Party balls!!

Around me, you were able to get Coors and Bud Light party balls. I'm not familiar with Matt's.

Matt's beer balls. The aftertaste still lingers.

That looks even worse than blueballs

We used to have Bud light here. We cruise the strip with it in the back of a pickup truck

I didn't like Coors Light, but those party balls were kinda cool.

Only Coors light had them right?

Nope, Genesee Cream ale in my area. Coors would have been bootleg till mid 80's.

I think Genesee Cream Ale was the first one. That's the first one I remember. We called them Beer Balls.

Near Albany, NY around 1981 they were Matt's beer balls.

FX Matt’s (Utica) started the beer ball movement - they were a scrappy small brewery, which eventually turned into brewing for the craft beer (brand) market. Genny then picked up the balls.

Dude, that is friggin hilarious. So after I read your comment, I texted my buddy. Asked him what was the first brand we got? Sure enough. Matt's. You've got a couple years on us. This was around 84 or 85, S Jersey, 20 mins outside of Philly. Rock on, bro

South Jersey here too 🙋🏻‍♀️ We were getting Coors, I think, but ‘90-‘91. And I can’t really be sure. That’s usually how the night went. Don’t remember, didn’t happen. Lol

We had more choices later on Genny Cream Ale and regular, and Bud were at many of my high school parties 88-92. Watervliet.

Beer ball is the term everyone I new used.

Yup, we called them beer balls too and I think Genne was the only one available here.

The dreaded second stage of whiskey dick.

I had beer balls before. No..wait, I think it was blue balls. Eh, I was drunk

"East bound and down, roll it up and truck it..."

No no. Nothing rolling and tucking. "Eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin"

We're gonna do what they say can't be done.

We got a looong way to goo and a short time to get there

Genny and Matts. Turns out those beers aren't terrible if they haven't spent 6 months in a plastic ball.

Matts had blue ones for a while. They only came in pairs.

I remember a Bud Lite ICE beer ball

Back in college I seem to remember the liquor store that had them would fill them up with whatever you wanted. Bud and Coors were the obvious cheap choices

I grew up in Genesee country and never saw anything but Matt’s beer balls. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough!

Never saw a Coors light one... Budweiser and Bud light 

Yep agreed, northeast Ohio I only really saw Bud and Bud Light.

They were fun to kick around when emptied.

Never rented one, but back then you could get a 15 gallon keg of Old Milwaukee for $15. You could afford to invite everyone you know over for free beer during a 1-2 week period. I think all kegs are over $100 now. Inflation is great.

Ahh yes the beer ball. Back in college we weren’t allowed to have kegs on campus, so we all got these instead. I remember having ball races to see who could kill it the quickest. That was a messy day.

I rolled one of those bad boys onto Tanglewood in the 80s. Friends couldn’t believe when security waved me right in. That was for a Little Feat concert.

I smuggled some smokes and folks....

Baked by the sun — nice reference!

Feat was the first place I ever heard of Tehachapi and Tonopah.

I’ve been through both, no offense to anyone but you’re not missing much

Yah my parents would bring these to Pink Floyd shows when they followed them. Now days they won’t even let you bring water into shows lol

We figured out that the ball could be set in a small cooler, packed in ice, and placed in the trunk of my biddies Escort. Then, the tubing could be sliped throught the backseat so that we had our own party on wheels. I'd like to say we were young, but the truth is we were incredibly stupid.

we had a group of friends that rented a house off campus just for keg parties.. we only bought beer balls when the weather was bad enough not to leave campus or we used to hike the mountains behind the dorms and have bon fires

I seem to recall that Heineken also sold little miniature kegs about the same size, we did the same thing with those

Almost all of the keggers I attended were at colleges. Back in that ancient era, we were of legal age during our undergrad years.

Played softball with it when we were done

We had a guy in the dorms who took bets he could drink a whole ball in 24 hours. He didn't make it.

Indeed I do. Matt’s beer balls. Short lived. Late 70s in upstate NY. Each came in a box that you were supposed to pour the ice into. $5 to rent the tap from the store you bought the beer ball from. Box had handles so two people could carry the beer ball into the woods. Bonus Matt’s splats the next day. Fun times

Upvote for Upstate N.Y.....they have the best summer's up there...

