trio of Swiss businessmen have launched a new drink for gay people called Queer Beer. Michael Hutmacher, 32, came up with the idea with two friends and has now founded a company, Lemonhead, to market it.

He said: "My business partner, who is gay, and I were talking about how to corner the homosexual market and came up with the idea for a drink aimed specifically at gay men and women. "It really was just a crazy idea at first, but we've now come up with a product." Hutmacher, from Zug. added: "Our beer is a humorous attempt to identify with the gay scene and we hope it will help people to feel relaxed with their sexuality and not hide away." And he added despite its provocative name the lager wasn't just aimed at homosexuals but also straight people. Moel Volken, from gay rights organisation Pink Cross, said the beer was an excellent idea. "I'm happy to see that homosexuals are being taken seriously as consumers. I just hope that the beer tastes good," he said.