‘Beer Nerd’ combines trivia and beer drinking in an appropriately geeky board game.
Photo by Mike Ramm
Blending “Trivial Pursuit” rules with beer sampling, the board game “Beer Nerd” taps into the hysteria around today’s obsession with craft brews. “There is a little bit of intimidation that there didn’t used to be with beer,” says Tamara Murphy, the creator of Beer Nerd and a one-time chef. Murphy spent a year researching beer history and brewing to produce questions to keep up with the most knowledgeable of hopheads. “Beer nerds are very nerdy. I mean, they know their stuff.”
A typical game starts with players sampling three different beers of their choosing. Of course, that’s a great way to start any board game, but this isn’t just for fun—the goal is to record the brews on an evaluation sheet based on look, taste and feel.
After players sip, they take turns rolling a die, moving down spaces decorated with fake beer brands and answering surprisingly technical beer trivia (“Yeast is which type of organism?” Answer: “Fungus”), as well as practical tips (“How do you quickly stop a beer from foaming over?” Answer: “Stick your finger in the foam”). To win the game, the first player that wraps around the board must correctly identify the beers sipped in the beginning.
There are chances to drink more of the mystery beers as the game progresses, but this endeavor is mostly about beer knowledge, not binge drinking. By striking a balance between difficulty and accessibility, Murphy creates a game welcoming newbies while challenging her core audience: the self-proclaimed beer nerds. —Tim Regan
(November 2013)