Ale is well

Pune microbrewery Doolally Handcrafted Beers starts first annual beer tournament, anyone can participate.

Last October, the Pune microbrewery Doolally Handcrafted Beers decided to do something new for its Oktoberfest programme. Located in Corinthians Boutique Hotel, it conducted informal beer games every hour or so to engage the audience. And in the words of Suketu Talekar, co-founder of company, "The outcome was very surprising. In three days, the audience consumed over 75 litres of beer just from these minute-to-win-it based games," he says, adding, "Then I got drunk one evening and watched this movie called Beerfest.



Otherwise a mediocre flick, it was about a mythical event involving lots of beer. Its crazy premise was a huge inspiration."

Doolally has since teamed up with local event company Bombay Elektrik Projekt to host its first annual beer tournament this Sunday, aptly called the Beer Olympics. Anyone can take part (above the legal drinking age) and teams of five will compete against each other in the guzzling event.



Games on offer

Games include some world favourites such as Beer Pong and Chug, along with some entirely new concepts by Doolally and BEP. "We’ve been conducting beer-related games in Mumbai for over a year now," mentions BEP co-founder Kenneth Lobo. "And although people are extremely competitive at such events, no one has ever thrown up or passed out. I guess we Mumbaikars have a good capacity for beer," he says.



Suketu adds, "We’re brewing a light and summery lager-style beer called Premium 36 especially for the Olympics. The alcohol content can’t be too high and it needs to go down easily."

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Beer games
Beer Pong: Cups filled with beer arranged at either ends of a table. The game’s objective is to throw the ping-pong balls in your opponent’s beer cups and make them drink.

Beer Jenga: “In this special variation, you build a tower of blocks, and each time you take something out, there’s a drinking instruction for the next person. So you get progressively drunk,” says Kenneth.

Scrabulous: Another Doolally creation, this game involves unscrambling beer-related anagrams. The team to unscramble them first and down three glasses of beer wins.

Chugg Relay: Like the racing game, the teams line up, each with five glasses of beer. The next person from your team can start drinking only once your empty glass has been placed safely on your head. The team that finishes first wins.

Beer-legged race: Like the popular three-legged race, this one has mugs of beer at the pit stop and finishing line.