Exactly, I don't by any means think that this 11 y/o was tricked into drinking beer either! But obviously there is a lack of parental control/supervision. I don't know if the parents were allowing them to drink the beer or if the child decided to drink it on his own.
The kid may have also made up the whole story and there was no beer involved at all.
You have to be careful getting excited about kid stories because they are notorious liars and don't realize the consequences of something like that.