9 Awesome Ways To Use Beer This BEER DAY... Besides Drinking It

Raise a glass because National Beer Day is April 7th, and we can all agree that beer is pretty awesome, right?

Okay then. Of course the best thing you can do with beer is drink it, but what you may not know is that beer's pretty handy for a lot of other things too. From cooking to home repairs and even bathing, here are 9 great things you can do with beer.

One of the easiest ways to loosen old, rusty nuts and bolts is with beer (or any carbonated beverage really). Just pour a little beer over the rusted part wait about five minutes. The carbonation and acid will break down the rust, allowing you to loosen up that tough bolt with ease.

Beer bread is one of the easiest things in the world to bake and best of all it only includes five ingredients!

Here's what you'll need:

• 3 cups of self-rising floor
• 1 12 oz bottle of beer
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• (add some grated cheese to the mix if you like)

Just mix your flour, beer, sugar and salt in a bowl and thin pour the batter into a greased baking pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until done. Remove and put the butter over the top to melt and you're done. See, baking isn't that hard at all!

We don't mean literally sleep in bed of beer (some people did that enough in college), but wash your pillowcase in beer. It might sound odd, bu washing your pillowcases in a hop-heavy beer can actually help you drift off to dreamland faster. That's because hops are said to have a sedative quality so that the scent can induce sleepiness. Just make sure you're cool with your pillow smelling like beer.

You're probably not going to want to use that six pack of pricey craft brew in the back of your fridge for this, but beer is great for killing slugs.

Round up some empty jars and fill them a third of the way with (cheap) beer. Then bury them about 15 feet from your garden and make sure the rims are almost level with the soil surface. For whatever reason, slugs love beer. They'll fall in the traps and drown. Which if we're being honest, drowning in beer ain't a bad way to go.

Don't ever let somebody chastise you about spilled beer again. The stuff can actually do wonders for wooden furniture. By dampening a clean cloth with some beer and rubbing it into furniture, the beer can remove dirt and give the wood a robust shine. Just make sure you wipe it away with a clean cloth to remove any suds residue.

Beer makes a great marinade for all sorts of meats. Addapinch has a killer beer marinade recipe for chicken that is sure to send your taste buds into overdrive.

Here's what you'll need:

• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 tablespoons chopped onion
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1½ cups beer

Are you ready to liven up your hair and give the miracle of beer? You can make your own shampoo with beer and give some zest to that dull mop your head.

Add a cup of beer into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Let it reduce until there's 1/4 cup left. This will remove the alcohol, which can dry hair. Let the liquid cool and then just empty it into an empty shampoo bottle. Wash, rinse and admire the new luster of your beer-washed mane.

And if you don't have time to make your own beer shampoo you can always buy a bottle too.

There ya go, a world of ways to use beer that don't involve drinking it. Of course, after repairing your lawn, ridding it of pests, baking bread, grilling up some meat, and removing those old rusty bolts from that door hinge, you may actually want to drink a cold beer.