The Absurdly Fast World Record Time For Chugging A Liter Of Beer Hasn't Been Beat Since 1977
The Guinness Book of World Records got its start in the 1950s because of a disagreement over drinks. The managing director of the Guinness brewery found himself arguing over what was the fastest game bird in Europe, and none of the involved parties were able to find an answer in the available reference books. To put an end to such barroom disputes, they put together the first edition of what was then called the "Guinness Book of Records." But, as soon as you start putting down records like that, you invite others to break them. Given that this book itself came from a brewery, it should be no surprise that beer drinking featured heavily, at least at one time.
There are several alcohol and beer-related records that have been a part of the Guinness World Records over the years, but rarely anymore does any record stand for 50 years, as we are quickly approaching this particular feat. Back in June 1977, a man by the name of Steven Petrosino drank an entire liter of beer in just 1.3 seconds at the Gingerbread Man in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
When it comes to world records, it is often a bit difficult to understand the exact magnitude of an achievement. For anyone who has ever tried to chug even a 16-ounce pint of beer, there is likely some awareness of both how long it took and how much more difficult it would be to more than double that volume to the 33.8 ounces in a liter. But it all comes into perspective when you see that the previous record was 2.3 seconds, or about 77% longer.
Guinness World Records has changed its direction over the years
Of all the silly challenges out there, beer-chugging is undoubtedly on the more popular side of the spectrum. So, if that one was ever going to be beaten, it likely would have happened by now. But there is another reason that this one might stand: Guinness World Records has stopped monitoring a wide variety of categories over the years to discourage potentially harmful behavior.
Once upon a time, the book featured records like the most wine and beer consumed in an hour, with truly staggering numbers attached to them. The first edition, for example, had the records at 24 pints of beer in 52 minutes and 40 pints of wine in 59 minutes — both of which seem nearly impossible. Then again, Andre the Giant was said to have set a personal record when he consumed 156 beers in a single sitting. But regardless of how extreme these records were, the simple tracking and promotion of them is enough to encourage others to push further into pursuits that are certainly not good for anyone's health or happiness.
To remove itself from the game of encouraging problem behaviors, many of the categories that could be categorized as "gluttonous" — including both food and alcohol-related endeavors — were removed from the Guinness Book of World Records. It's a good thing too, as by the 1970 edition, the record number of pints consumed in an hour had already risen to 36, a 50% increase from the original tally.
Other records to consider attempting instead of chugging liters of beer
Given that Guinness no longer monitors the fastest beer chug — or other records that encourage individuals to engage in heavy drinking — if you are dead-set on getting your name into that book, you will need to take a different angle. While those sorts of records are no longer part of the game, the organization does still include food-and-drink-related categories. The trick is, instead of focusing on how much one can ingest or imbibe in total, it is limited to a very small window of time. For example, how much ice cream a person can eat in 30 seconds.
Right now, the Guinness Record for the fastest coffee chug stands at 2.81 seconds. That's pretty fast, but we're only talking about one cup of coffee here. If Petrosino could knock back a whole liter of beer in 1.3 seconds, there's clearly some room for improvement in this coffee chug — just don't try it with the world's largest cup of coffee, which measured in the thousands of gallons.
If the beer side of record-setting is important to you, though, you could always try taking a smaller role in the picture and simply attend Oktoberfest in Munich. There, the record for total beer consumption festival-wide stands at about 7.5 million liters. It won't be your name and photo on the record, but you'll still know that you were part of it. Petrosino's record for putting away a liter of beer is a truly remarkable one, but it is also one that we are all better off letting stand.