Tailgating Ideas

Most tailgaters have heard the tailgating anthem by Toby Keith, Red Solo Cup. The red Solo cup is a staple at tailgate parties whether to drink out of or to play beer pong. We recently discovered stainless steel party cups from King of Beer Pong and decided to put them to the test in a real tailgating environment.

As you can see in the photos, these 16 oz. cups are an exact replica of the red party cups you have come to know and love but in a stainless steel form. Being stainless steel, they give your game of beer pong an element of class and style over those regular old plastic cups. And because they are stainless steel, they are food grade quality and are safe to drink from them.

The King of Beer Pong stainless steel beer pong cups come in a package of six (6) along with six balls. Upon opening the package I noticed the weight of these cups. I wasn’t expecting them to be lightweight and flimsy like plastic party cups but the sturdiness was one of the qualities I noticed right off the bat. This added weight translated into improved beer pong game play in that there are less tips and spills compared to plastic party cups. The day we tested the King of Beer Pong stainless steel cups it was windy. Not huge gusts but definitely breezy enough that normal plastic party cups would have been blowing over and tipping from the wind.

While testing the King of Beer Pong set we wanted to see if it would work well, just like plastic party cups, with some of the other beer pong accessories like the freezable beer pong rack, the N-Ice Rack. Being that these stainless steel beer pong cups are the exact size and specifications of a plastic party cup, the stainless steel version fits nicely with all of the other beer pong accessories you can think of that would compliment your game.

After thoroughly testing the King of Beer Pong Stainless Steel beer pong cups, we here at Tailgating Ideas will give them the “Tailgate Approved” stamp of approval. These cups are not cheap. The six-pack with six balls costs $49.99 and the 12-pack with 12 balls will set you back $79.99. If you are interested in purchasing a set for yourself or for a friend, Tailgating Ideas readers are encouraged to use the exclusive coupon code “ideas20″ for a limited time and take $20 off your first order.

These cups are definitely not disposable and you will need to bring them home after the game to wash them out. They are dishwasher safe and if you take good care of them, they will last for a very long time.

For more information or to buy a set for your next tailgate party, visit: kingofbeerpong.com

Whether you like it or not, beer pong is rapidly becoming more and more popular in the tailgating parking lots. It still hasn’t surpassed cornhole in popularity but it is quickly gaining.

We recently discovered a mobile app from Who’s Up? Games – appropriately named Who’s Up? Beer Pong. In a nutshell, Who’s Up? Beer Pong is a mobile app for iPhone & iPad that notifies you when it’s your turn to play beer pong. Upon downloading it, we discovered it is a bit more than just that.

The basic gist of the Who’s Up? Beer Pong app is to eliminate the inconvenience of using a sign-up sheet for whomever has next game of beer pong. Typically if you are within a group and there is only one beer pong table, a sign-up sheet gets produced. Normally that sign-up sheet invariably gets wet and the ink runs everywhere, other people’s writing is illegible or it flat out gets lost. A total pain and even if the sign-up sheet is followed, you have to linger around the table to see if you are close to playing or you might get skipped.

The Who’s Up? Beer Pong mobile app eliminates all that by keeping record of those teams in line waiting to play. The app alerts the next team electronically when the previous game is completed and it is now their turn to play. No more doing that “drive-by” the table to see how long you have to wait until it is your team’s turn. This mobile app uses push notifications to promote organization and management for recreational games like beer pong. (They also have an app that uses the same technology for cornhole and table tennis coming soon. The cornhole app is due for release in March.)

Unique features of Who’s Up? Beer Pong mobile app:

• Easily create and find games using GPS location services
• Connect with friends to create teams
• Take or add a photo for a personal sports card
• Make your own team names
• Talk smack
• Instant alerts for players when it is their turn to play
• Option for private, password-protected games
• Share wins on Facebook and Twitter
• Stat tracking

After downloading it to our iPhone, we really liked the app. It was easy to use, allows you to use your Facebook profile to set your photo and your name and allows you to create your own team name. I personally liked the stats feature where you can keep track of wins and cups made.

As for being a tailgate friendly game? It is because it is a mobile app you place on your phone. As for the practicality of using it while tailgating, that may be a bit of a stretch. Normally beer pong at a tailgate is not that highly organized to the point there is a sign up sheet or a waiting list. I have been to a few tailgate parties where there was only one beer pong table and there were people waiting to play but that was on rare occasions. I see this app being more geared towards college Greek house parties or even local bars that want to have their beer pong table be a bit more organized. Could you use it while tailgating? Of course, but the likelihood of your group being that big you need a sign-up sheet for beer pong is low. If your tailgate party is that big, hats off to you.

Currently the Who’s Up? Beer Pong mobile app was free to download. (At least it was free for me without having to charge my credit card or use a promotional code.) If the app does turn into a paid app, the folks at Who’s Up? Games were gracious enough to provide four of our TailgatingIdeas.com readers with promo codes to try the game for free.

