Pizza. Beer. Pizza 'n' beer. Pizza beer!

It wasn't quite that simple, but home brewers Tom and Athena Seefurth of St. Charles, Ill., say their Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer is "the world's first culinary beer," designed for use in cooking and as a pairing with food.

The couple developed their first batch in 2006, using fresh tomatoes, garlic, oregano and basil in the mash and hops processes. Now about 800 cases a week are manufactured at the Sprecher Brewery in Glendale, Wis., a Milwaukee suburb.

Their beer "is not for putting in the cup holder of your tractor," says Tom Seefurth, nicknamed "Chef" by his vacation pals in Florida.

Pry off the cap of a 16-ounce bottle (sold for $1.99 to $2.49) and the aroma of pizza topping, especially the herbs, comes through. The light-golden brew has a slightly herbal taste, too. Ninety percent of people who try it like it, he reports.

The Seefurths have recipes for Pizza Beer Bread and Pizza Beer Prawns on their Web site, pizzabeer.net. For the past few months, a local 70-seat pizzeria, Michel Angelo's, has been using two to three cases a week to make beer-crust pizza and more to produce a line of frozen pies sold in Illinois stores. "It makes a light, fluffy crust," says the restaurant's chef, Frank McCarron. "We're blowing people away. This is no Pet Rock; it happens to be good!"

Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer is not yet available in Pennsylvania, nor many other states, but people in other states can purchase it through online sources including Top Shelf Wine and Spirits (topshelfwineandspirits.com). The couple have big plans for expansion.

"I get so many inquiries from Pennsylvania," says Mr. Seefurth, who's looking for a distributor here. "We've got plans for a full line of culinary beers," but "We want to be respected as a real beer."