Anyone who knows me knows that I love beer and try new kinds all the time. I also enjoy learning about beer history and facts. So here’s some timely and interesting info for you. If someone asks you how Octoberfest (or Märzen) style beers came to be, it was because of a royal wedding; or that IPAs came to be from the British occupation of India – you now know some beer history. You’re welcome readers!
This brings us to BeerIQ a beer themed trivia game from Helvetiq. BeerIQ can play 2-12 players and plays in about 45 minutes.
Game Overview:
BeerIQ is played in 2 rounds and players will split into two teams. All teams start on the score pad at 100.
Round 1: All players need to decide which side (the dark green side are slightly more difficult) of the cards to read from and select 24 cards out of the deck. Each team take turns reading the question to their team. The reader will decide if they will read the 3 answer choices or not. If the team has the correct answer, then that team will score 2 points if the answer choices are read and 4 points if they are not. A wrong answer will result in the loss of 2 points. Once all 24 cards are read and answered round 1 is over.
Round 2: You will collect and shuffle the original 24 cards, and reuse. Again each team will take turns reading the answer to their team. The only catch is that there will be underlined words on the cards to read from. There will be a single and double underlined word. The reader will decide if they will read one or both of the underlined words. If the team has the correct answer then that team will score 2 points if both underlined words are read and 4 points if only the single underlined word was read. A wrong answer will result in the loss of 2 points.
The team with the highest point total at the end of round 2 wins and has the highest Beer IQ.
Game Experience:
I’m sure as you can see from the overview that BeerIQ is very easy to learn and it’s fast to the table. Honestly, this is one of the first games that I reviewed where I didn’t use my core gamer group of friends. I actually went to a local micro-brewery and busted this one out in their tap room with some strangers. All picked up the game easily and most were not gamers per se.
This raises two things that are a positive and negative. This was the perfect game for a tap room or home brewing crowd. These groups seem to love to flex their beer knowledge and also learn something new. So, BeerIQ is a great game for those sort of niche crowds. Anyone who doesn’t like beer facts or info passed on this game and that’s sort of why I ended up reviewing this one at a local brewery. Most of my gamer friends like to drink beer but didn’t want to play a beer trivia game.
One of the things I really liked about BeerIQ is the round 1 decision about reading the answer choices or not. I really liked the fact that you got to choose whether or not to read the answer choices and then get a higher score by not reading them. This is a nice catch-up option if you’re behind or a good way to put the game away. Obviously playing with strangers it does take a little time to gauge their knowledge, but in a few turns and depending on the question, you can hopefully judge if they have a good chance to not to answer it.
As much as I liked the round 1 game, I didn’t like the round 2 game at all. This is basically a memory game and, as an adult, I’ve outgrown this mechanic. It’s not fun for me and other adults because our memories are not what they used to be. The other thing that it is assumed in round 2 is that you are fully paying attention in round 1 and heard all the questions and answers. From my plays, this was not typically the case for most players and this seemed to suck some of the fun out of the round 1 game. I do like to chat with my team and others about previous questions, but social aspect is taken away since you need to focus. Overall, it’s not a bad thing but makes this less of a social party game that I would have expected from a beer trivia game.
Final Thoughts:
BeerIQ should appeal to any gamer or beer fan looking for a way to test their knowledge and even learn something new about beer. I think for those who are not beer trivia fans or looking for something deeper will likely pass on this one. Overall, it’s an ok beer trivia game that scales up to 12 players giving each player a balanced game experience from start to finish. The questions are interesting and the round 1 game is solid, but round 2 is a memory game and most adults (myself included) out grew this mechanic a while ago.
BeerIQ is not a deep game so for non-beer fans, this one will likely not hold their attention in round 1, which will make round 2 somewhat painful. Scores usually drop in round 2 if you compare them to round 1 which makes the overall experience just ok.
Final Score: 2.5 Stars – A good Beer trivia game with variable question difficulty, but the memory mechanic in round 2 may turn people off.
Hits:
• Fast & easy to learn
• Tests your beer knowledge
• Very portable
Misses:
• Memory game in round 2 is not for adults
• Niche game for gamer/beer fans
Nice write up, thanks for the post! Based on your description of Round 2 this sounds a little like one of my favorite party games, Fishbowl aka Celebrity (or the boxed version is called Moniker) which is sort of like Taboo followed by Memory followed by Charades. My husband and I both fall into the beer nerd category so I think we’d enjoy BeerIQ as is, but I would also love to try it with a third Charades round tacked on! I LOL at the idea of acting out beer terms like “Lager!”
Thank you Audrey- I’m glad this was helpful and I would love to know how “lager” would be acted out. 🙂
Helvetiq also has trivia style games related to Wine and Music and I believe the mechanics are identical to BeerIQ. Check these out if you’re interested.