Promo Codes:
66NMKAF4WTEY
93PWP9KJTLHJ
HEXX97MLH39R
6YJRMEHWXFLP

Depending on how fast people use these promos codes will determine how soon they will expire and be no good. So if you are interested in trying out this mobile app for free, search for, “Who’s Up? Beer Pong” in the app store. You can also get the app by visiting their website, www.whosupgames.com.

While tailgating, there are a few methods to identify which beverage is yours. Some people turn the opener tab to the side to indicate that it is theirs. Some people will push in a dent behind the back of the can to mark their territory. Others will search for that one of a kind koozie (**cough** Shark Koozie **cough**) to make it know that that can is only theirs.

We recently came across a new product called the Can Stamp. Simply put, the Can Stamp is an easy and handy solution to properly identifying your beverage can. The Can Stamp is a key chain with raised letters that imprints a word or words into the curved upper section of the beverage can you plan to consume. You simply press and rock it along the “shoulder” of the can to get a visible imprint that makes it unmistakeably your can. Take a look at their video on how to make a nice, clean stamp in a single motion.

As you can see in the video, a smooth rocking motion produces a nice, clean stamp. We were sent a sample of the Can Stamp and tried it out for ourselves to see how well it works. We have a side by side comparison of a Diet Coke can we stamped ourselves with little practice next to a can the folks at Can Stamp did with assumed much more practice and experience.

Can Stamp done by Can Stamp people

Can Stamp done by Tailgating Ideas

As you can see, we need a little more practice to get the stamp just right.

In our experience, we found that you do not have to press so hard in order to get a good stamp. Subsequent stamps we made on other cans turned out much better and after a few attempts, we started to get the feel for how much pressure to place on the stamp.

The fact that the Can Stamp is also a key chain means that whenever you go to a tailgate party, you will always be able to quickly and easily identify your canned beverage. No matter if you drove to the tailgate party or not, you will always have your keys. How else are you going to get into your dorm room? – unless your roommate hung a neck tie on the door and then you are on your own.

The Can Stamp comes in a variety of stamped sayings including, MINE, IN USE, FUEL, DRUNK and 1 MORE.

Unfortunately at this time they do not make custom messages for the Can Stamp. The tooling and the molds would cost too much for custom orders. They will make custom stamps for really large orders. We are talking huge orders of a massive bulk size number of Can Stamps. Think Fortune 500 company sized big, huge bulk sized order. For all the guys in your frat house? Not so much.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Can Stamp and for the price, durability, uniqueness, ingenuity and portability, the Can Stamp is definitely “Tailgate Approved”.

The Can Stamp runs $7.95 per stamp plus $2.99 for shipping. Order as many or few as you like and the $2.99 covers shipping and handling for the entire order to any destination in the continental USA by way of the U.S. Postal Service.

For more information on the Can Stamp, visit: canstamp.com. You can also like them on Facebook

I don’t know if you heard or not, but apparently there’s this thing going on Sunday called the Super Bowl? You may have heard about it once or twice this week from possibly a co-worker or a neighbor.

Outside of Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday is probably the one day when Americans consume the most calories. One of the more popular Super Bowl snacks is the 7-layer dip. Usually consisting of refried beans, sour cream, guacamole, shredded cheese, salsa and either sliced black olives, diced tomatoes or onions or whatever you like. Pretty standard stuff. But we here at Tailgating Ideas got to thinking.

This year’s Super Bowl features the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks. One of the underlying story lines is the fact that the two states these two teams hail from, are the only two states in the union to have passed laws that legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

With that said, we thought that since we never like to follow the beaten path, why would we bring just a plain, old 7-layer dip? In honor of the two states the Super Bowl participants represent, we thought a 70-layer dip consisting of typical 7-layer dip ingredients and stoner munchie snack foods would make for a better contribution to your Super Bowl party buffet table.

So here it is. The TailgatingIdeas.com 70-Layer Dip recipe.

1. Refried Beans
2. Sour cream
3. Guacamole
4. Shredded Cheddar Cheese
5. Diced Tomatoes
6. Jalapeno Slices
7. Sliced Black Olives
8. Ground Beef
9. Chunky Salsa
10. Crushed Fritos
11. Peanut Butter
12. Sliced Bananas
13. Mini-Marshmallows
14. Cap’n Crunch Crunch Berries
15. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough – Uncooked*
16. Nutella
17. Yellow Cake Crumbles
18. Nutter Butters
19. Nilla Wafers
20. BBQ Sauce
21. Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies
22. Flaming Hot Cheetos
23. Double Stuffed Oreos
24. Twinkies
25. Cheez Whiz
26. Strawberry Pop Tarts
27. Gold Fish
28. Rice Krispie treats
29. Cheese Puffs
30. Top Ramen noodles
31. Chili
32. Macaroni and Cheese
33. Gummi Bears
34. Crushed Cool Ranch Doritos
35. Funyuns
36. Bugles
37. Girl Scout Thin Mints
38. Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey

