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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Northwest Suds Create Buzz In D.C. Westerners Enjoy Favorite ‘Home Brews’

Scott Sonner Associated Press

It isn’t always easy being a Westerner living on the East Coast.

Atlantic salmon doesn’t taste the same. The summer heat and humidity can be oppressive. And then there’s the beer.

“The first year and a half I was out here, you couldn’t find Redhook anywhere,” Ron Reese said about the Seattle-brewed ale he drinks back home in Auburn, Wash.

Reese, an aide to Oregon Rep. Bob Smith, dragged his girlfriend across town after “The Phantom of the Opera” at the Kennedy Center last week to hoist a few Redhook bitters at the inaugural “Go West Beer Festival” on Capitol Hill.

About 600 transplanted Westerners and their friends turned out to sample a variety of lagers and ales from microbreweries in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and Colorado.

“It sort of brings the taste of Alaska all the way out to the swamps of D.C.,” said Mike Henry, an aide to Alaska Rep. Don Young who helped organize shipment of the suds from as far away as the Midnight Sun Brewing Co. in Anchorage.

After covering costs, they hoped to have raised $1,000 for Hill Staffers for the Hungry and Homeless, a bipartisan charity that contributes to food banks and homeless shelters in the District of Columbia.

“It makes me homesick,” said Ken Lisaius, a Spokane native cradling a Redhook ESB after an especially grueling week s press secretary for Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash.

“They’re finally seeing the light on the East Coast,” he said about the growing number of West Coast labels showing up here. “It’s safe to say that Washington state is still the best beer state in the nation.”

Bragging rights were on the line as amateur critics paid $10 for all they could drink, comparing plastic cups full of Grant’s Scottish Ale from Yakima, TableRock’s Nutmeg Brown Ale from Boise, Pyramid Ale from Seattle and Widmer Brother’s Heferweizen from Portland.

“Washington state’s got good wine but Oregon’s got the best beer,” said Chris Matthews, a Philadelphia native who works on the House Agriculture Committee for Smith, its chairman.

The event was organized by the state societies for each of the five states. The nonprofit groups typically host banquets, golf tournaments and trips to sporting events for Washington, D.C., residents who like to keep in touch with friends from back home.

The Oregon State Society, for example, regularly takes in an NBA game when the Portland Trail Blazers are in town to play the Washington Bullets, and the Washington State Society sponsors a bus trip to catch the Seattle Mariners when they’re visiting Oriole Park at Camden Yards in nearby Baltimore.

Several Western state societies pooled resources for wine tastings in previous years, but this was the first beer fest.

“Alaska always complained about the wine tastings because all they could bring was water. They don’t grow grapes,” said Mark Shonce, president of the Idaho State Society and an aide to Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

Other Alaska breweries represented were Bird Creek Brewery and Glacier Brewing Co., both of Anchorage, Ravensridge of Fairbanks and the Alaskan Brewing Co. of Juneau.

John Creighton, a D.C.-based telecommunications lawyer and president of the Washington State Society who hails from Bellevue, said the event was such a success he expects a second Annual Go West Beer Festival to be held next year.

Tasters went through 20 kegs of beer, including six from Washington state microbreweries and an additional four cases of Rainier - a cheaper, mass produced Seattle beer that lacks name familiarity outside the Northwest but holds a soft spot in the hearts of natives.

Russ Little, Widmer’s marketing manager for the Mid-Atlantic Region, said the fact that the three barrels of Widmer were gone in less than two hours attests to its popularity. But one organizer suggested it was because they were closest to the door and didn’t bring enough.

All 14 cases from Idaho breweries also were gone before the party was supposed to end at midnight, said Mark Snider, press secretary for Idaho Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, who said he familiarized himself with a number of Northwest beers while attending Oregon State University.

“They’re breaking into the cases of Rainier,” Snider said. “That means they are desperate.”