A Melbourne man has brought another Guinness World Record to Australia, setting a new benchmark for the most pubs patronised in 24 hours.
Guinness World Records began as a promotional tactic for Guinness Brewery, in the 1950s, aiming to be the definitive answer to all the pub arguments about who was “the fastest” or what was “the biggest” whatever.
The renowned book came to include many records involving pubs, such as ‘Most different varieties of beer on tap’ (Raleigh Beer Garden, 2015, 369 draught beers), and ‘Largest beer festival with the most beer consumption’ – going to the 2011 Oktoberfest, downing a frothy 7.5 million litres.
A record for the ‘Most pubs visited in 24 hours’ was first set in October 2021, seeing Matt Ellis attend 51 pubs in England. But Ellis’ reign did not last long.
In February of this year Gareth Murphy went to 56 pubs in the time, in Wales. This was confirmed in June but in September, England took it back when Nathan Crimp reportedly made it to 67 different pubs.
South African-born Melburnian Heinrich de Villiers set out to break the individual record for Melbourne, in support of the local pub and bar scene, which had been so impacted during the COVID pandemic.
He first applied to challenge the record in November 2021, a month after it was established, while the city was just emerging out of lockdown.
The rules say the locations must be establishments licensed to sell alcoholic beverages on the premises, and at least 125mL of a drink had to be purchased and consumed at each place visited.
De Villiers did his research on Melbourne venues, to plan an efficient route, and the 23-year-old headed out with younger brother Ruald de Villiers and mate Wessel Burger in tow, equipped with GPS tracking and everything they needed as evidence for the attempt.
The group set off at a leisurely 5pm on Thursday, 10 February and traversed inner-city Melbourne establishments until midnight before retiring, then continued from midday to 5pm the next day. While closing off at the 24-hour deadline, they actually did the rounds in two shifts totalling only 12 hours.
They had chosen to do the challenge dressed in matching watermelon-motif shorts, shirt and bucket hat, and were in fact shooed away by one venue, possibly thinking they were a buck’s party or after reward for promotion.
But they nonetheless claimed the record, attending no less than 78 public houses in the allotted time, where they mostly drank beer. Some of the venues visited were: Arbory Afloat and Petanque Social on the Yarra, Lucky Coq on Chapel Street, and Cherry Bar and Heartbreaker in the CBD.
De Villiers says the hardest part of the exercise was the unpredictability, where places might be closed or too busy, which was ultimately what governed the final tally, as they “simply ran out of time”.
He told Broadsheet the most memorable stop on the journey was cellar bar State of Grace on King St, in part due to its secret downstairs bar, which is only revealed behind a bookshelf when one of the books is pulled, but particularly as it was the last stop and where they rightfully celebrated their new Record.
Describing the feeling at the end, de Villiers said he was simply “Very bloody tired”.
