Pizza beer and beer crust pizza? Try it, you may like it

Pizza and beer go together like cake and ice cream, warm rolls and butter, strawberries and cream.

But two local businesses are taking the combination to a new level.

Frank McCarron of Michaelangelo's Pizza in Campton Hills will be giving out free samples of his beer crust pizza from 6 to 8 p.m. today in the parking lot of Parkside Liquors, 320 W. Main St. (Route 64) in St. Charles.

Not only is McCarron's beer crust pizza made with beer, it is made with Mamma Mia pizza beer brewed by Tom and Athena Seefurth of Campton Township.

"Tom walked into my restaurant one day and asked if I wanted to use his pizza beer in my pizza crust," McCarron said. "Two hours later, I had a great product. A lot of restaurants use beer in their pizza crust. it enhances the flavor. But nobody else uses pizza beer in their crust."

"Our pizza beer is brewed with basil, oregano, garlic and tomato," said Tom Seefurth, a real estate broker who began brewing beer in his garage about a year ago.

"It's an interesting beverage," he said. "When we entered competitions, people started calling it pizza beer and the name stuck. We're not a big business. We're two people working out of a garage, and it's hard work. But the dream is coming true."

Seefurth will be giving out free samples of his pizza beer, which he says is available in about 200 outlets in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.

And there's more to the pizza and beer partnership.

McCarron will be preparing his frozen beer pizza, which he will barbecue in a 400-pound, ceramic smoker/grill known as "the green egg." He'll baste the pizzas with the same pizza beer found in the crust.

Bring a taste for the unusual, and your ID. Not only for the beer but for the pizza.

"We don't know how much of the alcohol will be left after the pizza is basted and smoked," McCarron said.