Next generation gene sequencing has radically changed research in the life sciences, in both academic and corporate laboratories. The potential impact on health is tremendous, yet a majority of citizens have little or no understanding of the technological and ethical issues related to its widespread adoption. We designed BeerDeCoded as a pretext to discuss the social and ethical issues related to genomic and metagenomic data with fellow citizens, while advancing general knowledge of the most popular beverage of all. The dataset presented herein contains the targeted metagenomic profile of 39 bottled beers from around the world, based on Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) sequencing. In the spirit of citizen sciences, sample collection and DNA extraction were carried out with the participation of non-scientists. When possible, experiments were performed in the community laboratory of Hackuarium, a not-for-profit organisation that supports unconventional research ideas and promotes the public understanding of science. With BeerDeCoded, we demonstrate that coupling simple laboratory procedures that can be carried out in a non-professional environment, state-of-the-art sequencing technologies and targeted metagenomic analyses can allow detection and identification of the microbial content in commercial beer.