Halloween is not a kid only holiday—adults can get in on the scary fun too.  Even kid centered Halloween parties can offer some themed drinks for the adults (just make sure they are clearly marked).   Few things are more boring than kids’ parties, so throw the adults a bone why don’t ya?  That, or throw your own adults only themed bash.

Spoooky Rims and Trims

For a cool effect, use red gel icing (available in the bakery isle of grocery stores with the cake decorating stuff) on the inside rim of glasses to make a “blood rim”.  Squeeze a small ring around the inside of a glass—martini glasses work especially well—with a few streaks going down and add cocktail of your choice.  The gel will drip down and slowly dissolve into the liquid giving a cool “bleeding” effect.

Another fun holiday related rim idea—use colored sugar.  Use orange, purple, and green sugar to line cocktail rims.

Black licorice can make great looking and fun swizzle sticks and straws in cocktails.

Scary Ice

Halloween ice cube trays

Strike some fear into drinker’s hearts with Halloween themed ice, which you can make with specialized ice trays such as these very cool skull and crossbones ones found at Amazon!

These novelty ice trays can be found everywhere around Halloween

Even regular ice cubes can be Halloweened out by the addition of candy corn or olives (they look like eyeballs).

Ice Faces

You can also make some very interesting larger ice for punch bowls by using plastic face masks.  Seal the eye and mouth holes of the mask with taped on plastic wrap (taped on the front of the mask, make sure it’s tight so it won’t bow out when water is added).  Put mask, front side down, in a container that has raised sides (such roasting pan), and stuff paper towels or newspaper around the mask to keep it from falling over.   Pour water into the hollow part of the mask and place in freezer for at least 24 hours. Once thoroughly frozen, take mask out and dip the front in a bowl of hot water to loosen the ice, then turn the mask over to free the ice face.  Float ice face in punch bowl.  For a super creepy effect, add red or green food coloring to the water before you pour it into the face, or add some spots of red or green jello.

Halloween Jello Shots and Shapes

Put a holiday spin on Jello shots by making orange and purple ones.  You can also create jello shot shapes in Halloween forms. Pour the liquid jello onto a cookie sheet with raised edges, chill for several hours, then use Halloween cookie cutters to make bat, pumpkin, etc.. shaped jello shots.
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Pumpkin Ice Cooler

Pumpkins make great, fun coolers for beers and a stylish party decoration.  Take a large pumpkin (larger the better), and cut a wide top, you can get creative with the edge either using the traditional “v” notching, a more modern circular cut, squares, whatever.  Scoop out the guts and toss (or keep the seeds for roasting).  The easiest way to cut pumpkin tops is to use the small saws with handles they sell in the specialty pumpkin carving kits.  Put ice in the pumpkin, and place beers in the ice.  If you want to get really in the spirit of the season, fill the pumpkin cooler with pumpkin beer.

Pumpkin Beers and Themed liquors

Every fall quite a number of brewers release a pumpkin ale.  Beer Advocate has an excellent listing and reviews of each.  Pumpkin ales often are evocative of pumpkin pies, using some of the same spices.  Many of them also have great looking labels which can add to a Halloween party’s ambiance.

Pumpkins aren't just for Halloween. They make great fall decorations and fall beers too!

There are other liquors that work well for Halloween including black vodka (looks really cool in mixed drinks), pumpkin vodka, pumpkin schnapps, and even pumpkin wine.

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The Halloween gods have smiled upon us.  This year Halloween falls on a Friday, and this means lots of Halloween parties.  Is your costume ready?  Here are a few beer themed costumes ideas for you!

The Beer Keg

This costume is fairly easy to construct.  I’ve even seen it for sale at some Halloween stores.  The idea is to construct a keg around your body and put a tap on your hat.  You can construct one with a few small hula hoops and cardboard or cloth.  The version I saw at the store actually pumped beer from a hidden can in a hat.  The hat was constructed to look like a keg tap.