39. Raspberry Zingers
40. Chex Mix
41. Tater Tots
42. Chorizo
43. Diced Red Onion
44. Spanish Rice
45. Black Beans
46. Mashed Potatoes
47. Totino’s Pizza Rolls
48. Turkey Gravy
49. Chick-Fil-A Cross Cut Fries
50. Cream Cheese
51. Sweet Chili
52. Apple Sauce
53. Chicken Nuggets
54. Pulled Pork
55. Pastrami
56. Mini Cinnamon Rolls
57. Spagehtti-O’s
58. Sliced Hard Boiled Eggs
59. Sliced Bagel Dogs
60. Mini corn dogs
61. Melted Velveeta
62. Marshmallow Cream
63. Chocolate Pocky
64. Grape Jelly
65. Cut up Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
66. Sweet pickles
67. Chocolate pudding
68. Whipped Cream
69. M&M’s
70. Bacon

*The consumption of raw cookie dough is unhealthy and is dangerous. Please understand that we included this ingredient for comedic value because eating raw cookie dough has been a stereotypical drunken/stoned munchie food since, well, forever. Seriously, there are real health risks to eating raw cookie dough

Nobody likes a dirty, greasy, grimy grill grate. Some may claim that the left over residue clinging to your grill grate from past tailgate parties adds flavor to the food you are about to cook. We can debate that claim all day long but what if you don’t want those flavors from tailgates of the past to permeate what you are going to cook today? Why not start with a clean grill and let the natural flavors of what you are grilling come out in the food?

We recently discovered the Grill Daddy Pro. Simply stated, it is a grill brush that is specifically designed to clean charcoal or gas grills quickly, easily and thoroughly. The ability to clean and sterilize your grill grate is produced by steam that comes directly from the Grill Daddy Pro.

(Disclaimer: We did receive a sample of the Grill Daddy Pro for free. The fact this sample was provided to us free of charge in no way influenced our opinion of the product nor did it impact our ability to test and review the product fairly and objectively.)

We were sent a sample of the Grill Daddy Pro to test out and review objectively in a real tailgating environment. We chose to test the Grill Daddy Pro while tailgating prior to the San Diego Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on our Tailgating Ideas custom grill grate. Take a look at the pictures below and you decide if the Grill Daddy Pro does what it claims.

As you can see in the “Before” photo, the Tailgating Ideas logo in the middle of our grill grate was fully encrusted with grease and grime from previous tailgate parties. The caked on residue was left over from tailgating probably about five weeks prior to the bowl game. As you can see in the “After” photo, the grill grate came out very clean. Here are the instructions on how to use the Grill Daddy Pro.

1. Make sure the on/off water valve is in the off position.
2. Unscrew the water fill cap and fill the Grill Daddy Pro with water and replace the screw cap and tighten until snug.
**DO NOT USE SOAP OR OTHER CLEANING DETERGENTS – USE ONLY WATER.**
3. In a left to right motion, run the Scraper Brush across the grill grates to break up the really tough areas of baked on food residue. While brushing, turn the on/off valve to on and the water will release in the upside down position. The release of water can be regulated by turning the on/off valve partially on.
4. To finish cleaning the grill, grip the Upright Handle in one hand and the Leverage Knob in the other hand. This will give you maximum leverage to brush away the residue without getting your hands too close to the heat. Use the Main Brush and brush the grill in the direction of the grill grates, releasing the water as you brush. Brush until the grill is sparkling clean and free of dirt.
5. Turn the on/off valve to off when finished.

We got our grill up to about 600 degrees before using the scraper brush part to break up the really large pieces of stuck on residue. After breaking up those areas we then closed the lid to allow the heat to come back up. By bringing up the heat back to over 500 degrees, this would maximize the water coming out of the grill brush and thus make more steam.

We found the Grill Daddy Pro simple to use and highly effective. Controlling the amount of water and steam took some getting used to the first time we used it. As with any new product, the second or third time you use it, you find that “sweet spot” setting that gives you just the right amount of steam desired.

The photos will show that the Grill Daddy Pro did a phenomenal job in cleaning a grill grate that was literally, covered in caked on gunk and residue from previous cooks. The long handle and the leverage knob were perfect for getting off all the dirt and grime without having to press too hard or work too much. The steam literally melted away and lifted off the grime and removed all the gunk that a normal, non-steaming brush simply would not be able to get off.

The only negative we could find about the Grill Daddy Pro was the size. The extra long handle was great for when we were actually cleaning the grill but because of the unique shape and the sheer size of it, it might be a bit big and cumbersome to bring tailgating. For the backyard griller, we could find zero flaws with this product. Not a single one. It works flawlessly and we were very pleased with how clean our grill turned out.

It may be a bit too late to give this item as a Christmas gift but Father’s Day is just a few months away already. This would make a great Father’s Day gift for any dad who is the king of the grill either at home or outside the stadium. The brushes on the Grill Daddy Pro are removable and are dishwasher safe. With that added feature you just remove them and wash them for full confidence they will be sparkling clean for your next grilling venture.

The Grill Daddy Pro is available through Amazon. Normally priced at $24.99, the Grill Daddy Pro is currently priced at $19.98.