Sure - it's fairly common at startups, especially in urban areas where many or most people aren't driving home at night. If you like beer, it's a nice-enough perk.

Note that there's unwritten etiquette around the consumption of alcohol in the office - don't get sloppy or obnoxious, save it for lunch / the end of the day / Friday afternoon (varies from company to company), use common sense. No one arrives in the morning and helps themselves to a tasty pint during the morning stand-up.

I worked at a startup in Malibu, CA and we had "Tasty Beverages" (a nice selection of beer) every Friday afternoon on the terrace overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Once we grew as a company and "went corporate" we had to sign a sheet pledging not to exceed the legal limit according to an attached DMV chart. As the largest employee in the office (6', 225 lbs), I was able to drink 3 beers, while everyone else was limited to 1-2.

We've always had beer available near the end of a hard day at work, and it seems to be the norm at nearly every agency I've worked at or with.

Frankly, I don't see the fuss. After just a single beer I don't really feel like carrying on with my work. It's nice, but it's not something I'd miss and since people rarely seem to carry on working after a bottle of beer I'd rather just either head home or for the team to head out and have a drink at a pub.

It's more a ploy to make the job seem better than it is to twenty-something developers.

It's not just in tech companies. A few friends of mine that worked on Capitol Hill used to have beer in the congressional office fridge provided by the Chief of Staff.

I've found that companies are more open to Friday beers until someone has an incident on the way home.

But back in the dotcom bubble the startup I was at had beer in the pop machine on Fridays.

Now I work at home and have a beer fridge just outside my home office door.

A friend works at a company that sends around a beer cart at 4pm on Fridays. It seems like sort of a bad idea to provide employees with alcohol, then send them out into rush hour traffic.

I some times look at the career section for startups and alcohol seems to be a common theme. Either kegs or stocked fridges.

I wonder if we will see 420 friendly companies in WA and CO in the near future.

We do on occasions, but only on Fridays after 4 pm and not more than a couple of beers (not an official rule, but everybody pretty much sticks to it) unless its a planned office party.

Not necessarily allowed, but I used to work with IB traders who used to have beer/pizza every other week and being their "IT support", we used to get the leftovers. fun times :)

We have bottled beer and a "home"-brewing kit at work. I think this is fairly common in startups. Obviously, use good judgement and save it for the end of the day.

In my previous employment, alcohol was not allowed at work. In my current job, there is no rule like that but none of them offered beer at work anytime.

same here

Beer is always available in the fridge. It's consumed at a slow pace though, usually at the end of the day by a few people, and not every day.

Yes it is, here in Crowd Interactive (www.crowdint.com) we drink beet at anytime, we have billiard table, xbox's, air hockey and bbq grill.

We have a kegerator and frequently go out to local breweries for lunch.

No one gets "drunk" but it's a nice way to wind down the day.

The IBM lab I interned at had a cricket clubhouse with a full bar!

We have beer and whisky every Friday

We have beer in the fridge.