How to Host An Epic At-Home Bar Crawl Virtually With Friends

Ugh. As if COVID-19 hasn't already ruined enough, we're right in the middle of prime beer festival / bar crawl season, and we can't even leave the confines of our own homes.

But have no fear: the at-home bar crawl we all need to get through this insanity is here. 

We've put together an epic guide to hosting your own virtual bar crawl with friends from the safety of your own home — with suggestions for bar themes for each room in your house. 

How to Host An At-Home Bar Crawl on Zoom 

First, if you haven't already, you're going to want to create an account on Zoom so you can create a link for your friends to use to access the bar crawl / video chat.

You could also use Google Hangouts or FaceTime, but in our experience, Zoom is the easiest platform to use for social calls like this! 

From there, you have two options:

1. Assign one room/bar to each friend or couple who will be calling into the Zoom, so each attendee has a turn hosting their themed component of the virtual bar crawl. 

2. Have one insanely extra friend who already owns a weird amount of party decorations and booze (in our little Work For Your Beer friend group, this would be co-founder Mel Fox, who has an entire closet dedicated to party supplies and costumes) set up the whole crawl in their home. Then pin them as the main speaker on the Zoom video so you can follow them from one "bar" to the next throughout the crawl.

The Most Epic Route For Your At-Home Bar Crawl

At-Home Bar Crawl Stop #1:
Beer Garden (aka Front Porch / Front Yard)

Kick things off with a laidback beer garden in your front yard or on your front porch.

Depending where your friends live in relation to you, you could actually do this first stop in person, so long as your front porch or yard is large enough for you to stay at least 6 ft. away from one another and you all bring your own booze. (But OF COURSE you should follow up-to-date CDC guidelines before making that decision!)

Otherwise, decide whose front porch will make for the best video spot to capture a beer garden vibe, and kickoff your Zoom crawl there!

Suggested Food & Drink:

This is where you're going to want to pull out the best craft beers that you have on hand. Bonus points if you drink it out of a stein or, even better, Das Boot.

Snacks here could include any typical beer garden fare. Think pretzels, nuts, bratwurst, etc.

Suggested Music: 

This German Oktoberfest playlist will get you in the mood for ein bier, bitte.

Suggested Activities:

This is only the first stop, so this is where you and the rest of the crawl participants will crack open your first drink and catch up on each other's lives. Much like an afternoon at a real-life beer garden, this one should be pretty chill. (Don't worry, it gets crazier).

At-Home Bar Crawl Stop #2:
Video Game Bar (aka Living Room)

Imagine the coolest arcade bar you've ever been to. It probably had a fun, laidback vibe not all that different from the "rec room" you had growing up, or the basement of the coolest guy at your middle school.

Now, bring that vibe to your living room. If you've got a beanbag chair or some inflatable furniture from the early '00s, now is the time to bring it out of storage. Otherwise, a big, comfy couch will do just fine.

Suggested Food & Drink: 

Get some soda brands from your childhood — things like Fanta, Surge, or Vanilla Coke — and add your liquor of choice for a throwback beverage that you can throw back with wild abandon. 

Or if you're going for more of a college dorm room vibe, domestic beer is cool, too.

Either way, the snacks should be nostalgic, too. Things like Gushers, Dunkaroos, Doritos, and that weird plastic jug of "party mix" that ended up on the snack table at every pre-teen birthday you ever attended.

Suggested Music: 

'90s and '00s music, of course. We suggest this Spotify playlist.

Suggested Activities: 

Games! If you're the kind of cool kid who has an actual video game system (and friends who have that same video game system), you could play classic games like Mario Party, Mario Kart, or Super Smash Bro's with them online through those systems without an issue.

If you're looking for a game you could play easily without any confusing set-up, consider switching from your Zoom video chat to Houseparty for this first stop only, where you can play a few rounds of games like Heads Up, Quick Draw, Trivia, or Chips & Guac right there in the app.

