Grab a drink and challenge your mates with this brainy bev quiz. Hey, it’s better than work.

Summer really slows down come late January. The silly season is well and truly over, and your sensible new year’s resolutions are still hanging in there – even if only by a thread. But with wall-to-wall tennis on the telly and long arvos just begging for dusk swims (or sips!) with mates, is it any wonder your head can’t seem to slip back into work mode?

Lucky for you, we’ve put together a list of easy (and not-so-easy) quiz questions to get that grey matter moving. It’s sorta like pub trivia you can do anywhere – including the pub! So, grab yourself a drink, bung a frozen schnitzel in the oven (or make one from scratch if you’re feeling bougie) and challenge your mates to a battle of the brains.

Questions

What do all Scotch whiskies and some chardonnays have in common?
Which Melbourne Bar was named in the World’s 100 Best Bars list for 2022? (Bonus point if you know what number it placed!)
Name this cocktail: prosecco, sweet vermouth, Campari.
True or false: legally, it’s only bourbon if it comes from Kentucky.
How much beer does a schooner hold?
Fetching $157,624, Penfolds Grange holds the record for the most expensive Australian wine ever sold at auction. What was the vintage? (AKA the year the grapes were harvested)
Which device was invented in the 18th century to sell gin?
At which pub does Slim Dusty have a beer with Duncan?
In lieu of egg whites, what vegetable ingredient can vegans use to make Whisky Sours fluffy?
Which 17th-century Benedictine monk lends their name to a well-known Champagne house and is quoted as exclaiming, "Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!"?

Warning! Answers are below this image!

Answers

They’re both aged in oak barrels. It’s what gives them their signature depth of flavour. Creamy, vanilla, caramel flavours? That’s oak! Now, while some chardonnays do away with the oak (the leaner, crisp ones), Scotch whisky must, by law, be aged for a minimum of three years in oak barrels.
The teeny-tiny Caretaker’s Cottage took out spot #60 after opening in 2022 to massive fanfare. Martinis are a must here; legendary Melbourne bartender Matt Stirling at the helm, so you can bet on that. Read all about Caretaker’s Cottage here, and put it top of your list for your next night on the town.
Negroni Sbagliato… with prosecco. Oh stunning! House of the Dragon star Emma D’arcy lit a match under this delicious rendition of the classic when the world saw that video. You can get the full lowdown and Negroni Sbagliato recipe here.
False! Kentucky might be the capital of the bourbon world, but great bourbon can come from anywhere in the USA, so long as it meets specific criteria. If you got this one wrong, we’ll forgive you, Kentucky does produce 95% of the world’s bourbon after all.
This is a bit of a trick question. Most Australians agree that 425mL constitutes a schooner. Full points to you if that was your answer. Order a schooner in South Australia, however, and you’ll get what the rest of us call a middy or a pot (285mL). We’ll give it to you if you’re from SA – or double points if you knew both answers! So what do South Australians call a 425mL glass of beer? A pint (which is 570mL to the rest of us). Go figure.
1951 – a great year for Penfolds Grange. It was also the first. Created by legendary winemaker Mac Schubert, only 100 cases of the stuff were made, meaning every remaining bottle is as rare as hen’s teeth. If you’re into the history, we did a breakdown of Penfolds Grange here.
The vending machine. The first one was known as Puss and Mew (or Bradstreet’s Cat, after its inventor, Captain Dudley Bradstreet) and was invented to circumvent strict 18th-century liquor laws. A statue of a cat was mounted on a wall, to which would-be drinkers could stroll up and ask, “Puss, do you have any gin?”. The cat’s mouth would open, the customer would insert a penny, and gin would flow out of a pipe in the cat’s paw. Of course, none of this was electrical – Dudley himself was behind the wall, operating every lever, but it was the beginnings of the modern-day vending machine. Google it – it’s wild.
The Town And Country. It’s located in St Peters in Sydney and you can still have a beer with Duncan there if you so please.
Aquafaba. What’s that? You know that briney liquid you drain off from a can of chickpeas? That’s aquafaba. This starchy liquid has all of the same fluffy properties as egg whites, minus the egg.
None other than Dom Pierre Pérignon (yes, that Dom Pérignon). A trailblazer of natural wine and an innovator of winemaking, Dom’s rules for winemaking are still observed by Champagne makers to this day.