Beer taster becomes alcoholic

A Brazilian court has ordered a brewing company pay $60,000 to an alcoholic beer taster who knocked back more than a litre-and-a-half of booze each day.

The unidentified employee alleged brewer Ambev did not provide the health measures needed to keep him from developing alcoholism, a labor court in the Rio Grande do Sul state said in a statement on Friday.

The employee said in his lawsuit that for more than a decade he drank between 16 and 25 small glasses of beer during his eight-hour shifts at the company. The employee said he also received a bottle of beer after each shift.

The company alleged the employee already was an alcoholic before becoming a beer taster.

Judge Jose Felipe Ledur said the company still was negligent because an alcoholic should never have been made a beer taster.

Ledur also said the employee's alcohol dependency had worsened in recent years and that even on vacation, the employee felt like drinking the same amount of beer he drank at work