How to Open a Bottle Without a Bottle Opener

We’ve all found ourselves in the unfortunate predicament at least once: An ice cold bottle of beer (or soda) beckons, but there’s not a bottle opener in sight. Fortunately, necessity is the mother of invention, and there’s more than one way to crack that cold boy open. Here are seven easy ways to open a bottle without a bottle opener.

Chances are you probably have some keys jingling in your pocket, and if your keychain is one of the few without a bottle opener attached to it, don’t fret; your keys can do the exact same thing. Just place the tip of the key under the top and lift up to remove the top.

At its core, a bottle opener is just a lever, and many things can function the same way, including forks and spoons. Wedge them under the lid with your dominant hand, lift, and enjoy.

There’s something cavalier about opening a bottle on a countertop. It provides some level of street cred, but it’s also Mom’s not going to like this, so be careful. Place the lid of your bottle on the edge of the countertop, and give the bottle a whack to pop off the top.

This method requires a lot of caution since you’re dealing with sharp edges, but you can take a pair of scissors, open them around the mouth of the bottle and then squeeze and shimmy them until the top comes off.

In the spirit of unleashing your inner cowboy, if you have a belt buckle that’s shaped the right way (ie. with a lip of metal that you can wedge a bottle in), then you too can open a bottle while shouting, ‘Yee Haw!’ Just slide that bottle in the groove, and watch it pop right off.

You can also use another beer bottle to open a separate bottle! To do it, simply hold the top of one bottle and hold firmly on a table. Use the other hand to hold the top of another bottle, and invert it so that the bottle caps are interlocked. Carefully use the inverted bottle to pry the cap off the bottle that is right-side up.

A strike plate is that flat part on a door frame that the deadbolt and latch bolt fit into, and it doesn’t do much more than that — except for helping you open a bottle. Slip the top of the bottle into the opening of the strike plate, pull back, and you’re in.