Want to throw back a few pizzas? Try this beer

CHICAGO — For years, Tom Seefurth drank what he called "lawn-mower beer" — mass-produced, canned brew best suited for drinking while mowing the lawn.

Then he tried a small Oregon brewery's dark, rich stout and everything changed. He realized beer could be art.

The real-estate broker and father of two turned part of his garage into a brewery. He added a refrigerator and brewing equipment, hung beer cans from the ceiling, and went to work. He crafted porters. He crafted pale ales.

And last fall, he came up with something he swears will revolutionize the world's favorite 5 p.m. drink: pizza beer.

While there are no pizza chunks in the reddish-brown ale (the biggest misconception Seefurth fights), the brew does include ingredients and an aroma generally associated with marinara sauce: tomatoes, garlic, basil and oregano.

The beer is already on tap at one Aurora, Ill., restaurant as Mamma Mia Pizza Beer, and has been mocked by Jay Leno on national TV and is the hot topic of discussion among home brewers — for better and for worse.

Seefurth plans to incorporate still more food flavors into beers in a movement he calls "culinary brewing."

Salsa beer. Curry beer. Oatmeal-raisin-cookie beer. He has tried them all.

"The pizza beer is not for the Saturday-night bowling alley," said Seefurth, 43. "But it will appeal to a wide range of people if they keep an open mind."

He hopes to strike a deal with a small regional brewery to get the drink on tap in Italian restaurants.

Herbs such as oregano and basil were among the flavors in beer for hundreds of years before today's most common flavor, hops, was added, in part because hops act as a preservative.

But industrywide, spices are being reasserted as prime flavor ingredients.