Craft Beer & Drinks
Does Beer Go Bad? How Long Beer Lasts and How to Store It
Beer rarely turns dangerous, but it does go stale. How long each style lasts, what skunky and cardboard flavours mean, and how to store beer properly.
10 minKeep reading
Courtside reading for game nights
Tip-off, wings and a cold one. We cover the whole night.
Basketball you can follow from a bar stool, game-day cooking that holds up for a crowd, beer worth the second round and the culture of watching sports together.
Welcome to Hoops & Grill
For fans who care about the fourth quarter and the food on the table in equal measure.
We are a small crew of writers who have cooked on pub lines, poured beer through playoff runs and charted more games than we can count. Here we write about the things that make a game night good: reading the action on a screen, wings that stay crisp, nachos that survive a long timeout, the right beer for a three-hour broadcast and the rooms where strangers end up high-fiving.
Recipes are cooked before they are written. Basketball pieces are watched, rewound and argued over. New articles land in the Playbook most weeks.
The game-day food guide
See the full guideFresh from the Playbook
All articles
Basketball
Best Outdoor Basketball Shoes: Soles, Fit and Picks for Asphalt Courts
Outdoor basketball shoes that hold up on asphalt and concrete: the rubber and tread to look for, how they should fit, when to replace them and five picks.
11 minKeep reading
Basketball
Best Portable Basketball Hoops: How to Choose One for Your Driveway
How to choose a portable basketball hoop for the driveway: backboard, base fill, overhang and height, with picks for little kids, teens and adults.
12 minKeep reading
Bar Food & Recipes
Air Fryer Chicken Wings for a Crowd: Batches, Times and Temps
Air fryer chicken wings for a full living room: basket sizes, batch timing, 380 vs 400°F, frozen wings and how to keep every batch crisp.
10 minKeep reading
Bar Food & Recipes
How to Clean a Grill: After Every Cook, Once a Month and Every Spring
A grill cleaning routine from someone who closed restaurant kitchens for years: what to do after each cook, once a month and when the cover comes off.
10 minKeep reading
Basketball
Best Mini Basketball Hoop for Doors, Kids' Rooms and Basement Game Nights
The best mini basketball hoop for a bedroom door, an office or a basement, how to hang one without marking the paint and house rules for H-O-R-S-E.
12 minKeep reading
Pick a beat
The fan's calendarTip-off in October, March brackets, June finals and the long summer of trades: a year of games worth watching together.
Where to watchSightlines, sound, seats and the small clues that tell you a room will actually put your game on the big screen.
GalleryTaps, booths, walls of screens and the basement setups that rival them, in pictures and the notes that go with them.The crew
Game-day gear
The whole Gear rack
Alpha Grillers Instant-Read Thermometer
A pocket instant-read probe that answers in a couple of seconds and comes calibrated.
- Reads in 1 to 2 seconds
- Pre-calibrated
SKLZ Pro Mini Hoop
The over-the-door mini hoop most people end up with: a clear backboard and a spring-action steel rim that takes a dunk.
- 18 × 12 in clear backboard
- Spring-action steel rim
- Hangs over a door
Crock-Pot 7-Quart Slow Cooker
A big manual slow cooker with low, high and warm: the simplest way to hold chili or pulled pork through a long game.
- 7 quarts
- Low, high and warm
- Dishwasher-safe crock and lid
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