying connected matters more than ever. Checking in, that’s wassup.”

But if you want the no-frills, completely nostalgic wassups, go to our 20th-anniversary celebration to relive it’s glory days.

COVID-19 continues to suck and to find new ways to suck almost every day. And while there are good stories that have come out of this time, stories of hope and inspiration, there’s also been plenty of heartbreak and negativity. Just when you think you’ve hit the worst of it, something more sinister will hit the news. For instance, there is a growing concern about the stability of our nation’s beer and soda supply.

It’s a little complex, but it comes down to this: we can’t catch a break. In more technical terms, the virus had caused a historic plummeting of gas demand (woo-hoo low gas prices). With demand so low, Ethanol (which gets mixed with gasoline) production is way down. And it’s ethanol producers that sell CO2, which is a byproduct of ethanol production. And CO2 is what carbonates beer and soda. This is a very Sparknotes reading of the situation (you can learn more here).

Gas demand is down nearly 30 percent and no one knows why (experts believe it may have some sort of vague connection to the fact that no one can go anywhere because the virus has restricted us all to our homes indefinitely). Ethanol production is also down nearly 50 percent, according to the Compressed Gas Association (which sounds like a joke but is actually a real thing). They expect the situation to hit true crisis levels in May.

Soft drink and beer brewers are trying to find alternative ways to track down this necessary ingredient. We cannot doubt the American brewery machine at a time like this, as remaining hopeful is the only path forward.

The big beer and soda companies should be in alright shape, but experts in the industry are concerned, calling it a “very serious problem.” And, like everywhere else in life, it’s going to be the little guy who is hit the hardest. This means your favorite craft brewer, whose delicious products have been key to getting through this madness, could be in jeopardy.

And if that comes to pass, we will have hit another low in this struggle.

Huh. Ethanol plants are a big supplier of CO2 for the food industry — used to make beer/soda fizz or as a refrigerant for meat. But now that vehicle fuel demand has cratered, more ethanol plants are idling, which is dwindling those supplies of CO2: https://t.co/tA7CNg8Xmh

— brad plumer (@bradplumer) April 21, 2020

Here at The Dad, we hope you, your families, and communities stay safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the latest information, please utilize online resources from local public health departments, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization to remain as informed as possible.

Quarantine life is tough. With everyone forced to stay inside, we’re all learning exactly what we need to survive.

Some of us miss going out to restaurants and bars, others miss going to movies and concerts and sporting events, all of us miss hanging out with our friends and family. We’re also learning exactly what supplies we need to get through, from hand sanitizer and toilet paper to milk, eggs, and more.

If you live in a city, odds are you’re still able to order some meals and groceries, but if you’re in the suburbs or a more rural area, you might be hard-pressed to procure some of those items. And the lack of something hurts worse than others.

Just ask 93-year old Olive Veronesi of Seminole, PA, who is diligently performing her social distancing duties by staying at home, but she’s desperately missing one particular item, and an image of her standing in her window desperately requesting more of it has gone viral.

She’s out of beer!

Over 4 million people have seen the hilarious image of the woman holding a can of Coors Light and a dry erase board that reads: “I NEED MORE BEER!”

She explained: “I have a beer every night. You know what, beer has vitamins in it, it’s good for you, as long as you don’t overdo it.”

And guess what? Her prayers have been answered.

She was very excited. Did not expect it!

Coors got wind of her Olive’s dire straits and promptly sent along 150 cans to her house!

We came. We saw. We delivered to a friend in need. Cheers, Olive! #TakeTimeToChill pic.twitter.com/EisV8Lp1k0

— Coors Light (@CoorsLight) April 13, 2020

Olive was thrilled to find the cases on her porch.

pic.twitter.com/h5RS90bCTQ

— giulia (@julestider) April 13, 2020

Something tells me she’ll be set for a while.

JUST IN: 93-year-old Olive Veronesi of Seminole, PA, who held up a sign at her window asking for more beer, has received a delivery from @CoorsLight. The brand tells me 150 cans arrived at her house today. pic.twitter.com/c2lfGFBBTS

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 13, 2020

Check out the story:

There are two national imperatives right now as we fight the COVID-19 crisis. The first is to stay home, to help our hospital systems from being crushed by an influx of new cases. Second, keep your hands clean. When you don’t have soap and water, then it’s time to turn to hand sanitizer.

And that part is a problem, as the nation’s big-box stores have been wiped out of inventory. Some small distilleries scatted around the nation have done their civic duty, adding sanitizer to their boozy offerings. Now, the cavalry is coming, as brewing giant Anheuser-Busch is getting into the sanitizer game.

The maker of Budweiser, Bud Light, and a series of hard shelters, etc, is empowering its nation-wide infrastructure to start producing hand sanitizer, and a lot of it.

