啤 only appears in 啤酒 (píjiǔ, beer). The character was created specifically for this loanword. 啤 represents the 'pi/bi' sound from 'beer,' and 酒 (jiǔ) means 'alcohol.' China is the world's largest beer market by volume.
Left-side mouth radical — pictograph of an open mouth, the indexing component. Used here in a transliteration role: 啤酒 píjiǔ 'beer' borrows the English word, and the mouth radical signals 'spoken / drunk by mouth, foreign syllable.' Same convention sits behind 咖 ka, 啡 fēi, 咖啡 coffee.
Right 卑 supplies the sound — bēi shifts to pí through an aspirated/unaspirated alternation typical in this phonetic family. 卑 originally pictured a hand holding a fan in service, hence 'lowly.' Here the meaning is irrelevant — pure transliteration anchor for the loanword. Same phonetic appears in 碑 stone tablet, 婢 maidservant.