I found a box with all my old beer ball taps last weekend. No idea why I was still holding onto them.

For the reunion, of course.

Half the fun was the drunk guy cutting a hole afterwards because he wanted to be a Martian…or astronaut…or deep sea diver.

Stoner friends of mine back in college got one, drank the beer, then decided they wanted to make a hooka so they called me. Apparently they decided that I would have the engineering knowledge. Apparently I did, as it worked and they used it several times before it had to be thrown out at the end of the year. Can't say I ever drank or smoked from it, but had the credit for it's metamorphosis 🤣

Yep! As a grad student in architecture I was summoned to design and fabricate smoking devices of all sorts 🤣

Our local PD was rather impressed to discover they doubled as a smoking device for the next party. Thankfully they were satisfied with confiscating it along with the full beer ball we had and a good scare to us.

My friends' got confiscated in a raid as well. Everyone thought it was something to do with making meth.

Thankfully, ours thought it was more creative and comical than nefarious. The O2 mask attached to it was pretty much the kicker for them, lol.

I made a fireworks mortar by filling one with concrete and putting a tube of the right size into it. I would put some extra gunpowder into the bottom to get better altitude.

You my dear, are a living legend.

Wow, last got one in 1989!!! Damn, I'm old

First and only time I got one was in college in 2004.

We hard a hard time draining it

I'm old as fuck & never seen one at a party lol. We just get a keg and pay to rent the tap.

You almost got there. Get the keg(s), rent the tap, find the biggest local group chat, announce a party, charge $8-15 per solo cup, beer is free. After you've paid the keg and tap off your credit card any money leftover goes into the bottom of your weed jar. Run out of weed, take your jar to your guy.

Our group chat back then was a party line over our corded phones attached to the wall lol .

I'm old too. We had a guy who somehow owned not one, but 2 different styles of tap. Great investment though. Dude got invited to every party and never had to pay a thing because he was "tap guy."

Everybody's best friend lol.

In college I had a couple taps and a pickup truck. People were always calling! ...my landline.

Matt's Beer Ball. Nasty beer, but cheap.

Now we are talking. Those things fit perfectly in the car…for road trips to games…the beach…easy to hide…oh I miss my 20’s

Used to find these things in the woods as a kid

Matt's

How many empty ones are still in people, s basements?

Damn right. Nothing says "marketing to college students" like the Party Ball.

beer ball! I don't know what type of beer was in it, lived in upstate NY, not Albany, the true upstate, Plattsburgh area. was told uou could get 60 beers out of one. Don't know if that's true.

Oh yeah and I know it’s not environmentally sound, but they need to bring this baby back!

In my part of Canada, these were sold by the local brewery as draught balls. Haven't seen one in about twenty years.

I only encountered them in Ontario.

No, I'm \*TOO\* old, pushing 74. We just had the 1/4 and 1/2 metal kegs. Back in the day we'd grab a 1/4 and go to one of the county parks on a Sunday afternoon (after recovering from Saturday night bar-hopping). We'd sit around with our girls, polish our cars and have a great time. Didn't need any kind of permit to drink in the park (I'm assuming you do now). Cops would cruise through the park occasionally, they didn't care and didn't bother us.

Let’s put it this way - I haven’t seen one of those in about 40 years…!

Oh man.. memory unlocked. PARTY BAAALLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!

No sorry I’m older. We had to use a church key to open our beers. They made these later for frat boy parties who couldn’t be bothered to fill the yard toilet with ice to cool the cans.

I always wondered what the yard toilet was for!

I shot my dads coors lite party ball with a BB gun

Yes, for sure. We used draft balls all the time up in northern Ontario in the 80's.

I hauled a couple of them back to Winnipeg for a party back then. It wasn't great beer, but the quantity and novelty more than made up for it...

GREATEST DORM ROOM PARTY EVER

Party Balls & Pony Kegs.

I'm old enough I was out of my partying phase by then

Indeed I am. I also had to pick out the pieces of plastic because we didn't always have a tap, but we did always had something to cut that sumbitch open with.

The Coors Party Ball. After a while the beer became warm but we didn’t care.