We have a long history of supporting our communities and employees – this time is no different. That’s why we are using our supply and logistics network to begin producing and distributing bottles of hand sanitizer to accommodate the growing needs across the United States. pic.twitter.com/nqImcE5WJP

— Anheuser-Busch (@AnheuserBusch) March 22, 2020

The world’s biggest brewer has some strong logistical advantages that the small distilleries clearly don’t have, so they can really ramp up the effort across the nation.

Anheuser-Busch said it would work with the Red Cross to direct the supplies to the communities and the hospitals that need it most. The company announced the move on social media, with a beer-looking bottle of hand sanitizer, and the simple message “It’s in all our hands to make a difference.”

Now, when you hear news like that, your first thought is “what’s the cost?” Yeah, we need hand sanitizer more than ever, but will that come at the cost of beer, another much-needed staple to help us survive isolation?

The answer is no, the company stressed it will produce sanitizer IN ADDITION TO its regular output of beer. This is just a company stepping up in a time of need.

Here at The Dad, we hope you, your families, and communities stay safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the latest information, please utilize online resources from local public health departments, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization to remain as informed as possible.

Keeping your hands clean has never been a bigger national imperative than it is now. It can be even more difficult with kids, as they enjoy vigorously protesting whatever hygiene rules you throw at them. Hand sanitizer is always great in a pinch, a few squirts are an acceptable substitute. Problem is, you can’t get it anywhere.

Hand sanitizer has gone the way of toilet paper and paper towels, vanished into the wind, relegated to rumors and hushed whispers at grocery stores. It’s even become a prize at some arcades. But some distilleries have decided to fill that void with the product they know best: alcohol. Distilleries across the country have started creating their own hand sanitizer, using alcohol and a few other cheap, easy-to-access ingredients.

A distillery in Atlanta was among the first, creating and bottling their own hand sanitizer, which they gave away for free to people in the community. They made it with aloe vera gel and 95 percent ethanol.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Thank you to the community for its overwhelming support! Because of the large turnout we received, we are currently out of hand sanitizer at the moment. We are waiting on a shipment of ingredients to arrive Monday, at which time we will resume production. We will be making a post next week to keep you updated once we have more available. Thank you for your understanding and we’ll see you next week! If you would like to donate to help us make more for our community (not necessary at all) we now have a link in our bio available.

A post shared by Old Fourth Distillery (@oldfourthdistillery) on Mar 13, 2020 at 3:37pm PDT

Shine Distillery in Portland is doing the same thing. They started using waste alcohol from making spirits and using it to create hand sanitizer for the community. The owner talked with local authorities and found out they could distribute it as long as it was free. They also curated a great list of songs/lyrics you can sing to fill out the time required for a thorough handwash.

Shine Distillery in N. Portland is now bottling hand sanitizer to give to customers. The owner said they already used the concoction to clean around the place anyway! It’s made from a byproduct of the alcohol they bottle. 80% alcohol, xanthan gum, and a little water. pic.twitter.com/OnGuBIs0WM

— Audrey Weil (@audreytweil) March 10, 2020

“Ultimately, I’m part of the community, I want my friends and neighbors to be happy and healthy,” he told a local news outlet. “All my neighbors getting sick and going down doesn’t do me any good. I want to be in a healthy community, and it feels good to be able to give back.”

Other distilleries across the country are coming to the rescue, whether it’s by donating sanitizer to shelters or making it readily available to the community. Hopefully, it’s a trend that continues to spread, as people realize that distilleries are here for us in hard times in more ways than one.

“We are in a national emergency,” said brewery founder Chad Butters. “What’s the right thing to do? The right thing to do is support this community by providing something that is in desperate need. We’ll flood the valley with hand sanitizer and drive that price right down.”

Here at The Dad, we hope you, your families, and communities stay safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the latest information, please utilize online resources from local public health departments, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization to remain as informed as possible.

Do you love beer? Do you like to sleep? If you answered yes to those questions, and of course you answered yes to those questions, you’re in luck!

There’s a hero out there who has found a way to combine two of your favorite things – drinking beer and being unconscious – into one delightful product. It’s called the “Beer Pillow” and it’s not even as sophisticated as it sounds. It’s not a plush, fluffy, insulated pillow surrounding a six-pack of your favorite microbrew.

No. This isn’t America, this is ‘Merica! And Mericans get what they deserve, which is literally a Ziploc bag full of Bud Light.

The invention was dreamed up by Phil, the man behind “Beer Goals,” a Facebook page and YouTube channel dedicated to drinking 50 beers from all 50 states.

