Speed Drinking
Speed drinking or competitive drinking is the drinking of a small or moderate quantity of beer in the shortest period of time, without an intention of getting heavily intoxicated. Unlike binge drinking, its focus is on competition or the establishment of a record. Speed drinkers typically drink a light beer, such as lager, and they allow it to warm and lose its carbonation in order to shorten the drinking time.
The Guinness World Records (1990 edition, p. 464) listed several records for speed drinking. Among these were:
- Peter G. Dowdeswell (born July 29, 1940) of Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, England, drank 2 litres (3.5 imperial pints; about 66.7 U.S.fluid ounces) in 6 seconds on February 7, 1975.
- Steven Petrosino (born November, 1951) of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, drank 1 litre (33 U.S. fluid ounces) in 1.3 seconds on June 22, 1977, at the Gingerbread Man Pub in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Neither of these records had been defeated when Guinness World Records banned all alcohol-related records from their book in 1991.
Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke held a record for the fastest consumption of "a yard" of beer. He drank 2.5 pints (1.4 litres) in 12 seconds.
Read more about this topic: Drinking Culture
Famous quotes containing the words speed and/or drinking:
“No speed of wind or water rushing by
But you have speed far greater.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,
Dare not indulge in memory’s rapturous pain;
Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
How could I seek the empty world again?”
—Emily Brontë (1818–1848)