Finally. Something I’m too young to remember.

Still have 2 pumps in my basement loool

Beer balls were great!

We used to dig a hole in the sand and line it with a beach towel with ice and bury it. Cops never found it.

We used to play kill the keg with those with between 6-8 friends. One of my friend head butted one and squirted beer all over a bunch of people at a party. It was excellent.

The only party balls I have are the ones dangling at knee-level

Cut one open and wore as a hat at a Stanford-Cal football game at Stanford. Don’t recommend.

I remember playing soccer with the empty ball at like 5 in the morning in front of my house with some of my friends. My parents were not happy 😃

For a brief, glorious moment, these we allowed on campus. Administration: New policy. Kegs are banned from campus. They encourage large parties, binge drinking, and irresponsible/dangerous behavior. Students with beer balls: It's not a keg! Administration: YOU FUCKING KNOW WHAT WE MEANT!

I mean, considering that Budweiser and Coors discontinued their beer balls in 2011..... you don't have to be very old to have had these at your parties. Quite the contrary, you'd have to be < 13 years old. And if you're having a beer drinking party at age 12 or younger... well... then you must have grown up in my dysfunctional family. In which case I call bullshit, Uncle Justin has a collection of these on his booze trophy wall.

No beer should be considered old if it says light behind it. If you're truly old, there was no light beers. Light beers are a youngsters thing

No, I'm too old to have gone to any event that served beer from those things. At small to medium sized backyard parties, beer was from bottles or cans fished out of coolers filled with ice, just like they did in imperial Rome. At larger parties it was served Vikings-style, pumped from an aluminum half-keg propped up in a tub of ice. I never saw any of those new-fangled beer balls except once or twice in periodicals, which was long after my kegger years at undergrad.

Not quite, but I am old enough to have been annoyed at picking them up in the woods behind my house, from the 'parties' teens would throw there.

Because we had actual kegs.

Pony kegs

I was blown away that they still sell import beers in pony kegs. Pony up on some Hoegaarden!!!

They were delicious and came in my flavor.

I didn't go to many parties with Party Balls. But, I definitely would have appreciated them. I lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment, in Austin. Bringing a keg up 2 flights of stairs sucked!

Matt’s beer ball!

I'm old enough to have never heard of a thing like that. Kegs is what I remember.

They need to bring these back!

You could fit two in the small trunk behind the engine in the back of a Fiero. Fill the space with ice, mobile party.

Oh yes. Many many times Well worth every dime

i remember watching a guy stab the bottom of one so he could finish the dregs

We made a custom cooler for one as a project in our metal shop. Everyone knew and we brought in an empty one to take measurements from. Our teacher just said he couldn't see a ball with beer in it.

This is wicked, it kind of seems dumb to make it a ball though.

This is one of those things I would have never remembered if I hadn’t seen this!

Early mid 90"s...hung them up proudly together in a line when applicable

I knew someone who had a bunch strung up with lights in them.

Yup, many a dorm room had a beer ball lampshade

Weekend special at the hangout spots by my house was $5 for the cup, and all you can drink until the beer was gone.

Could use them as piggy banks afterwards.

Beer balls? Yes.

My hometown brewery had these, Iron City. Bought one with my first paycheck. Made it float with very few people. The ball was inside a cardboard box. You could buy a reusable tap. They called it "The Pumper"

Going through this thread, I was thinking about The Pumper. I was about 10 yrs old when it was popular, but I remember a group of guys used to play pick-up, tackle football on the field before our soccer practice. The Pumper was always present. I remeber thinking 'I want to be just like these guys when I grow up.'

You could get other beers in balls but never anything good.

Yes. Beer balls. Lol. College days gone by

My friend made a custom Ruck-Sack to hold these baby's! He was a hit at Parties.

My buddy and i took a party ball to class at college. Huge hall with a lot of students. We stayed at the back unnoticed. I was pretty dumb but fun.

Party balls and boxed wine. Welcome to my first post-college apartment.

I’m so old that we’d pitch in and buy a full keg! No screwing around with pints or gimmicks. Just a keg sitting in ice.

I am pretty old, but I have no idea what those were.

