I do wonder if there's an extra insurance companies would have to pay if the insurers were aware that alcohol was provided for free on their premises. I tried to have an alcohol at an event and had to get extra insurance, provide security, had hard limits on amounts, and a strict 1 hour time limit.
The moment some SV-tech hipster beer fan gets killed driving home, there's going to be a big public about face. Or maybe not, we seem to be able to sustain a female-hostile culture in the face of plenty of bad events continually cropping up. Maybe alcohol related deaths would be ignored too... ?
I've had one or two unpleasant encounters with people who truly can't accept that all beer tastes bad to me. One person went so far as to tell me that you can't dislike beer if you like bread because, you know, beer is just liquid bread. I've since learned to just never bring up my distaste for beer except possibly on forums like this. I'm sure there are more of us out there who just keep quiet about it.
Bleh. I like that ice cream idea much better.
I dunno is the "I don't drink" stigma a US thing? The people I know who don't drink in Canada don't seem to have a hard time of it.
Either way I don't see why we can't say to each their own _and_ help those with alcohol issues to get help without judging. Oh and especially call out harassment no matter the reason or cause because no. Too much to ask?
If that is too hard for an organization well then it has some serious room for improvement.
That said, not having beer at work would never be a deal breaker for me.
I'm fine with "to each his own", except... I'm not sure having kegs or company-provided beers in the office is an equal-footing sort of thing. Company-supplied alcohol is a tacit endorsement of that, and seems to foster a strange atmosphere at some companies.
That could cause problems too: http://youtu.be/e5i6BHBuqxE?t=2m44s
(Though in fairness, in the video it's Tofutti, not ice cream.)
I don't understand why companies don't promote an ice cream culture. Have custom flavors available throughout the day, a stocked freezer, etc. Sit back and have a sundae while discussing code problems. Try new toppings/sauces now and then, etc.
I don't drink beer. When I was younger, it was mostly a financial issue. As I'm older, I just don't like the taste. "Oh! But try this one - it's got a bold whatever with a hint of foo aftertaste". I don't care. It's beer. If it tasted so radically different from beer, it would be called something else. It's still beer.
Tech conferences often revolve around a subcontext of beer. "Let's go grab a beer!" Beers provided at open bars. Etc. I get it - it's a social lubricant. But... it's so ingrained in many cultures and subcultures (much like sports) that not participating is an odd signal. With more pushy types, ordering a non-beer gets a weird look and I have to explain myself multiple times. I shouldn't have to.
Ordering food, there's generally no such pushback - even vegans at the table generally don't say anything when I order a chicken sandwich. But order a water or coke when the rest of the table's ordering specialty beers, and 7 times out of 10 there's someone who questions you.
Again... I don't get the beer culture, and would love to see it replaced with nothing, or something else like ice cream.
EDIT: Sometimes people ask me if my non-beer attitude is a religious thing. It's not. I occasionally drink alcohol (wine/spirits) because I like the taste.
EDIT 2: What I was trying to get at above was that promoting a beer culture will necessarily be somewhat exclusionary, and some people may be on the defensive or feel like 'outsiders' at the outset. If you know you're doing that - you only want to hire people with a shared love of beer - that's great. But... that's probably not the point of your business. For pintlabs.com, for example, that is the point of their business (local startup focusing on beer - gentle plug for them)