Beersbee – Play The Frisbee Bottle Game! (Rules, DIY Projects)
We are going to try to describe a fun little game called “Beersbee”. You’ll find everything you need to know about it in the article below. There are some rules for Beersbee that should be followed. There’s even a fun way to make the whole set on your own!
Hopefully, after reading the short text about this joyful frisbee bottle game, you’ll take some time off work and enjoy it. It’s a great leisure activity that you and your friends could adopt.
Beersbee 101
What is Beersbee?
Throughout the centuries people have played all kinds of games. We tend to gather around in small packs and have fun in the open. While our games have changed with the implementation of new and more sophisticated rules, the reasons we play them haven’t. The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that games are fun. For some of us, whether the game is played outdoors, is the only thing that matters.
We can say with some certainty that games that required moving a lot helped our species evolutionarily. Our mobility evolved from the constant action we had to take for self-defense and hunting/gathering food. We have no evident clues to prove that the games were played in that period, but one can find it logical. Then, the more civilized we’ve gotten, the more game-prone we’ve become.
Hence, we found a way to maintain our astonishing mobility. We played around.
The Game of Beersbee
Beersbee is the game played by two teams of two players. Before we start explaining , we would like to point out that this is one of those games that needs to be played responsibly. It involves drinking (beer). Hence, the name.
Of course, you can play the game without the drinking part. You just need two empty bottles as target objects. How you get them is irrelevant. Drinking just makes it more challenging. Some may even say, more fun. Most of the rules stipulate that you must have a beverage in one hand at all times though. However, the beverage does not need to be an alcoholic one.
Each team stands in front of a pole with an empty beer bottle or a can on top of it. Each team member has a drink in one hand throughout the game. The goal is simple — hit the bottle/can with a frisbee to earn points.
The two poles are set on a reasonable distance from one another (around 20 feet). Obviously, the bigger the distance, the more difficult the throw gets and the game becomes more challenging.
How to Play - Beersbee Rules
Okay, the goal is simple, but let’s take a look at some commonly used rules for Beersbee. Also, you’ll have to pay attention to different elements of the game depending on whether you move as a “defender” or an “attacker”.
The teams have to decide which one will go first. They usually do that by flipping a coin or by playing “Rock, Paper, Scissors”. After the decision has been made, the first player takes the frisbee and throws it toward the bottle. That way, they become the “attacker” and their goal is to hit the bottle on top of the opponent’s pole.
The “attacker”
As an “attacker”, you need to take a few things into consideration. Firstly, you should have a gentle throw but still make it strong enough to reach the opposing team’s pole. You’re not only allowed to aim just at the bottle, but the pole as well. The goal is to knock the bottle off.
If your throw is too short, your opponent will get the chance to throw from the spot where the frisbee landed. This gives them an advantage, so be careful! Don’t make your throw too strong, though. A throw that’s too strong won’t be tolerated, as it threatens to ruin the game flow.
Lastly, there are no points for bouncing frisbees. For example, if a frisbee falls to the ground, bounces up and hits the pole, you get no points even if you manage to knock the bottle off.
The “defender”
When your opponent gets their turn to throw you become the “defender”.
Your main goal is to catch the frisbee or the bottle if it gets knocked off. Ideally, you’ll be able to catch them both. This will earn you the most points. Don’t get too excited, though! Don’t try to catch the frisbee before it reaches the pole, as this is considered a foul and the opponent will get a re-throw.
Beersbee Scoring
Teams can score points both by playing offense and defense. If you play Beersbee without drinking involved, you can predetermine the set of points for a win. We’ll be explaining this later on.
Scoring drinks
Let’s go ahead and assume you’re playing with an open beer bottle in one hand and your scoring will be done by drinking from it. Here’s how it goes:
If you throw a frisbee and your opponent catches it, you’ll have to take a drink. Throwing alternates from player to player. So, if the wrong person from your team throws the frisbee, you both will have to take a drink. In case your throw goes way off, you take a drink. The worst thing that may happen while “attacking” is if the frisbee hits the ground and bounces up knocking the bottle off. In this case, you have to finish your drink all the way.
Let’s assume now that you’re waiting on a throw from your opponent. If they manage to knock your bottle off, you’ll have to drink up. And, in case you catch the frisbee before it reaches your pole — well, you’ve guessed it — bottoms up!
Scoring points
Let’s leave out the drinking now and look at how you can score some virtual points while playing.
