In a pleasing St. Patrick's Day coincidence, I happened to run across this doctrinal tidbit in the
Catholic Encyclopedia while doing some research on baptism:
There is a response of Pope Gregory IX to the Archbishop of Trondhjem in Norway where beer (or mead) had been employed for baptism. The pontiff says: "Since according to the Gospel teaching, a man must be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, those are not to be considered validly baptized who have been baptized with beer" (cervisia).