I’m a massive football fan. I played league football for a significant number of years before my legs told me to wise up. Quite a few who played with me over those years and saw me hit the side netting on a regular basis may well say my legs should have spoken up sooner. However, not to be deterred, I still play charity eleven-a-side games and weekly five-a-side whenever I can. I might even get it right some day. I support my country, an English Premier League team and a Scottish Premiership side. I love football, so it’s no surprise that I love the World Cup. Let’s not get into the politics of what went right or wrong at the recent event, I enjoy the much anticipated quadrennial gathering of teams from across the globe – a mix of countries expected to be there and countries making their World Cup debut. A competition that can pair giants against minnows – Germany v Curaçao or Argentina v Cape Verde.

So while watching during the tournament’s opening ceremony last month I had an idea – how many beverages can I have from the 48 countries participating in the World Cup? Or more vaguely, can I have at least one from a fair few countries? As I’d just decided on the pointless challenge last minute, online orders would be ruled out – and anyway, that’s cheating isn’t it? All my purchases would be be in pubs, off licenses, supermarkets, anywhere that I can walk into.

Personal challenge set, I also didn’t want to be spending much. Yes I could have spent £14.95 on an Australian imperial stout but a nasty can of Foster’s lager at a quid would also do the job (I’m all too aware it’s not brewed in Oz before you start on me). I never said this challenge was about quality by the way.

And so the silliness began with me raiding the beer fridge to see what countries can be ticked off before I visited the shops. Easily done in one go were Scotland and England via a Newbarns/Siren collaboration radler followed by a cheap and available alcohol-free IPA from the Netherlands and a Czech-based Bud Lime Zero, both purchased in my local Home Bargains store.

Thankfully the quality improved with an always-steady Belgian Duvel (from Tesco) and an All Day IPA from Founders in USA (Sipster in Newtownabbey). Tesco was the store where the quality dipped again with a very nasty Mexican Modelo a slightly better Asahi from Japan and Turkish Efes.

Taking a walk into Belfast city centre, I popped into a few World Food shops near Botanic and was cock-a-hoop to find beverages from South Korea (energy drink), Iraq (grape juice), Iran (strawberry zero beer), Egypt (fruit smoothie), Algeria (lemonade), Saudi Arabia (iced coffee), Jordan (energy drink) and a Brazilian soft drink! Phew, what a haul!

Feeling quite chuffed with myself after that, it’s back to Sainsbury’s with a Spanish Rosa Blanca lager, Rekorderlig cider from Sweden, Old Mout cider from New Zealand, Stiegl radler from Austria and Schöfferhofer radler from Germany.

A wee 24 hour trip to Manchester saw me pick up a French cider by Galipette in the fantastic Cafe Beermoth – please make sure to call in if you’re in the city. Back home, it’s off to Asda Antrim and into the basket go an IPA by Lervig of Norway and a Double IPA from Croatia‘s The Garden Brewery. The numbers are adding up, where are we now? 25. Excellent.

A look into a local Wineflair brought nothing but an embarrassing purchase of the aforementioned Foster’s – we’ll say no more about that. Ha, I don’t care what you think, That had Australia ticked off. Canada came in the way of a bottle of Moosehead Lager via Wine Company at Abbots Cross, followed by an absolute pain to try and source Argentina‘s Quilmes. I was 100% wrong when I was 100% certain some of my local supermarkets stocked them. Bottles were finally located at Madigans Court petrol station and off licence on the Antrim Road in Belfast – that was a lot more work than I anticipated.

A week’s holiday in the Algarve followed, so a Portugal tick was easy. Alongside the country’s draught macro lagers Sagres, Super Bock, Cristal or Coruja IPA – bottles from microbreweries Musa, Nortada and Marafada were purchased in a local Intermarche supermarket and the smaller bottle shop Soares. A quick trip into a Spar in Albufeira brought a couple of unexpected ticks (and a smile) – a can of Emdbräu Shandy from Switzerland and a ginger ale from South Africa. Bosh! That’ll do nicely.

At this point and arriving back home, I had expected the ’31 countries ticked and a complete waste of time’ to come to an end until I spotted a Uruguayan bottle of wine in Marks and Spencer. Ha, this waste of time is the joy that keeps on giving. 32 ticks from a possible 48 will do very nicely.

That’s the numbers done but how did they taste? Anything outstandingly great or bad? Well, a few reliables didn’t let me down cos they’re, um, reliable. Duvel, Founders All Day IPA and Lervig’s Tasty Juice IPA are the best on the list. Some pleasant surprises, namely Schöfferhofer pineapple radler and the Stiegl grapefruit radler. The widely available ciders from Rekorderlig and Old Mout are far too sweet. Cristal is the best of the draught Portugese macro lagers. Portugal also brews some tasty micro IPAs. Iraqi Traubi grape juice is delicious, not unlike Vimto. I’m not a fan of cans of Saudi Arabian iced coffee. Asahi and Efes are poor quality lagers. They’re both slightly better than Foster’s of course but, aye caramba, the worst lager by a Mexican mile is Modelo. I’d have loved to have found something from Curaçao and Cape Verde but alas it wasn’t to be – Blue Curaçao comes from the Netherlands if you weren’t aware. That was a new fact for me too.

Like I said at the start, the challenge was just a bit of stupid fun which made me focus the mind on where to find something a bit different, thank goodness for Belfast’s world food shops. So, what’s the most obscure country from which you’ve had a beer from your local pub or off licence?