Basically, the points range from 0 to 3 depending on the situation. Again, we’ll start explaining by assuming the attacker’s position first and then we’ll explain what could happen if you’re defending.
- If your throw is too short, you earn no points. But pay attention, you’re allowing your opponent to throw from the spot where the frisbee landed, which is not good. Also, if your throw goes way off, no points.
- If your throw hits the bottle on top of the opposite pole and knocks it off without being caught by your opponents, you earn three points.
- You score two points if your throw hits the pole and knocks the bottle off without your opponents catching it.
- Finally, you’ll score one point if your throw knocks a bottle off, but your opponents manage to catch the frisbee.
Let’s talk defense now:
- You get three points if you manage to catch both the frisbee and the bottle falling down.
- You get one point if you catch just the bottle or just the frisbee.
- Lastly, you’ll score zero points if you catch the frisbee before it reaches your pole. This will lead to a re-throw for your opponent as well.
Beersbee Pole Height - How Tall are Beersbee Poles?
Poles may vary a lot based on their height and thickness. If you can’t make a decision and choose the right one on your own, we’ll give you some recommendations. Typically, the poles for Beersbee tend to be somewhere around 5 to 10 feet tall.
Depending on the height and the material, you can get more flexible poles. And the stand flexibility is a great feature, as it will make you step up your game.
What length you want to use for your poles is absolutely up to you and your preferences. Our advice would be not to overthink it.
Beersbee Distance - How Far Apart Should Beersbee Poles Be?
Most of the Beersbee players suggest you have your poles placed approximately 36 feet apart. Naturally, the bigger the distance the more difficult the game will be. You should try to keep the distance between the two poles within reason, though. You don’t want to have them too close as this would lead to discomfort during the game.
On the other hand, if you place the poles too far apart, you risk starting to hate the game because it will become almost impossible to hit the opposite pole.
You know you set up the distance between the Beersbee poles well if it’s somewhere between 25 and 40 feet.
Beersbee Frisbee - Weight and Size
Beersbee game, or frisbee beer bottle game, is mostly just a fun leisure activity. There are no specific rules referring to the use of certain flying discs (i.e. frisbees). Most of the players just get whichever disc they can find in their neighborhood convenience store.
If you’re serious about making your game competitive, then you should consider other options. In that case, deciding which disc to use can make a big difference in successfully knocking those beer bottles off. Also, if you’ve decided to carefully choose the disc you’ll play with, the weight of the disc is one of the most important features you should take into consideration.
Most of the frisbees weigh around 175 grams. This type of a disc is very comfortable to play with. But if you get a heavy-weight 200-gram disc, you’ll certainly have more fun with it. It also has the potential for reaching greater distances.
The size of the frisbee matters, too. They are roughly 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 inches) in diameter. Opting for bigger discs can help you hit the bottle or the pole more accurately.
When frisbee gets worn out, it will most likely start flying rather differently. A disc with good consistency will continue to fly in regular patterns despite its imperfections created by often usage.
Also, we recommend trying to consider the feel of a frisbee as well. For instance, consider the grip of the disc and test it out. This will allow you to determine how comfortable it will be to throw it.
Beersbee with Bottles Vs. Beersbee with Cans
You can use both empty bottles and cans as target objects in Beersbee. There are just a few small differences that we would like to address.
If you’re using empty beer bottles, you might want to wrap them up, in order to keep them from breaking. This basically depends on the surface on which you’re planning to play the game. However, there’s no such thing as being too careful. Somewhere deep in that grass there can be a tiny rock just waiting for a glass bottle to fall down. Needless to say how dangerous that can be, especially if you’re playing barefoot.
However, you won’t be having that problem if you’re playing with cans. They don’t break, but you’ll need a bunch of them because they crush easily when caught. They also crash when hit a bit harder with a frisbee.
Homemade Beersbee DIY - How to Make a Beersbee Set
Making your own Beersbee set is a rather fun and very inexpensive project. You don’t really need many things for it. And, whatever you don’t already have, you can buy it in the nearest hardware store. We would like to suggest a way to make your own set, but keep in mind that this is all optional.
Necessary Materials:
- One 3" PVC pipe that is 10 foot long
- Two 3" PVC flanges
- wo 3" PVC drain grates
- Tape measure
- Marker
- Circular saw, table saw, or a handsaw (a cheap hacksaw does wonders!)
