We all know the feeling…
You’re a couple of drinks deep at your local, and in all the haze of boozed-up confidence, you’re convinced that money doesn’t exist and your mates deserve a round on you. That feeling when, while it might be a few dozen stumble-strides away, the trip from bar to table with multiple shouted schooners in-hand seems like a breeze.
But no matter how wide your wingspan or how ambidextrous your finger dunk technique, there’s something written in the fine print of every beer courier since the dawn of barely in bathtubs; spillage is unavoidable and that 25 bucks you just overdrew… it’s a sunk cost.
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As the founder of Instagram page Schooner Carrys, Harry Hunter has seen this movie before. Fielding video submissions of drink deliveries that range from abysmal to downright ingenious (the pyramid stack is an engineer’s wet dream)Harry has borne witness to some of beer’s brightest- and soggiest- moments.
Now with some 73,000 followers to whom beer running oughta be an Olympic sport and with the reopening of pubs in full swing, we caught up with Harry for a chat about the most inventive couriers, the ‘scharry’ eligibility criteria, and the ultimate pub feed.
What is the Schooner Carrys origin story?
I was at the Noosa surf club with a bunch of mates having a bit of a sesh after competing in the Noosa triathlon…Few hours in and the surf club ran out of jugs, couldn’t keep up with the demand. This had us call upon the humble 425ml schooner vessel, the only way of transporting more beers back to the table.
I remember, clear as day, my mate walking up to the bar ordering five schooners, picking them up, and pressing them together…he was mid scharry (schoonercarry). I whipped out my phone to film it. It was then I thought that more people need to see the schoonercarry. So when I got back to Sydney, it was straight to the pub to start filming.
What’s the most impressive carry you’ve seen on your page?
The scharry that first comes to mind was from a bloke in Dubbo who paid $194 dollars for a round of 26 schooners. It was epic, scharrying all 26 from the bar to a high table a couple metres away. I even received the video from 4 other accounts, even they couldn’t believe how many the guy had scharryed (see below).
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What arm, hand or even mouth techniques make for a successful schooner carry?
It’s pretty cool to see a number of techniques used (or ‘techy’s’ as we like to refer to them) from all over the world. [One] techy which has a cult following is the ‘finger scharry,’ where the ‘schoonercarryer’ dunks their fingers into the drink and clamps the glasses together. Extremely useful to comfortably scharry up to 6 schooners, but not a crowd favourite.
I’ve also seen schooners squeezed into people’s belts, pockets, tucked under arms, clenched in people’s mouths, schooners stacked on schooners and balancing on heads. People will find a way.
At this point, you must be somewhat of a beer connoisseur. What’s your personal favourite beer and accompanying pub feed?
To be honest I’m pretty easy with beer, as long as it’s cold and with good company, I’m sold. My old man is a Toohey’s New man so that’s been bred into me. Stone and Wood and Balter XPA’ have recently been getting a run. Stone and Wood and a schnitty, that’ll do me.
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You must field a bunch of submissions. What criteria do you use to decide what makes the final cut?
Yep, heaps of submissions, which is pretty time consuming, but I love it! I filter through all the submissions and save a lot of them, but the ones that make the final cut usually make me laugh and leave me genuinely impressed.
Ever thought of brewing your own brand of beer?
My brothers and I had a crack of brewing a beer years ago, which didn’t go too well. I think I’ll leave the brewing to the experts for now, hopefully one day I can create a schoonercarry beverage for the masses.
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What do you estimate is the total sunk cost of every schooner spillage you’ve witnessed?
I’ve seen some spillage in my time and I don’t think I could put a number on it. It would be close to thousands for sure. It hurts to see submissions of cocktails mainly because they are using a tray and the thought of how much money is about to be sunk hurts me. I don’t think anyone likes to see a beer go to waste, but it does make for some funny content.
What’s so bad about a tray guy?
I’d be lying if I said that I’ve never used a tray. But you just can’t be a tray guy! It’s like going bowling and using the bumpers. Everyone knows it’s there, but do you want to be the one to use it?
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