Nunn, Budzinski offer a signature brew in beer contest

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers put politics aside Wednesday to get behind a truly bipartisan goal: brewing beer.

Formed into six brewing teams, each one bipartisan, 12 lawmakers won’t soon threaten Bud Light, Budweiser or Michelob Ultra Pure Gold. But with brews such as This BudZ for You, Coastal Shine and Spirit Mission, the members were hoping to impress the judges enough to snare $75,000 in prize money to support farmers and rural communities.

And draw a few cheers too.

“When you’re born in the Midwest, you start drinking day one, so we’re ready to go,” said Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, who teamed up with Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., on This BudZ for You. “When you’re 21 of course, naturally.”

No prizes for guessing how the two freshmen came up with BudZ. The two did go the extra mile, donning matching black and yellow shirts to advertise their concoction — well, their concoction thanks to the aid of Anheuser-Busch brewmasters, who helped tweak their combination of Illinois hops and Iowa corn.

“I feel pretty solid about this entire thing right now,” Nunn said. “We’re competing against a bunch of basically drinking novices from other parts of the country.”

Budzinski may have a knack for reading the Illinois hops leaves. She predicted a win for their brew, and indeed, she and Nunn tapped the People’s Choice Award, a $15,000 prize that will go to the Rice Foundation to support the rice industry.

“It’s a fun, lighthearted competition that kind of brings us together as Democrats and Republicans, gets us out of just some of the debates within our committee, you know, committee rooms or on the House floor to do something fun together,” Budzinski said.

Reps. David Rouzer, R-N.C., and Rick Larsen, D-Wash., teamed up on Coastal Shine to win the Brew Democracy Cup.

“Well, I’m slightly shocked,” Rouzer said.

Rouzer was pretty explicit with his brewmasters. “I wanted to have a light beer that had a little punch to it, that was clean and crisp to the taste and didn’t leave [an] aftertaste or anything. But the main thing is, when you got through drinking it, you didn’t wish that you hadn’t drunk it.”

As of Wednesday, the judges apparently had no regrets. The $20,000 Brew Democracy Cup prize will go to the Southwest Council of Agribusiness Relief Fund.

The U.S. Military Academy has a long and storied history. That now includes Spirit Mission, a rye-and-spirits combo from Reps. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y. and John James, R-Mich. The two have been friends for over 20 years, dating to when they were classmates at West Point.

“We actually have passed some bills together, but it’s also nice to make beer together,” Ryan said. “So it’s kind of cool to have a real friend in Congress, and in this case, to be in opposite parties and still be able to work together.”

“A spirit mission is a thing that you do at West Point to sort of have fun with and razz the Naval Academy folks. So it’s where you, like, you go steal the goat, or you do something kind of funny, to play a joke and kind of play to the interservice rivalry between Army and Navy,” Ryan said.

They picked up $10,000 for their charity, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives Education Foundation.

Even Florida man, or two of them, joined the party. Reps. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., and Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., featured an orange slice and slight tang in their liquid homage, Florida Man, to the Sunshine State.

“I don’t know the nutritional content of it. I don’t know if you’re getting daily vitamin C, but hey, there’s an orange on it,” Bean said. And $10,000 for the National Sorghum Foundation.

Three Bears IPA came from Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., drawing inspiration from their state flags and winning $10,000 for Farm Rescue, a nonprofit that helps farmers get their crops in and harvested if injury or illness strikes.

And just in case it comes up at your bar’s trivia night: “The state of Missouri has two bears on their flag; California has one bear on our flag. So we came together — spirit of bipartisanship — and it’s three bears,” Padilla said.

Reps. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and Andrea Salinas, D-Ore., dubbed their brew Yak Attack that featured guava, mango and citrus. Their charity, the National Association of Wheat Growers Foundation, was awarded $10,000.

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