Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to access government documents are pretty common in Washington. But probably none has been filed over beer until now.

The government has received a FOIA request from a beer aficionado, demanding to know the ingredients in the White House-brewed beer President Barack Obama carries with him on his presidential campaign, Fox News notes.

Named Honey Blonde Ale and Honey Porter, the White House beer is made with equipment purchased by the president and his wife, and uses honey from the First Lady’s White House garden beehives.

Home-brewers have been curious about the beer ever since the president mentioned it during campaign stops. In fact, a group of homebrewers has launched a petition to convince the president to release the recipe on the president’s website.

More than 2,000 people have already signed the online, but that’s well short of the 25,000 signatures usually required to generate a response from the administration.

In his FOIA request, the petitioner says revealing the recipe for the president’s private beer would “contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government.”

This is the second beer-related publicity for the president. Back in 2009, he hosted a White House Garden meeting between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge Police officer James Crowley who arrested Gates at his home while responding to a report of a break-in. The three men shared some beer and the incident was subsequently branded the “beer summit.”

The opinions contained in this column are solely those of the writer.

Want to share your own views on money, politics and the 2012 elections? Drop us a line at letters@investorplace.com and we might reprint your views in our InvestorPolitics blog! Please include your name, city and state of residence. All letters submitted to this address will be considered for publication.