There's more to St. Patrick's Day than just drinking vast amounts of green beer and Guinness on a Tuesday. There's also a ton of gadgets to help you serve and enjoy said green beer and Guinness.
Yes, just as much as St. Patrick's Day is an excuse to consume copious amounts of alcohol, it's a day in which every beer-loving technology buff can demo their best drinking gadgets.
From the best-drink serving tech ideas to the safety equipment that will ensure many more St. Patrick's Days to come, pull up a stool, gather around and hear which gadgets got our Irish blessing.
Smartphone case bottle opener
Why are bottle openers harder to find than Leprechauns when you really need to open up a new beer? Well, this year, count your lucky charms because iPhone and Android cases have gotten so creative that they now include the handy utility embedded into their backside.
In addition to opening up your own beer bottles, you may be able to use the smartphone case to help out an attractive lass or lad in distress this St. Patrick's Day. And what do you know, you conveniently have your smartphone out and it just navigated itself to the screen in which she or he can enter their phone number. Funny when it does that.
Beer Belt under your Aran sweater
Holding any more than three cold beers cans in your hand is a skill that most sober people don't posses, let alone St. Patrick's Day revelers who are three-sheets to the wind. Thankfully, the Beer Belt gets the job done and doubles the amount by securing a full six-pack to your waist.
This fully adjustable belt, which fits Irish and American beer bellies, keeps your beers close and your hands free. That may or may not be a good thing depending on what you usually do with your wandering hands when drinking. Nevertheless, you'll fit the part for St. Patrick's Day, especially when it's worn below an Aran Sweater and tweed cap.
Shot-pint glass to make you go Erin Go Bbbleh
Drinking both beer and liquor results in a very messy night when things don't go down well. Come to think of it, drinking them at the same time results in a pretty messy night when they go down well, too. Either way, it's going to be a mess.
Cleaning up pint glasses and shot glasses strewn across the table the next morning can be half as challenging with this ingenious (question mark) Shot in the Pint Drinking Glasses by HomeWetBar. Best of all, it comes in a pair, so you and a friend don't have to share anything but a toilet the next morning.
Beer Tower that's taller like the Blarney Castle
Ireland's countryside is full of picturesque castle towers and some of the world's best beer. Combining the two - at least unofficially - is the Beer Tower from BF Systems. It puts a 34-inch beer dispenser in your home, complete with a plastic tube that holds 3 liters of beer, or two or three pitchers.
Legend has it, drinking straight from its bar-style pull down tap long enough will magically transport you to the Blarney Castle, kissing the Blarney Stone upside down.
Green LED Ice Cube Drink Marker
It's easy to get into fights during St. Patrick's Day - and no, not because we Irish are notorious for always fighting. That's a blatant stereotype! Want to fight about it? Instead, it's because everyone is drinking and it's inevitable that someone will "accidentally" pick up your beer during the day-long celebration.
The Green LED Ice Cube Drink Marker is best drinking gadget to prevent your inner "old Irish boxer" from putting up rotating fists. You can't go wrong with the St. Patrick's Day color, unless of course you forget that it's in your green beverage and end up swallowing it. Then you need the Heimlich (no, that's not a German gadget).
Best iOS, Android app for Beer
Beer varieties plentiful and so are the beer-themed apps in the the App Store and Google Play. However, the king of beer apps is Untapped, a location-aware beer and beer buddy-finder.
In addition to tracking down your favorite brews and helping you learn about new ones, it features a "trending beers" list that's split into micro and macro brands. Untapped is currently being served "on the house" on iOS 8 and Android, and new this St. Patty's Day is a Windows Phone 8.1 version of the free app.
Breathalyzer so you don't fall into the Chicago Green River
Swimming in the green-dyed Chicago River naked on St. Patrick's Day seems like a good idea when you're taking full advantage of these drinking gadgets. But it turns out Officer Patrick O'Hara doesn't take kindly to such antics - trust us. A more sober decision is keeping tack of the amount of alcohol that is in your system with the BACtrack Select S80 Breathalyzer Professional Edition in an effort to avoid such unruly behavior.
This is the best breathalyzer to buy because it has an easy-to-read four digit LCD screen and one button operating, which should make it manageable no matter how bleary-eyed you become. And although the S80 is more expensive than other models at $116, its superior fuel sensor technology provides more accurate results than cheaper versions, ensuring that you can see how far beyond .08 you are time and time again.
