1000 Pints of Guinness at McGinnis in Michigan City

Perusing beer related content on the web today, I ran across an article titled How to survive your first Guinness, which was basically about how to act, order, and drink a Guinness - sorry, a pint - when actually in Ireland. It's apparently an older article, but new to me. Go ahead, read it real quick and then come right back. I'll wait here.

Judging from the comments, some people took it as actual Irish etiquette, while others thought it to just be hilarious satire. To wit, I'm in the latter group, but either way, I found myself recalling a recent visit to McGinnis Pub.

If you've never been, McGinnis Pub is an Irish, well... pub, located at 227 W. 7th St. in Michigan City, IN. Built in 1887, the house the pub was built in features a dining area and bar on the first floor, a party room available for reservations on the second floor, and an outdoor patio that works well in both the warmer and cooler months of the year. Much of the woodwork in the house is original and the walls are full of Irish memorabilia. McGinnis serves excellent food; I recommend the Shepard's Pie. Their taps typically include standards such as Smithwick's, Harp, Bass, Stella Artois, and the aforementioned Guinness. When I was last there, they were also pouring Bell's Two Hearted Ale and Three Floyds Gumballhead. Think similar to Fiddler's Hearth in South Bend.

What I failed to see or be told of in my first and only other visit to McGinnis, and what this post is really about, is McGinnis's Guinness Pint Club. As a friend and I sat at the bar while waiting for the rest of our party, we noticed plaques hanging upon one wall. A few rather large trophies were perched atop one section of the bar. People's names were inscribed on each of these. After letting our curiosity get the best of us and asking, the waitstaff was happy to tell us they were all members in various status of the pub's Guinness Pint Club.

Now, I've heard of other establishments having Guinness Pint Clubs and pint clubs of various other denominations. McGinnis awards name plates and plaques of increasing size for 100 and 250 pints, if I remember correctly, to which I've also seen.

But then there's McGinnis's holy grail.

The trophy for 1000 consumed pints of Guinness. By one individual.

(It should be noted here that these are Imperial pints, the real 20oz size.)

As far as I could tell, there were three such trophies. Two by guys who completed the feat in 2009 after an undetermined amount of time. The third, we were informed by a bartender who was there on the day of completion, was owned by a guy who turned the trick in 2010. It only took him one year.

"One year!" we cried! It was unfathomable that one person drank 1000 pints of Guinness in a single year. We had so many questions: How much money was spent on this endeavor? How many pints did he drink a day? What if he missed a day? What in the world does this person do for a living? Well, we broke down the numbers.

• Pints of Guinness at McGinnis are $4.75 each. 1000 pints comes out to be $4,750.
• We assumed since this person was there frequently, he tipped his waitstaff $1.00 for each drink, bumping the total to $5,750.
• 1000 pints divided by 365 is approximately 2.74 pints a day, every day, for an entire year. (They are open every day of the week. We assumed they are closed on the typical federal holidays, but didn't ask. Also, we went ahead and took the average up to a round 3 per day.)
• Only drink 2 today? You're drinking 4 the next day. Miss an entire day? You're drinking 6 the next day! Or conceivably spreading them out across the rest of the week, I suppose?
• Miss an entire week? Forget about it! There's no way, am I right?

So the question to our dear readers is, of course, do you think given the time, money, effort, and disregarding whether you actually like Guinness or not, that you could join the 1000 Pint Club at McGinnis? Would you be able to do it in only a year? I, for one, do not think I could. Your thoughts in the comments below...