1. Trap Slugs
If you are tired of slugs munching their way through your precious plants, then place some dishes or jars of beer around your garden. Slugs absolutely love it, but once inside your trap, they can't get back out. So they will either drown or remain there until you deal with them in the morning. The beer can be re-used until it evaporates.
2. Give Your Hair Some Bounce
Beer makes for a great shampoo-conditioner that can add life to tired, matted hair. The vitamins and minerals in beer help infuse strands with helpful nutrients, while the alcohol performs well as a clarifying agent and the acidic properties add an extra dose of shine. This three pronged attack system will leave your hair shiny and revived (there are actually beer based shampoos on the market).
3. Make a Delicious, Tenderizing, Toxin-Fighting Marinade
Of course, there are various ways you can cook with beer, and marinating your meat before you throw it on the grill is one of the best. It works with any meat, and you can be creative by using other ingredients such as marmalades, hams, soy sauce, and fruit to add an extra dash of flavor. It will not only improve the taste, but also soften the meat better than industrial tenderizers. As an added bonus, it will fight the harmful toxins released when you cook meat over charcoal.
4. Distract Bees and Wasps
Anyone who has drank beer outside will know that wasps and bees descend on any abandoned dregs very quickly. Use this to your advantage at a garden party by placing some glasses with small amounts of beer around the garden - this will help to keep the wasps and bees away from your guests. You can even use this to trap them, as well as other flying pests like fruit flies and mosquitoes (amber beer is best for the latter).
6. Polish Your Pots
In the past, breweries used beer dregs to clean copper vats, and for good reason. Again, the gentle acidity of beer makes it great for this job - it will shine up pots without staining the metal. Try buffing a small area of the pot using beer dabbed on a cloth, and see how much of a difference it makes.
7. Ease a Minor Tummy Ache
This is not as crazy as it sounds, but slowly sipping on a beer can ease minor stomach upsets thanks to the carbonation and sugars. Of course it should only be used on innocuous upsets, not on ulcers or serious stomach complaints.
8. Loosen Rusty Bolts
Rust is an enemy of us all and can cause metal fasteners to become permanently fixed to their host hardware. If you've ever tried to wrench out a bolt that is stuck firmly in place, you will be glad for some help, and here's where a splash of beer can come in handy. Apply it, leave it for a few minutes to allow the carbonation to break down the rust, and then try and remove the screw again.
10. Spice Your Rice!
If you haven't tried beer soaked rice, then you have missed out on a tasty treat! Add something extra to your standard long grain, jasmine, or basmati rice by cooking it in a dark beer. The rice absorbs the beer and produces a lovely flavor.
11. Soak Your Feet
This one is best done with freshly opened beer, rather than dregs, but before you look on in horror at this waste of good drinking beer, you should know that there are spas in Europe where you can immerse yourself entirely in beer. We don't recommend you take a beer bath (it's a bit too expensive) but using the beer mixed with some white vinegar can really refresh your feet. The many antioxidants and nutrients are great for your skin!
12. Help Pass Kidney Stones
Many old timers will recommend drinking a beer a day until a kidney stone passes. There is evidence that drinking beer in moderation can also help reduce the risk of stones in susceptible people - although binge drinking will have the opposite effect.
Beer can be used instead of chemical cleaners if you have a stubborn tea or coffee stain on your clothing or rug. Apply the beer directly to the spot and let it soak in before washing it well with a cloth or soap (you can put clothes through the washing machine afterwards) but always spot test the fabric first.
14. Clean Your Jewelry
Beer is a great means of giving rings, bracelets, and other trinkets a quick shine. Just drop the items into a small pot of beer and let them soak, before removing and polishing to bring back some lost sheen.
15. Attract Butterflies
Is there anything better at bringing color and joy to your garden than a butterfly? We don't think so! Butterflies actually feed on some pretty bizarre things, including rotting fruit, dung, and tree sap, and there's a mixture you can make that will attract them. You will need to mix the following ingredients, and splash the results around fence-posts and rocks, or soak sponges in it and hang them from trees or plants:
• 1 pound of sugar
• 1-2 cans of stale beer
• 3 mashed, overripe bananas
• 1 cup of syrup
• 1 cup of fruit juice
• 1 shot of rum
