We all enjoy a couple of beers over at The Beer Heaven, but even the most dedicated drinkers among us have their limits: if our bodies don’t force us to stop, our wallets will.
But one man is taking his love of beer to the extremes with a seemingly impossible task: drinking 2,000 pints of beer in 200 days. Is he a legendary hero, or on the path to destruction? Read on and judge for yourself.
Jon May, a 25-year-old from Sheffield, England, heard about someone online who was trying to drink 1,000 pints of beer in a year — and thought he could double that, he told Vice.
Not only that, he shortened his goal from a year to 200 days — that’s an average of ten pints a day, every day. Jon has been keeping track of his progress in an Excel spreadsheet. “This is probably the most British thing anyone can do,” he said.
Unsurprisingly, this unusual drinking challenge has fascinated people online: Jon documents his beer-fueled journey on TikTok, where he now has over 80,000 followers and millions of views.
When one follower succinctly asked “But why though,” Jon replied, “Because why not? Someone has to. Someone has to prop up the UK economy.”
We crunched the numbers: the average price of a pint in Sheffield is £3.74 (as of 2020), so Jon will be putting about £7,480 into the local pub economy during his challenge.
Reactions have been mixed, as evidenced by the top two comments on that video: “I would strongly advise you not to mate. It’s really not good,” one person wrote.
“Ignore them mate,” another wrote. “Soldier on. Groundbreaking research.”
Since the beginning of human civilization, men have been trying to out-drink each other and have been awed by impressive feats of alcohol consumption, so it’s no surprise that Jon has become a folk hero to some.
And yet, there’s no denying that 10 pints a day might take a nasty toll on one’s health, and it’s far above the NHS-recommended limit.
“The reaction has been 50/50,” Jon told The Rectangle. “Half are intrigued to see if I can keep up the current rate and the other half are concerned for my liver.”
READ MORE: Man lives on nothing but beer during Lent, loses a ton of weight and raises money for bars
But Jon has brushed off concerns about his health: “On the one hand, you’re essentially killing your liver, and on the other you’re doing something mildly impressive,” he told Vice, adding that he was “too young for hangovers.”
“And you can’t get hungover unless you’re sober anyway,” he explained. Sound logic.
Despite the rightful concerns about his health, Jon has also gotten encouragement, both online and IRL. He told The Rectangle that pubs sometimes give him free pints of beer because they know about the challenge.
He also has a devoted following of fans: “I was at a wedding the other day and some random guy started kissing my shoes,” he told Vice.
Jon is still soldiering on: as of today, he’s on day 192, with 1,950 pints down. He has expressed confidence that he will make his goal, saying the challenge was “easy” and that he hasn’t experienced any liver pain yet.
He says he has plans to drink his 2,000th pint in a pub, who are paying him for the honor, in front of a live audience.
Is Jon a beer hero or a mad man? Share this story and let us know your thoughts. 🍻
