Neal

Controversy is already brewing about President Barack Obama’s scheduled beer summit today with Harvard professor Louis Henry Gates and the police officer that arrested him earlier this month.

The issue?

Obama’s choice of beverage, the longtime St. Louis export, Bud Light.

Budweiser, of course, is no longer an American brand, prompting one lawmaker to suggest an alternative to the president.

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, wrote a letter to the president on Wednesday pointing out the acquisition last year of Anheuser-Busch by InBev, a Belgium firm.

Neal offered Obama assistance in obtaining some suds from the Boston-based Sam Adams brewery, or other smaller outfits in the Bay State.

“We both share a common interest in fostering the success of American-headquartered companies,” Neal wrote.

Still, even if Obama opts for a different brand, foreign brewers will be represented at the White House meeting.

As pointed out by Post-Dispatch business scribe Jeremiah McWilliams in our beer industry blog, Lager Heads, Gates will drink either Red Stripe, a Jamaican beer, or Beck’s, which is brewed by InBev.

Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley has opted for Blue Moon, brewed by Molson Coors, which was created by the merger of brewing giants based in Colorado and Montreal.