Beer Ball: Official Rules

Knock over the target with a ball. While the other team runs to set it back up, your team drinks. The first team to finish every can wins.

Play outdoors, on grass if you have it. Mark two lines about 30 feet (ten paces) apart, and a spot exactly halfway between them. Stand the target on the spot: an empty can or plastic bottle, a third full of water so it doesn't blow over.

Two teams of equal size stand behind opposite lines. Each player sets one unopened 12-ounce can on the ground at their feet, on the line. No one opens a can until the whistle.

Rule 1. Starting

Rule 1.1. On the whistle, every player opens their can and sets it back down on the line. A coin toss decides which team throws first.

Rule 1.2. Teams alternate throws. Within a team, players throw in a fixed order, so every player throws in turn.

Rule 2. The throw

Rule 2.1. Each turn is one throw, underhand or overhand, with the thrower's feet behind their team's line.

Rule 2.2. A hit is a throw that knocks the target over so it no longer stands. A target that wobbles and stays up is not a hit.

Rule 2.3. Until the throw has hit or missed, every player stays behind their line. A defender who moves early, or blocks the ball, gives the throwing team a hit.

Rule 3. The hit and the Stop

Rule 3.1. On a hit, every player on the throwing team picks up their can and drinks.

Rule 3.2. On a hit, the defending team runs. One defender stands the target back up on its spot. Another fetches the ball. Then every defender, and the ball, must be back behind their line.

Rule 3.3. When all of that is done, the defenders call "Stop!" The throwing team puts their cans down at once. The turn passes to the defending team.

Rule 3.4. A Stop called before the target is standing on its spot, or before every defender is behind the line, is not a Stop. The throwing team keeps drinking.

Rule 4. Infractions

Rule 4.1. In Beer Ball, a drink is not a penalty. It is a head start. The penalty for every infraction in this rule is the loss of the team's next throw.

Rule 4.2. It is an infraction to drink before a hit or after a Stop, to hold a can between hits, or to step over the line to throw.

Rule 4.3. A player who knocks over their own can stands it back up. The team loses its next throw. A can knocked over on purpose forfeits the game.

Rule 5. Finishing and winning

Rule 5.1. A player who believes they have finished turns their can upside down over their own head. This is the can check. A can that drips has not passed the can check, and the player keeps playing.

Rule 5.2. The first team on which every player has passed the can check wins. Players who have passed keep throwing in turn, and keep running.

Rule 5.3. The losing team finishes their cans, at their own pace.

Table Beer Ball. Played on a long table, with a ping pong ball. Each team's cans stand on its own half, and the cans are the targets. When a team's can is hit, its owner drinks until the throwing team grabs the ball and slaps it on the table. The first team to finish all its cans wins. The Commission's rules on throws, infractions and the can check apply.

• Play with two cans per player. Approved. Play takes twice as long. Plan the food accordingly.
• The thrower must throw with their weaker hand. Approved.
• Teams one player short give one player a second can. Commissioner's Discretion. The Commission prefers to borrow a player from the losing team of the last game.
• Defenders must hop back on one foot. Commissioner's Discretion. Only on grass.
• Throwing at the other team instead of the target. Prohibited. The target is the target.

The ball hits the target, which spins and stays standing. Hit? No. The target must fall.

The defenders are all behind the line, but no one has said "Stop." Does the throwing team keep drinking? Yes. Nothing stops until someone says "Stop." Defenders are advised to say it loudly.

May a defender throw the ball back instead of carrying it? Yes. The ball counts as back when it is behind the line and not still rolling toward the throwing team.

The wind knocks the target over between throws. Hit? No. Nobody drinks. Stand it back up and add water.

• Hit. Signal: the Official chops one flat hand downward, like a falling tree.
• Stop. Signal: the Official closes both open hands into fists, once.
• Can check. Signal: the Official turns one fist upside down above their head.
• Drinking early or late. Penalty: loss of the team's next throw (Rule 4.1). Signal: loss of turn (Provision 7.1).

Archive No. 2207, a backyard in 1994. A thrower knocked over the target, and the host's dog took the ball and left. The throwing team pointed out, correctly, that no one had called Stop. Walt Whistler Jr. ruled that the dog was not on either team, that the play was dead from the moment the dog touched the ball, and that the throw would be taken again. The dog was not fined.

The Commission notes that the same game is played across Europe under other names, often with great seriousness. It has declined to rule on which version came first.

Use cans of soda or sparkling water. The can check is the same, and just as wet.