Do Americans play beer pong with water?

29 comments

1. No it’s beer, as per the name.

2. Back in my college days, we used to play with beer in the cups at the fraternity. Then the Swine Flu came about, and we were advised by the school not to reuse cups, specifically for beer pong. So we swapped to water in the cups, and a drink in your hand.

   It has a ton of advantages too. No gross crap getting in the drink if the ball hits the floor and your opponent doesn’t clean it. No cups getting accidentally knocked over and spilling beer everywhere. You can more easily re-use cups and balls if you want. You can drink at your own pace, and whatever drink you choose (because let me tell you, playing vodka pong with enough vodka in the cups to keep them stable is a rough night).

3. Nowadays Water is in the cups the balls go into. You have a separate cup for your shots/beers.

4. I’ve played it with both. Plenty of people play with beer, which feels more “traditional,” but at a certain point most of my friends realized it makes more sense to just play with water and drink what you like

5. Sometimes.

   I feel this is an area where kids have definitely gotten smarter.

   The cups were filled with (generally) beer when I was in college and you drank whenever a ball landed in the cup. There was always a water cup on each side to wash the ball but ultimately everyone’s hands, the ground, etc. was touching the ball. Sometimes you’d look at your cup and see all kinds of crap in it.

   Nowadays kids fill their cups with water and keep a beer cup on the side so when the ball lands in the cup they drink clean beer.

6. I’ve seen college students play with beer in the cups but after more experience switch to water in the cups. After a playing a few rounds, you find the balls get filthy on missed shots and you end up with dirt, hair, etc. in your drink. Its way more enjoyable to pour water in the cups and take drinks on the side.

7. I guess you can play it with water if you don’t want to be consuming alcohol but no traditionally it is played with beer, hence the name. At least in my experience. But I haven’t played beer pong in like… well I graduated in 2009 so 13 years I guess lol.

   There is usually, at least in my experience, a cup of water that you use to clean the ball off.

8. I’ve played where if there’s a designated driver they’ll drink water (or soda or whatever non-alcoholic drink they want), but other than that I’ve never heard of anyone using water.

9. Sometimes if you’re playing for shots but want the cups to be heavy enough not to tip easily or if someone at the party doesn’t drink, that kind of thing.

   It’s exception cases like that, not the norm.

10. We always had an extra cup of water to wash off the ball but the cup you actually threw the ball into had a drink in it. Usually beer.

11. I have to be honest, most of the time I’ve played beer pong it’s been water in the cups, and we don’t really play it as a “drinking game” More like just a game to play while drinking.

    I’d rather sip some beer, toss some ping pong balls, and shoot the shit with my buddies instead.

    Having beer get everywhere, and having dirty shit get in your beer just feels like a nuisance.

12. In your late teens-early 20s and at really large parties where cheap beer is the go-to you’ll play with beer in the cups. Otherwise it’s like 50/50 beer versus water with you choosing to drink whatever alcohol you prefer.

    Water’s also used if you’re playing with shots instead of beer.

13. Nowadays it’s normally played with water in the cups. It’s just an activity to do while drinking

14. It depends on where you are. Everyone has different house rules from what iv seen. But, when we hold house parties in my house, we use water and just keep the beer or drink to the side of the table. We don’t want everyone drinking out of the same cup, and the ball gets dirty as well, and gets nasty shit in your drinks.

15. Water? Never touch the stuff. Fish fuck in it.

    We use straight liquor. Kills everything in the cups

16. I’ve never played it but my friend explained you should put water in the cups and drink beer out of a separate cup so you’re not drinking the stuff that was on the ball

17. I’ve seen some people do that because they don’t want to drink beer that a wet ping pong ball that’s been bouncing around a nasty frat house or bachelor pad just dunked in. In that case you just take a swig of your normal beverage if the other team makes a cup.

    In general though that’s not the norm in my experience. Most people just put beer in the cups.

18. I always knew it as being played with beer in the cups, which is actually pretty gross. You were supposed to rinse the ball in a cup of water between throws, but who knows how much that actually helped.

    If that’s changed in recent years, that’s probably not a bad thing.

19. With water; beer can/other drink of chouce to the side. Maybe the college partiers of yesteryear will look down at my generation but I’m not drinking anything from those cups.

20. We did it in college to keep beer from spilling all over the floor. Fraternity houses are fun until you’re stuck cleaning them…

21. If you are playing lots of games, you play with water and you have to drink beer when they make it. This is what we did in college unless we were at a big party people would do beer.

22. In my frat it was a 50/50 if we were putting beer directly in the cup, or we had the correct # of beers on the side that we poured into our own cups when a cup was made.

    Some people were more pro-water while others just didn’t care at all. but by the end of the night nobody gave a shit and we were just playing with beer. if someone had started with water those cups were long spilt and beer was the chosen replacement.

23. It sounds like you are asking this in relation to how much beer is consumed when a shot is made. It has nothing to do with that. I live in a college town and have played an excessive amount of pong.

    The places I have played do not always have the cleanest floor. Drunk people will forget to rinse the ball between shots. I have seen people look down into a beer before drinking it and find hair, bits of refuse, etc. If you want girls to play, this is not the way to do it.

    Set up the table with cups of water. Then set the rules. If someone makes a shot you chug a full glass of beer or you take a drink or do a shot. Whatever you want the rules to be. You have altered the game to be more sanitary (read girl friendly) and you still consume the same amount of alcohol as you would the other way.

24. I’ve never heard of that, maybe as a covid precaution or something, but the point is to get drunk drinking the beer from the cups, so filling them with water doesn’t make a ton of sense.

    edit: from the comments, it’s clear that a lot of people play with water in the cups.

25. Yeah, pong is more a casual game to play while drinking. Same with beer Die

26. I play a version of pong with my daughters and we use water or juice. I’m obviously not going to give them beer.

27. Both. Depends how germ-conscious you want to be. Generally at a more bro-y gathering you’ll just put your beer in the play cups and drink from them. But, that ping-pong ball is bouncing all around the room and theoretically all that crud is getting in your beer as you play. Then, the cups get reused but the next players, so another person’s lips have been on the cups. Personally, if I was that focused on health and safety I wouldn’t be playing a drinking game in the first place but to each their own. In college we used to have pledges wash out the red solo cups after parties for re-use to save money, to give you an idea of how much we cared about germs.

28. I’m 32 so I really don’t play beer pong in any regularity anymore. But when I was in college it was almost always beer. The only time water was used was if you were somewhere that you wanted to avoid spilling and making a mess.

    Last time I played it was with water since we didn’t want to make a mess in the place we were staying at.

29. I always found it very unsanitary to play with the beer inside the cup, especially when you are reusing cups. Plus if someone knocks over a cup on accident, it’s just water that spills not beer. My friends and I normally keep our drinks on the side and take a drink when someone makes a cup.