Pop Open A Cold One With Workshop-Worthy Bottle Openers

Is there anything more satisfying than popping open a cold beer after pulling into your garage following a beautiful Saturday afternoon motorcycle ride? Sure, you can use pretty much anything to open a beer, but this is about aesthetic consistency. Perhaps you’re pouring Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter to complement the ticking soundtrack of your cooling Triumph Bonneville, imbibing Old Milwaukee next to your old Harley-Davidson Panhead, or appreciating the matching color schemes of your Honda RC30 and the label on your bottle of Hitachino Nest white ale. If you’re the kind of person who matches your beer to your bike, a garage-specific bottle opener makes perfect sense.

Since you abide by the mantra, "Use the right tool for the job," why not extend that philosophy to the tool you use to get into your favorite beverage, a bottle opener fitted with a Craftsman screwdriver handle? The ergonomics of a screwdriver are a natural choice for a bottle opener, not that you need a lot of torque to pop open a brew. Although, if you're getting off your motocross bike with a bad case of arm-pump, a bit of leverage could be nice.

You could probably make a bottle opener just like this one in your garage, but cutting up a perfectly good 9/16-inch wrench seems wrong. Maybe the Southern Homewares Wrench Bottle Opener is a better novelty item than it is a functional bottle opener, but as far as kitsch goes, it's pretty good. If you'd be bothered by picking it up by mistake when you're reaching for a real wrench, look elsewhere.

The patented Starr X is the original wall-mounted bottle-cap opener. Its producer, Brown Mfg., located near Atlanta, claims to be the oldest bottle-opener maker in the country. Every wall looks better with one of these classic openers mounted on it. Add a screw-down aluminum, plastic, or—our favorite—magnetic catcher beneath the opener to keep your floor free of errant caps.