Why do this?

From an interview, “Climbing Mount Everest is work for Supermen”, The New York Times (18 March 1923):

“Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?”

This question was asked of George Leigh Mallory, who was with both expeditions toward the summit of the world’s highest mountain, in 1921 and 1922. He planned to go again in 1924, and he gave as the reason for persisting in these repeated attempts to reach the top, “Because it’s there.”

In much the same logic as George, I’m attempting this world beer challenge simply because the beers are out there, people in these countries drink them every day and I find the challenge of locating ever harder beers to complete ever more exotic or frozen countries very rewarding.

Beer! The world's most widely consumed and oldest alcoholic beverage. Such is the importance of beer in modern society that beer is the third most popular drink in the world, behind water and tea. As such, beer is produced in many of the world's countries, with little variation on the ingredients used; water, malted barley, hops and yeast. Despite the simplicity of just four ingredients, there are huge variations in the taste of beer.

Whilst it's true that many countries produce many beers, it is a rather more difficult challenge to consume a beer from every country that produces the stuff. The beer must be brewed in the country of origin and not brewed under license overseas.

This challenge started on 6th March 2011. Each country has it's own blog post. You will often see multiple beer entries in each country. This is because either 1) the original beer was so horrible the country deserves a second chance 2) I picked up a very obscure beer and it deserves to be listed 3) I wanted to review a spectrum of beers over the course.

If you have access to a beer from a country that I have not been able to drink yet, drop me a line at william@wkadams.com and we'll sort out a reward in exchange! I live in London, United Kingdom but started this challenge in Sydney, Australia.