Your favorite bottle/can of beer

Here’s a popular beer costume: make yourself into a bottle of your favorite brew.  Many replicate a Miller bottle because it’s easy to match the simple yellow bottle.  With a little work, you could easily reproduce any bottle.  The bottle part is easy, and you can make your “label” with a little work.  Think how cool it would be to show up at your party dressed as a bottle of Chimay!  I’ve seen this costume a few times at the Great American Beer Festival.  If the bottles are there this year, I’ll get some pictures!

The Six-pack

This “costume” requires much more coordination than the beer bottle costume.  Getting six friends to agree on a Halloween costume can be much more difficult than deciding a location for lunch.  If you can find six agreeable friends, this is a cool costume to pull off.  The idea is to all dress as the same beer bottle or can.  You and five friends dressed up as beer equals a six pack.

Duffman

If you watch the Simpson’s, you know who I am talking about.  Duffman is the spokesperson for Duff beer.  Duffman is a satire on Bud Man, an expired Budweiser campaign aimed at college coeds (I wonder why they abandoned the campaign – duh).  For this costume, you need a blue t-shirt, blue tights, a red hat, a red cape, red underwear (which go on the outside), dark sunglasses, and a belt made of beer.  You can easily construct the simple Duff beer logo with paper.  Be warned – people will come up to you throughout the night with very obscure Simpson’s references and expect you to know the exact episode.

Are you ready to get Duffed? Oh, yeah!

St. Pauli Girl / German beer garden girl

Nothing looks cuter than a girl in a dindrl.  Thousands of internet photos from Oktoberfest can’t be wrong.  The best part is the costume is cute and sexy, but doesn’t go overboard.  This costume can be found at every Halloween store, usually labeled as “Beer Garden Girl”.  You can try finding an authentic dindrl, but these dresses can cost as much as $300 USD.  The fake beer garden versions sell for about $49 USD.

A girl in a dindrl is always a hit! Does this photo remind you of the photo with Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren?

Pawtucket Patriot

You could go as the patriot from the Samuel Adams, but Pawtucket Patriot adds the missing coolness factor (and few would recognize the real version).  Pawtucket Patriot is a character from Family Guy who spoofs the Samuel Adams’ patriot from Samuel Adams bottles of beer.

If you're a fan of Family Guy, this is a fun reference costume

Beer God

If you’re thinking of a beer personality, why not go straight to the top and be a beer god?  Dionysus is the god of intoxicating drinks.  Girls can go as Ninkasi, the ancient Sumerian goddess of beer and brewing.  This costume is fairly simple, and leaves lots of room for creativity.  For Dionysus, start with a Greek god costume.  For Ninkasi you will want to go more “Egyptian”.  Try creating a wreath for the head from hops.  Bring a clay pitcher (or clay looking) and fill with beer.  Pour drinks for others, and you’ll be the life of the party.

Beer Monk

While the true Trappist monks might make boring costumes, a beer monk from the middle ages can be much more entertaining.  Think more “Friar Tuck” and less scary images from your Catholic school.  The monk costume is another simple costume.  You can find monk robes at just about any costume store.  Loop a beer mug around your waist or neck with a belt of beads.  Again the idea is to be creative with the simple basic costume.

Beer fridge

This costume is easy to make.  You just need a box and some creativity.  You can have anything you want in the fridge, but really you want lots of beer!  Isn’t beer in everyone’s fridge??  Pick the right beer (or wrong depending on perspective) and people will want to open you all night.

Breathalyzer

Another easy costume to make is a breathalyzer.  The creativity in this costume comes from where you want drunks to “blow”.  Again the costume starts with a big box.  Dress it up with dials or lights to indicate different stages of being drunk.

Hopefully these costumes give you some ideas for your Halloween costume.  It’s October, so get cracking on your costume!

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We went looking for some scary brews for Halloween.  Our selection was based purely on if the beer looked somewhat festive for Halloween.  Here’s our scary lineup!

Scary brews for Halloween

Dead Guy Ale

Our first scary 12 ounce brew comes from Portland, Oregon.  It was originally created in the 1990s for a restaurant called Casa U Betcha (surprising that it is in Oregon and not Minnesota with a name like that).  The restaurant served it to celebrate the Mayan Day of the Dead holiday.  The label and beer have no relation to the Grateful Dead, but the label looks close enough to Grateful Dead iconography to give one deadly pause.

