In 2015, Shelton began working on If I'm Honest, his tenth studio album, which details his personal and romantic life following his divorce from musician Miranda Lambert; despite the majority of the tracks on the album being recent events in his life, he wanted to write a song about partying, even though he admitted to not being able to do it as often as he used to.^[2] He further discussed his inspiration behind the track to Rolling Stone's Beville Dunkerley:

Basically it’s just about having a throwdown out in the woods — that’s what we used to do in high school. I can’t honestly sit here and say that I do it much anymore, I’m getting too old, but it’s fun for me to sing about those times and the crazy stuff that I used to do, and the crazy stuff that I know somewhere, as we speak right now, kids are doing somewhere in somebody's field. I know you're tearing it up out there.^[2]

Warner Bros. Nashville issued "Straight Outta Cold Beer" as the album's third promotional single on May 13, 2016,^[3] following "Friends" on April 8 and "Go Ahead and Break My Heart" on May 9.^[4][5] "Straight Outta Cold Beer" also serves as the opener to the record.^[6][7] "Straight Outta Cold Beer" was written and composed by Marv Green, Ben Hayslip, and Justin Wilson,^[8] while production was solely handled by Shelton's longtime producer Scott Hendricks.^[9] Shelton sings "about lacking suds" from partying in the lyrics,^[10] which Entertainment Weekly's Jim Farber described as "an ode to getting soused".^[11] The singer boasts that there is nothing fake about him in the lyrics.^[12]

"Straight Outta Cold Beer" was positively received by music critics, with many of them describing it as a "party" song. Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times singled it out for being a "sly party tune" among the other tracks on If I'm Honest.^[13] Similarly, Keith Harris from Rolling Stone called it a "rowdy party-starter" and appreciated its word play reference to the 1988 N.W.A album Straight Outta Compton in the title.^[14] Entertainment Tonight's Sophie Schillaci declared it a "fun track" that stayed true to the singer's "classic country roots".^[1] A staff member from WUSN enjoyed the recording, and claimed it would make anyone more excited for If I'm Honest, which was then unreleased.^[3] Regarding the subject matter of "Straight Outta Cold Beer", Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic found Shelton to be "rais[ing] a little hell".^[15] Robyn Collins from Radio.com created a list of the "5 Best Songs on Blake Shelton's If I'm Honest" and included "Straight Outta Cold Beer". She wrote, "this party anthem is another perfect country-boy song that says some of the same things in brand new ways with music that’ll make you have to tap a boot."^[16]

For the week ending April 30, 2016, "Straight Outta Cold Beer" debuted at number 36 on the Hot Country Songs chart.^[17] Additionally, the single was the week's 23rd best selling digital country song,^[18] selling approximately 14,000 copies in its first week of availability.^[19] In its second week available as a digital download, an additional 3,000 copies were purchased, increasing its total sales to over 17,000.^[20]