Rain Wiggand, 22, from Collins, Ohio, posted a photo July 4 of him and seven friends in front of an American flag made up of beer cans. "Our gift to America for this great country’s birthday," he wrote. Rain told BuzzFeed News on Thursday that the eight dudes pictured below "did the bulk of the work" to make this flag happen.
2,028 beers and 28 hangovers within a month all in preparation for our Beer Flag. Our gift to America for this great country’s birthday. Brought to you courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue 🇺🇸 Cheers 🍻 https://t.co/rfLxwXqWxH
The flag is made up of Budweiser, Bud Light, and Miller Lite cans, he said.
"Two of us drank every day for a month," he said.
Those two people who "drank every day for a month" are Rain (on top) and Zane. "Zane and I averaged somewhere around 14 beers a night for 28 days straight," Rain said.
Rain estimated that two of them are responsible for drinking roughly 40% of the pictured cans.
"The other 6 pictured drank about 50% of the cans," he said. Adding that, "They were only drinking Thursdays [to] Sundays."
"The last 10% of the cans were what we were able to collect from other friends that we have come over every weekend," Rain said.
"It was a rough month of work for Zane and I," he added.
There were consequences for this mission.
"It was a monthlong hangover that nothing could cure," Zane Liles, 21, told BuzzFeed News on Thursday.
Rain said the task was challenging to juggle with his work as a landscaper.
"It absolutely made work harder. I was so dehydrated and hungover all the time. I started to notice myself not paying attention to what I was doing a lot of the time," he said.
"With that being said, I would absolutely do it all over again. I had one hell of a time making this beer flag."
When asked what inspired this massive beer-drinking quest, Rain said he previously made a smaller beer can flag.
"Two or three years ago I made a smaller one and it was only 442 cans," he said. "I wanted to double the dimensions, and when I did the math for that it was so close to 2,000 cans. So I just added to the length until it was over 2,000 cans."
Here are some reviews of the beer can flag:
2,000 beers to 8 bros and only 28 hangovers? Saturday’s are for the MEN https://t.co/6G7aCLAF56
This is some yeehaw shit 😂 https://t.co/enBOJI0sll
Thank you Brad, Chad, Thad, etc. for your service to our country https://t.co/KqNcdZmegE
While a lot of the response was positive, some people were critical of the beer can flag. When asked about those who are "hating" on it, Zane said that those critics "are not people I’d want to be around."
“How American are you?” Me: https://t.co/ooyXcxFLO4
"I think that the people who are hating on it are people who don’t respect the flag and our country as a whole," he said.
"They are not people I’d want to be around."
"My response to the negative comments about it is simple. Oh well. Not everyone is going to love it," Rain said.
"That’s with everything in life," he continued.
"There’s always going to be someone upset, but that’s okay. As humans, we’re not all going to see things the same way. We’re wired differently. I don’t need everyone to praise this thing. I want the negative responses. It helps me appreciate the positive ones."
Zane also said that the challenge did not ruin beer for him. "I can still drink beer with the best of them," he said.
This is actually extremely impressive... https://t.co/ODwK5L2508
Happy July 5th!
