Yep...free beer...always is, but it is usually out of the fridge commercial stuff, and the shots are always free as well as the Booze, with that being said, you are expected to BYOB, we just top you up if you run out. There is usually 5 or 6 dozen commercial beer in the fridge, and there is another 9 gallons of homebrew on tap this year....woohoo.
And the Beers you are referring to are "Blue Star" and Black Horse....There was probably some Dominion Ale and India Beer if you looked hard enough.
Last years Xmas party, we had 6 dozen beer in the fridge when the party started, and 9 dozen when the party was over, so for new years we had a small get together with free booze.