At-Home Bar Crawl Stop #3:
Gastropub (aka Kitchen / Dining Room)

If you wanted to forego snacks on the other stops along the way, you could. But once you get to the Gastropub, it's time to get your grub on, for sure. This is where you'll have some classy bites and craft cocktails before the night takes a turn for the debaucherous.

Suggested Food & Drink: 

Consider your favorite small plates to order at your go-to gastropub. They might include things like a cheese and charcuterie board, some crudité with various dips, and other canapés of your choosing.

You could decide on a featured cocktail of the evening for everyone (my personal go-to is a French 75, which uses gin, St. Germain, bubbles, and lemon) or you could invite everyone to create and share details about their own signature libation.

Suggested Music: 

Some light jazz seems fitting. 

Suggested Activitie: 

Laughing poshly about the economy? Taking pictures of your food for Instagram? As someone who is definitely not classy, I'm not sure what guidance to offer aside from eating some small plates, glugging a cocktail, and moving on to your next stop.

At-Home Bar Crawl Stop #4:
Cantina (aka Bedroom #1)

Now that you've proven you can be classy, it's time to let go of your inhibitions for a little dancing and a lot of tequila at the Cantina. This is the apex of your evening — we're at the peak of the fun, and we'll slowly come back down at the remaining stops.

Toss some sheer fabric over your lamps for instant mood lighting, and if you happen to own any type of strobe lights, this would be the place for 'em. Oh, and crank up the heat so it gets nice and sweaty in here.

Suggested Food & Drink: 

You could set up some chips with salsa, guac, and queso if you're feeling generous. But the star of the show here is definitely going to be light beer (think Pacifico, Modelo, or Tacate) and tequila (on its own, with salt and lime, in some margarita mix, or in some grapefruit juice).

Suggested Music: 

Latin dance party music — bailamos!

Suggested Activities: 

Dancing. Drinking cerveza and tequila. That's it here.

At-Home Bar Crawl Pit Stop:
The Bar Bathroom (aka Your Bathroom)

To really stay on theme, make sure there's barely any hand soap, there's toilet paper all over the floor, and set up an iPad or computer in here so you can separately video chat with a friend while crying incoherently from the toilet. You know, like the good old days.

At-Home Bar Crawl Stop #5:
Irish Pub (aka Bedroom #2)

No dancing here. Just some good old fashioned sitting around with friends, drinking in a dimly lit space, with music playing loudly overhead.

Suggested Food & Drink: 

If you're going to have food here, it should be pretty simple. Maybe some fries (or "chips," as our Irish friends would say), to soak up some of that booze you drank at the Cantina.

For beverages, obviously Guinness is the front-runner for beer, but you could opt for Murphy's or Smithwick's if you prefer. In terms of liquor, Jameson is the clear choice, but if you need a pick-me-up, consider a coffee with Bailey's.

Suggested Music: 

Dropkick Murphy's, Flogging Molly... Really, this whole playlist.

Suggested Activities: 

Sit around and drink while chatting with friends. What more do you want?

At-Home Bar Crawl Stop #6:
The Winery (aka Deck / Patio / Back Yard)

You've made it! You're at your final stop. It's quiet and peaceful outside at the vineyard as you wrap up your evening.

Suggested Food & Drink: 

A glass of wine, your choice what that may be — perhaps a flute of bubbly to toast whichever of your friends shared this blog post with you and suggested this awesome idea for an at-home bar crawl.

And you can sneak any leftovers from the Gastropub out here, too.

Suggested Music: 

This wine and dine playlist is perfect for winding down (wine-ing down?) your evening.

Activities: 

Recap your favorite stop along the bar crawl. Decide what you'll do differently next time, and brainstorm some stops you'd like to add for future virtual bar crawls (or real-life crawls at someone's house, once we're allowed to hang out together again).

Then tell us those ideas on social media at @workforyourbeer so we can add to this blog post and make it even more epic. We swear to give you credit.

Happy crawling!

Remember: drink responsibly, hydrate, and take Flyby before and after drinking to prevent hangovers. (Not an ad, we just really love Flyby. We wish they'd sponsor us. Maybe one day.)

Cheers to finding ways to stay connected with friends from home!