How to Tailgate in the Cold
Tailgating is an important part of many people’s lives. Tailgating season seems to be every season. If there’s a great baseball game, basketball tournament, or a team is throwing around the pigskin, well that’s a perfect reason for a good old-fashioned tailgate. However, when the weather turns cooler, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a hardcore sports fan or just there for the food; you need to know how to tailgate in the cold.
Serve Hot Drinks
Since beer can freeze in sub-zero temperatures, consider keeping yourself and your friends warm by serving hot drinks out of a crockpot or thermos. While instantly freezing a beer by opening it is a great party trick, drinking anything slushy or frozen when your nose is cold is just not fun. Do you know what is though? Spicing things up with a mulled wine, cider, or adult version of cocoa.
Serve Hot Food
Whether it’s hot and spicy (but not too spicy) or it’s piping hot, serving hot food will help keep you warm while tailgating. Try these perfect game-day recipes to keep yourself and your fellow tailgaters warm in the cold.
Turn your Cooler into a Heater
Warm bricks, or your Napoleon Pizza Stones in the oven, then wrap them in foil. Place them in the bottom of a clean, room temperature cooler. This will turn your cooler into a portable warmer, helping to keep cooked foods hot. PRO™ Tip! Toss your mitts in there (making sure that anything inside is covered well) for a minute or two to warm them too. Toasty mitts mean toasty fingers.
Don't Give Safety the Cold Shoulder
Just because it’s cold doesn’t mean that your charcoal is. Remember to give charcoal plenty of time to go out. Keeping a steel ash bucket with lid is a good way to store spent coals, especially if you’re unsure if they are completely out. Remember to keep this ash bucket away from flammable items, unlit coals, and such.
Create a Warming Section
It is suggested that you bring your own chair to a tailgate, but have you ever considered bringing some creature comforts too? Bring a portable heater, like our Napoleon Skyfire™ 11 Portable Patio Heater, blankets – you can get them with your favorite teams on them now, and even a basket of extra mitts for anyone who forgot. (Like me, who would be so worried about packing food I would forget something important like mitts.)
Tailgating maybe a year ‘round event, but that doesn’t mean you have to suffer when it’s too cold out. This goes especially for anyone in the top half of North America. Knowing the top five tips for cold weather tailgating is great, and pairs well with knowing how to pack a cooler like a PRO™. Do you have any tips for cold weather tailgating? Share with us on our social media pages like Facebook and Instagram. We would love to hear from you.
Happy Grilling!