Sorry, I should have explained more with my original post.
Brumation is a time is limited activity in cold/cool temps. For some snakes that is near freezing for others it is not near that cold. Brumation is a time when no food is eaten. For some snakes a cool down (brumation) for a short period of time will jump start their eating again. I have two non-eaters in my fridge right now. I'm hoping a month in there will get them eating again. It's very important that a snake going into brumation has not eaten for at least 2 weeks. Food in the gut will rot and kill the snake.
A small container with a water dish works fine. I brumate my snakes at 49-52 degrees in the fridge I use for my worms. Some people brumate in a cold crawl space or closet that gets cold. Care must be taken that the temps aren't to cold.
I don't have a concrete answer on the beer issue but washing them off might help as the smell might cause a problem. Once you have them, switch them over to vegetable matter though.
I hope this helps.