header image: house of guinness, netflix
words: aggy kazlauskas
a groupchat on a mission to consume thousands of pints? sign me up
let me set the scene. it’s a wednesday evening and the phone screen, sticky from the sweat dripping off your fingers, suddenly lights up – it’s getting close to eight pm. despite the time, the scorching sun tightens its grip on london, and in that moment, it seems as if there is no escaping the muggy weather and sweltering concrete. yeah, that’s it, dinky. that’s a heatwave, all right.
brighton could help survive the weather, but it’s too late to book the train now. in the same vein, the closest lido will be closed, too. you could technically ask one of your mates if they’d be cool with you taking a dip in their pool but, well, nobody actually owns a pool in london (got you there, though, didn’t i?). without much thought, you realise that a pub garden should do a good enough job at providing a much-needed shelter, which is exactly where my friend meda and i end up – at the black lion in hammersmith.
as soon as we sit down after ordering our tipples, some sort of indie brewery lager for her and a hazy ipa for me, i catch my mate snapping a photo of her pint. “what’s that about, then?” i find myself getting nosy. before i know it, i’m asking to be added to a whatsapp groupchat where people are on a mission to, ahem, drink 10,000 beers apparently.
someday, somewhere, a whatsapp groupchat appeared in the ether – one where communication isn’t as linear as you’d expect. instead of catching up, or making plans to catch up soon, people here exchange photos of the beers they’re indulging in at the moment. a bottle of san miguel is what i’m greeted with after joining the chat, and it’s shared alongside a pretty straightforward caption – “4430 san mig.” simple, effective, and totally in line with the channel’s rules, which don’t ask for much surprisingly: post a picture of only a beer, the cumulative combined total, and the beer name – otherwise you’ll be dishonourably discharged and kicked out of the group; pints, bottles, and cans are allowed, however, shandies or ciders are not; everyone must refrain from having multiple beers in the pictures. so good so far.
it’d be absolutely correct to assume this is that groupchat. after spending a couple of weeks on it, blessed by the grandeur of beers flowing in one after another and sending in a few drinks of my own (mainly cans of jubel in case you were wondering), i had to find out who the mastermind behind it was. lucky for me, finding out didn’t require much investigative work, even if i dm’ed the wrong admin at first.
meet max joseph, a twenty-something-year-old currently travelling the world – and as of recently, an accidental beer connoisseur. “yo how are you? i saw your msg about doing a q&a. i’m so down,” he says in a text. “i’m still in mexico but will be back in ldn mid-july but can also do it over a call if that’s cool with u. i’m easy.” naturally, i offer to do it over whatsapp – it would’ve been rude not to, all things considered.
let’s start with the somewhat obvious question. what inspired you to make the groupchat?
mj: since september i’ve been travelling latin america and along the way i would send my boys back home beer reviews. i’m drinking more beer than usual because i’m in that constant ‘holiday’ mindset. i got to colombia and thought: ‘why not make a beer chat where everyone can send their beers in? i’d met a bunch of class people and it would be a sound way to see where everyone is on their travels or back home.’
what’s your favourite place you’ve been to?
mj: I have to say Mexico, the people have been the most friendly, food is delicious, beer is cheap and great, and they’ve got everything from ruins in the jungle to some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen in my life. Can’t wait to return.
why did you choose whatsapp?
mj: whatsapp is the most used channel by people of all ages. i couldn’t add my dad to the chat if it was on snapchat. however, the most important reason is a group on whatsapp can have up to 1024 members…
nearly 300 people have joined the channel since its launch. how does that number make you feel?
mj: yes, 300 members is a lot, but i must admit i expected more by now. i thought after 6 months we’d have close to 500, but many people leave. regardless, i’m proud and looking forward to hitting 500 and maybe even a 1,000!
the chat’s rules state that everyone must refrain from having multiple beers in a single photo. how come?
mj: at the end of the day, we’re counting beers – why post a photo with 5 beers in it when you could post 5 photos each with a singular beer? We need to get the numbers up, and often I will delete a post with multiple beers in it.
if you could drink only three types of beer for the rest of your life, what would they be?
mj: guinness, toña, franziskaner hefe-weissbier.
what’s the worst pint you’ve had?
mj: got to be a guinness in the world’s highest remote pub in namache bazaar, 3,450m. i hate guinness out of those shitty small cans and the head was nearly as big as everest.
looking ahead, what do you reckon will happen when a picture of pint no. 10,000 lands in the chat?
mj: my girlfriend hana came up with the idea that we have a huge meet up in a pub somewhere in london. i think that would be class. we’d invite everyone from [the] gc of course, it would be so cool to see people who we hung out with even if it was just for 1 pint. that 10,000th pint though, gotta make sure it’s mine. and then what? 1 billion beers is a f*ck ton, so do we continue to 100k? we’ll see.
what’s the best photo that’s been shared so far?
mj: this is the current best photo because it has the highest number of likes at 35. A corona and humpback whale.
what pub are you excited to pop down to when you return from your travels?
mj: It’s got to be Alice House in West Hampstead, got to get those free pints from my mates.
keen to join the club? click the link below, then.