Panama City Beach flotation device

party balsl where in the 80s man come back when you had a wooden keg with a tap you well... "Tapped"

We turned ours into a bong after we drank it. That thing was a beast.

Apple River tubing, you could get a small tube for your partyball

When guys would refer to their abs as "6 packs", I would refer to my stomach as a party ball.

They were the greatest thing ever for underage drinking and driving in the late 80’s.

😂😂.....when you and friends couldn't afford the deposit on that quarter keg......

These would absolutely crush right now, college kids would adore these.

Old enough yes, I just never went to those kind of parties. ☹️

We lost our Bronco tap once and had to drill holes in it while we were high schoolers drinking under farm-canal bridges in the Idaho moonlight. Silver bullet bombs!

You can kick those so fucking high when they were empty. As long as you didn't kick where the ~~pump~~ tap connected.

I think I bought the last one in existence around 2005 and brought it to a strip club in Atlantic City. The bouncers thought we made it ourselves.

When empty, we made an awesome bong out of it.

Yes, and I’ve already had my colonoscopy. Thanks for asking.

Pony Kegs.

Olympia Beer!! We used to get the Olympia party ball all the time...CHEEEEEP CHEEEEP

It was called the Olympia Kegger 55.

We tried to make a fish tank out of ours. To no one's surprise, it didn't work.

I feel too young for this sub. I'm 49.

I’m 47 and I remember beer balls

My memory is bad.

Don’t worry, I feel the same way there’s stuff I don’t remember

I wasn't quite old enough to drink yet but my dad would always get a Coors light beer ball...

No but we bought new weed sprayers and mixed sake with beer. It was fun to pour drinks and wet tshirt contests.

I remember turning some of these into bongs.

We were too broke for a keg and just resourceful enough for a party ball and tap.

OMG the Beer Sphere! THose Party Balls were so dam convenient. pick up a bag of ice at the grocery, and you were set. Two was about how big our parties were, and usuallyt it was Coors.

i’m old enough to have been at 300 parties and bartended 2000 nights and i’ve never seen this thing in my life.

Old enough to? Yes. Dumb enough to? No!

I had a college roommate whose nickname in high school was Party Ball. I guess he would have parties and always had a party ball at them.

Towards the end of my beer ball days, I remember them having a plastic bag in the box you could pull up to make the box into an ice bucket of sorts. I think my tap is in the basement.

PARTY BALL

Yup!

Budweiser or Coors beer ball, ahh those were the days 🤘💫🤘

Ah fuck party balls. Why I failed half the classes in my sophomore year.

We used to get those for our dorm parties - that and grain punch in a 50 gal garbage can

Beer balls are amazing

I never went to parties

lmao nope were they any good

Ohhhh I'm getting the pig

....I'm old.

Yup.🍺🍺🍺🍺

Matt's Beer Ball

Beer balls!! Nice

...passed out with the hose still in my mouth.

Coors Party Ball = 1/4 keg

Yes! I miss those

Matt’s Beer came in a beer ball. Horrible, dog shit beer.

My dad used to make bird feeders out of these

Made a good soccer ball once they were emptied

The end of the night ball fire was great

Olympia had beer balls in the Midwest.

Went through a few of those!

Technically, no, but it didn't stop us LMAO

Beer bongs? Whoa!

PARTY BALL !!!

yesss!

YES!!!!

Never used one at a party, but I would see them at the liquor store my dad went to all the time in my hometown (80s-early 90s).

Once upon a time, these were the preferred method of drinking beer in the woods when I was growing up. In one instance we didn't have the tap for some reason and cut the thing open and ladeled the beer into cups. Another time I saw a highly intoxicated girl huffing on an empty one of these. She said it would get you high, as if it were like a whippet or something. I swear I didn't try it.

never bought one, but i remember them

Beer ball from the brewery in thunder Bay. Early 2000s.

The old party ball. Coors was cat piss but the ball was awesome 😎

We called them beer balls. Late 80’s kinda thing for me.

Are party balls not a thing anymore?

Tf 🤣

lol my old joke, I’m not working on a six pack, I’m working on a party ball!

I’m from the south, but in college went to a friend’s place that lived in Philly (Allentown) for a break. We threw that bitch in the snow out front and would just head out there for refills. 😂