Members of the Lexington community gathered to watch and participate in Mirror Twin Brewing’s second annual Pizza Eating Contest on Saturday, Jan. 27. 

For $10, participants received a beer and as much pizza as they could eat in eight minutes. 

“As a brewery, we are always trying to think of fun ways to bring people in and kinda get the community more involved in the business and we found that these little competitions are fun for people,” Co-Owner Derek DeFranco said. 

The gathering included participants and many spectators who videoed, cheered on their favorite contestants and ate some of their own pizza while watching. 

DeFranco said that he decided this would be a good way to get community members out to socialize and hang out with friends if they are participating in “Dry January”’ as it comes to a close.

Dry January began at the start of 2012 as an initiative by Alcohol Concern to inspire conversations and behavior changes surrounding alcohol consumption, according to the National Library of Medicine’s website.

“The exact point of a brewery is to bring people out and get people together and we figured there are ways to do that, other than just around a beer,” DeFranco said. “This showcases pizza.”

Michael Collins, a Lexington native, said he saw the sign for the event while he was at the brewery a couple of weeks ago.

“We were like ‘Well it’s $10 and that’s how much a normal pizza is so might as well come for the 10-minute pizza buffet that’s in a couple weeks,’” Collins said. 

In the past couple of years, Collins said he has come to Mirror Twin Brewing “five to 10 times.” 

He said he has always wanted to be a part of an event like this but has never had the opportunity to do so before Saturday. 

After eight minutes, the winner was determined. The winner, who was identified by the judge as Cameron Coulter, ate one and a half boxes of pizza in the allotted time. 

“That was really difficult, I think that I had the first whole pizza down in about four minutes and then it took me a whole other four minutes to have the other half,” Coulter said. 

The pizza-eating contest not only tested participants’ limits but also created a space for DeFranco to display his product. 

“This was a fun way to kinda showcase the pizza as well as bring people in to have some beers and to enjoy themselves,” DeFranco said.