How To Crack Open Beer Without A Bottle Opener

Just imagine, you've got friends gathered at your place for an evening of drinks and fun. Bottles of beer sit cool in the refrigerator just waiting to be cracked open, but then you realize there's no bottle opener in sight. The horror. Is the evening ruined?

Everyone calm down; no need to panic. Before the invention of the bottle opener, in 1894, there were spoons. Screw caps also exist, but unfortunately, not all beer brands have adopted this genius technology. So yes, reach into that silverware drawer and you'll find you can use a spoon as a bottle opener. With the proper hand positioning and a little elbow grease, the spoon acts as a lever to lift your bottle cap right off.

While we can all feel grateful to be alive in a time when modern technology has made such advancements to allow for designated bottle opening tools (wine bottles included), sometimes you have to get creative. Keep a spoon handy, and if you don't have one, be glad there are other functional alternatives you probably have nearby.

To open a beer bottle using a spoon, you can actually use a few different methods. One option is to grip the neck of the bottle with one hand and use the bottom end of the spoon by wedging it under the cap. From there you push down, thus lifting the cap off the bottle. This way might hurt the hand a bit, but shouldn't result in any real injury.

Another way to use a spoon to crack open your beer would be to follow the same hand placement as the previous method but using the back part of the spoon instead of its handle. This method places one of your hands closer to the cap, but should give the same result.

As convenient as this method might be, it's possible that the spoon you have could be too wide or just the wrong fit for the bottle. In that case, you might need to ditch the silverware and check your pockets.

If the spoon route doesn't feel like enough of an impressive party trick, or you find yourself somewhere where cutlery is scarce, there are a number of other tried and true methods for opening a beer bottle. Other useful tools include a lighter, house keys, or even a ring.

All three tools follow the same general logic and motion as the spoon method with just a little bit of variation in terms of what to do with your hands. With the lighter, you should use the bottom end and simply grip the whole lighter with one hand, avoiding triggering the sparkwheel. To use a ring, you should hook the ring under the cap and use your hand to lever and pop the cap off. This also might hurt a bit, so don't force it. You have other options. Using house keys to open your beer is only slightly different in that you're loosening the cap rather than popping it right off. Hold the beer's neck with one hand as previously described, and then take the long end of the key under the cap and twist to loosen it. From there, you'll need to rotate the bottle and perform the key twist over and over until the cap is loose enough to come off. If only the screw caps could corner the market, but until then at least you know you can make do.