His FB bio reads:

“I’m a beer drinking expert. What kind of craft beer do I like to drink? All of them. IPA’s, Lagers, Double IPAs, you name it. That is why I have launched BEER GOALS to attempt and catalogue drinking 50 beers from 50 states. I know what you’re thinking; ’50 beers sure is not a lot of beers.’ Not fifty beers total. Fifty beers in EACH state. That’s 2500 beers! Although, we can’t forget the District of Columbia. So that’s… 2,550 beers! Along the way I’ll be providing helpful insights into hunting down and finding tasty beverages to help you achieve your beer drinking goals.”

When it came to creating the beer pillow, he wants to show you “how to have the ultimate brew night sleep.” So if your beer-drinking goal was to drink while you slept, well, Phil’s got you covered in this video detailing what his “beer pillow” is and how you can score your own!

Does it look comfortable? No. When I wake up parched in the middle of the night, do I want a nice cold Bud Light? Of course not.

But does its existence make me happy? USA! USA! USA!

The new year is a time for change. The changing of the calendar offers many people a new start, and an opportunity to use resolutions as motivation to change your life and improve some things. It’s why many people decide to abstain from alcohol for the month of January; what better time to start than the beginning of the year?

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to change your lifestyle and to break bad habits. For some of us, it’s downright impossible. For one man in particularly, going dry is simply not an option. And you won’t believe why.

A 46-year-old man who rarely drinks alcohol nevertheless finds himself in a case of frequent drunkenness, thanks to a rare condition. It’s called auto-brewery syndrome, and for years it lead his friends and family to suspect he was a secret drunk, despite his protestations otherwise. He was clumsy, suffered from brain fog, and even got pulled over for suspicion of DWI. But it was all because of his disease, according to NBC News.

His seemingly drunken state was the result of auto-brewery sydrome, a rare condition in which his body turns carbohydrates into alcohol. So whenever he ate bread, or pizza, or drank soda, fermenting bacteria in his gut turn the sugar into ethanol, leading to “extreme blood alcohol levels.”

A man who said he never drank alcohol but often appeared drunk actually had a rare condition called auto-brewery syndrome, in which his gut began producing alcohol whenever he ate carbohydrates, a new case study says. https://t.co/Dk4aD9zIkD pic.twitter.com/DOy6WVACBN

— WebMD (@WebMD) February 6, 2020

For the 46-year-old, it all started in 2011 after he took antibiotics for a thumb injury, causing the aforementioned fermenting bacteria to grow unchecked in his stomach. Suddenly his behavior began to change, and his friends and family, even his doctors and the occasional policeman began to suspect he was a closet alcoholic.

“He was unable to function and it was mainly after meals,” Dr. Fahad Malik, told TODAY about the case. “No one believed him.” Dr. Fahad wrote in the case report of the patient’s struggles to convince people that he wasn’t drinking: “The hospital personnel and police refused to believe him when he repeatedly denied alcohol ingestion.”

So while always being drunk sounds fun – not needing to buy beer with your pepperoni pie is certainly cheaper – it’s easy to imagine how severely it can impair one’s ability to live a normal life. How do you work if every time you have a donut with your morning coffee you get buzzed?

Eventually, doctors were able to monitor the patient and confirm the condition, finally putting him on probiotics to get his gut back to normal. A year later, his symptoms were gone, and he could once again enjoy pizza without getting punchy.

The Super Bowl was on Sunday, and, because our country can’t get itself together and make the day after a national holiday, we all had to go to work on Monday. For some football fans, perhaps most likely those in San Francisco and Kansas City, much alcohol was imbibed during the contest in order to enjoy, survive, and ultimately forget, and/or celebrate the results of the big game.

It could not have been particularly easy to drag themselves out of bed and into the office the morning after the big game, let alone actually sit at a desk and focus on work for the day.

It’s a shame we don’t live in Germany, where, on Monday, a court ruled that hangovers are a legitimate illness. Finally!

The ruling was actually part of a case against a company selling a purported “hangover cure” in the form of shots and a powdered drinking solution. The judge found that the company had made illegal claims about what their product was capable of, and stated, “food product cannot ascribe any properties for preventing, treating or healing a human illness, or give the impression of such a property.”

Did you catch that? “A human illness.” That’s how he described a hangover.

DW, a German news site, details the judge’s remarks. He followed that statement with a definition of human illness: “even small or temporary disruptions to the normal state or normal activity of the body,” stating that those “disruptions” included the symptoms you might feel after drinking all the Bud Light because you can’t believe Kyle Shanahan stopped running the ball. Headaches, nausea, etc.

So next year, if your team makes the Super Bowl and you over-indulge, you have a legitimate medical reason to call in sick to work the next day: you actually are sick! At least according to German law. Hopefully, by the time next February comes around, we’ll have adapted that law ourselves.

And then we’ll move on to getting the courts to validate the Man Flu!