- Frisbee
- Empty glass bottles
You can see that we are suggesting PVC flanges as a base for your poles. We find it’s the easiest way since all you have to do is put the poles into the flanges and voilà! You can glue them together for better stability if you want. If you want to avoid unnecessary spending, you can just sharpen the poles and stick them into the ground. This works too.
Another great idea is to get PVC drain grates as they are perfect for a bottle to sit on. Again, you can avoid the unnecessary spending by just wrapping the top of the pole with duct tape. This way you’re filling out the hole and creating a base for a bottle to sit on. Whatever you find better or more convenient works just fine.
How to Make Beersbee Poles (Wooden or PVC Pipes)
To continue with the instructions, you’ll have to build two Beersbee poles. Using a 10-foot long PVC pole for that is really convenient. In fact, you’ll just need to measure 5 feet from the top of the pole. Then, you’ll need to mark that spot for the cutting. Finally, all that’s left to do is use any of the suggested tools that you have and cut the pole in half. As a result, you’ll get two poles and that’s all you need for the frisbee game with pole and bottle.
If you don’t have any cutting tool, just ask the people from the hardware store to cut it for you. It might cost a bit more but at least you’ll be ready to play!
You can also use poles made of wood. The size you’ll need is way harder to find, though. But they are easier to stick into the ground and also stiffer than PVC poles. Either way, it doesn’t matter what you choose to use as long as you’re ready to start the frisbee pole game.
Essentially, the only thing that matters is that you have fun while doing it. That’s what DIY projects are for, right?!
Beersbee in the Water - Lake, Pool or Beach
You don’t have to play Beersbee only in the backyard. There are many different places where you can set up your Beersbee poles and start throwing. Depending on the weather, you can use those summer days playing the game in the water, too.
If you’ve built the poles with the bottom base, you’ll have to open the top and fill them up so that they can sink and stay firmly in the water. You can use sand, PVC cement or whatever else you have that will add a certain weight to them.
If you’re using poles without the base, with sharpened edges only, you can use them when you take the game to the beach or on the lake. Just stick them in the sand and you’re good to go!
Be sure not to go too deep in the water when setting up the stands because you won’t be able to throw the frisbee. Try keeping the surface of the water a little above the knees. This way you’ll be able to enjoy a good game and you’ll have an awesome beach Beersbee set, too.
Beersbee History
People often use the name Polish Horseshoes to refer to Beersbee. Since this is a synonym, people often get confused about the origin of the game. Well, contrary to this name, the game doesn’t involve horseshoes and most certainly didn’t originate from Poland. In fact, the term “polish” derived from the fact that the game involves two poles.
Nobody really knows anything about the origin of Beersbee. Yet, it is a well-known fact that the Founding Fathers of the U.S.A. used to play yard games like Beersbee. There are some documented cases of gun duels and fistfights over the frisbee pole game, or “Polish Horseshoes”, or however you choose to call it.
What we know for sure is that Beersbee is a hybrid game with elements of tee ball, quoits, and of course frisbee. The rest is just history.
Who Invented Beersbee?
There is no evidence pointing to the person responsible for the invention of Beersbee. Many would like to shake this guy’s or gal’s hand but this information remains a mystery.
Alternative Names for Beersbee
Yes, in lack of evidence of its origin people tend to use different names to refer to Beersbee. To name just a few: Beer Frisbee, Polish Frisbee, Polish Horseshoe, Spanish Horseshoes, Frisbeener, French Darts etc.
Games like Beersbee
Polish Horseshoes is the most commonly used synonym for Beersbee. The reason for this is because Horseshoes has a lot in common with Beersbee. The only difference is that you’re not using poles and a frisbee while playing Horseshoes. In addition to that, there are other similar games, such as Flimsee and My Polish Horseshoes.
Flimsee involves a Frisbee that is tossed in order to knock the cup off the “flimsee” pole. And, My Polish Horseshoes is extremely similar to Beersbee, too. There’s a difference in the base, as they are made to be used on any kind of surface, which makes it great for hard ground.
Conclusion
Hopefully, we’ve managed to catch the essence of this very fun game. We’ve tried to explain all the rules you need to be familiar with in order to start the Beersbee game. Also, we have tried to depict many different elements of this interesting frisbee bottle game. So don’t waste your time! Get your friends and family, set up the poles, get a frisbee and some beer and let the games begin!
