Meet the man trying to drink 2,000 pints in 2023
The sort of challenge even Hercules would turn down
What’s your resolution for 2023? Maybe it’s to exercise more? To read regularly? Take up a language?
Whatever your goal this year, I know what it’s probably not: drinking 2,000 pints — because that’s what Jon May is up to.
I first encountered May on TikTok in the middle of April. At this point, he was on day 15 of the challenge, and posted a video helpfully describing what he’s up to:
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For context, 2,000 pints in a year is a lot. That’s 1,136 litres of beer. To drink that much in 365 days, you need to average 5.48 pints a day. That works out at 166.7 pints a month.
That, friends, is a lot of pints. On one hand, it’s impressive. And on the other? A bit worrying.
I wanted to find out more, so I got in touch with May, a 25-year-old from Sheffield.
He tells me he decided to drink 2,000 pints in a year after seeing another challenge on TikTok where someone said they were going to drink a thousand.
“After doing the maths I thought I could easily double that — especially drinking on Friday and Saturdays,” he says.
Brimming with confidence, May told me he “honestly [doesn’t] think this challenge is that difficult.”
Some of us are born to shoot for the stars, I guess.
Watching his TikTok account, it’s clear that the challenge has struck a nerve. A number of May’s videos have almost a million views and, at the time of writing, he has 14.4k followers on the platform.
I asked him whether he’s benefitted from this attention.
“[I’ve been given] a few free pints in a pub I go in because they know I’m doing this challenge,” he tells me. “I’ve also got to see a lot of new pubs, so seeing different bits of [Guildford] has been quite nice.”
While the response in the real world has been broadly positive, things are different online.
“The reaction has been 50/50,” May says, “half are intrigued to see if I can keep up the current rate and the other half are concerned for my liver.”
To get serious for a moment, although the concept of drinking 2,000 pints in a year is funny in concept, the reality is different. It comes with serious health risks.
I spoke with a doctor friend about this level of alcohol consumption.
He tells me that “your overall risk of death from any cause rises proportionally based on chronic intake above the recommended maximum intake of alcohol (14 units a week).”
This level of consumption has a range of potential negatives, ranging from “liver disease” to “Wernicke's encephalopathy” — among a gamut of other illnesses.
“This isn’t something to fetishise,” he tells me.
When I brought this up with May, he seemed cognisant of the risk.
“I’m talking to a friend who is an alcohol advisor for the NHS and if it gets out of control I will take a break,” May says. “Same goes for the health risks, I’ve got a blood test later this month to see if liver is all good.”
At the time of writing, he’s on day 51 of the challenge, putting him on 380 pints so far, averaging 7.4 per day. The goal, May tells me, is to finish around November.
“I feel alright drinking everyday, but I do think I’ll have a dry month when I finish the 2,000th,” May tells me. “I’m getting a bit sick of pints already.”
If you’re struggling with alcohol, help is available. Visit the NIH portal if you’re in the US, or the NHS site if you live in the UK.