Dead Guy Ale

This ghostly pale ale is 6.6% ABV.  The color is actually a strong yellow with a slight haze.  This beer was created as a Maibock using more hops and pacman yeast, but it tastes more like a slightly hoppy pale ale.  The hops tend to sneak up on you in this beer.  There isn’t much hops in the nose or taste, but the aftertaste bitterness lingers.

This beer isn’t a Maibock, there’s too much hoppiness.  It is a pale ale using German grains.  However it is a light and somewhat refreshing beer.  This is a good beer, and might be a great selection for your Halloween, but it won’t “wow” you.

Dead Guy Ale gets 7 bones out of 10.

Hobgoblin Ale

The next witch brew comes from Wychwood Brewery in Oxforshire, England.  We tried the 500ml Hobgoblin Ale in a green bottle.  From what we read, the darker bottle is a new item for the beer.  This beer was first produced in 1996.  The strength is 5.2% ABV.

Hobgoblin Ale

This beer has a heavy malt scent, even a bit chocolatey.  This beer had a much more complex profile than what we were expecting.  We could taste a fruitiness in the beer; some berry that we could not place.  There were also flavors of coffee and nuts.  The aftertaste seemed almost like a stout, but the beer was malty and sweet  The aftertaste also had a strong chocolate flavor.

This beer had a very low hop flavor, and was not bitter at all.  It reminded us of several local nut brown ales.  This is a good English ale.

Hobgoblin Ale gets 8 witch brooms out of 10.

Lakefront Pumpkin Lager

We really didn’t think we could get away with a Halloween review without reviewing a Pumpkin beer.  We really didn’t know what to expect.  Pumpkin isn’t our favorite flavor, and it seems like a weird choice of fruit for a beer.

Lakefront Pumpkin Lager

At first we could not taste the pumpkin in the beer.  It seemed like a sweet light lager.  There was no scent to the beer that we could tell.  There were other flavors, like a hint of cinnamon.  Then the pumpkin flavor creeps up on you.

It really tastes more like a pumpkin pie after about half of the bottle.  It just leaps out at you about half way through the glass.  There is very little hop flavor in the beer to counter the sweetness.  That is by design, because, these fruit beers really should taste like a dessert.  The cinnamon was also stronger with each sip.

The beer really was nice as one, but it was too sweet to drink more.  It was a good beer to try, but if you get a six pack make sure you have 5 friends with you to share.

The Lakefront Pumpkin Lager gets 7 pumpkins out of 10.

Avery’s The Beast

Our last beer was selected a bit blind, even though the Avery Brewery is very near our place.  The label looks scary and we thought that was cool.  We did not realize the horror that lies within the bottle until later.  Most beers range in alcohol between 4 and 7% ABV.  Wines are usually 10-15%.  Once you cross the 16% ABV barrier in the USA, alcohol is taxed at a much higher rate – very few fermented beverages that are not fortified or distilled go beyond 15% ABV.

The Beast is 16.42% ABV.

It scared us.  For a 12 ounce brew, 16% ABV is quite a bit.  A timid sniff of the glass had grassy scents, definite hops, and a strong caramel smell.  There were also hints of honey, and some berries.  With a great aroma like that, how could we be afraid of this beast?

Avery's The Beast

The taste of the beer is BIG.  Scary big.  The mouthfeel is very thick, almost like a syrup.  The beer was much smoother than we were expecting.  At 16.42% ABV, we were expecting jet fuel.  There is a slight burn as it goes down, but not a fire.  There are strong caramel and vanilla flavors.  The hops balance the maltiness quite well.

It would be nice if Avery included the optimal serving temperature and glass.  We noticed that the beer was more flavorful as it warmed up a bit.  We tested the beer in a goblet.

This is a great beer, but imbibe carefully.  If you try to tame too many Beasts, the Beast will tame you.  This is definitely a sipping beer on a cold night.  It might also make a good beer to cellar for a few years.

The Beast gets 10 sharp teeth out of 10!

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