Pubdate: Wed, 18 Mar 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Aaron C. Davis

NO POT IN THIS BEER, JUST A HINT OF THE CITY'S LACK OF CLOUT IN CONGRESS

First, a disclaimer: There is no marijuana in the beer. That's what 
they said. Cannabis and hops are just a lot alike. It only smells 
like pot. And it might taste a little like it, too.

So if that's what you like - a dank, resinous pint - or if you're 
willing at least to try it, this could be your season at the 
District's DC Brau Brewing Co.

Starting Tuesday - St. Patrick's Day - the brewery began tapping 
green-decorated kegs of its new seasonal India pale ale. The beer is 
dubbed "Smells Like Freedom," in what must be one of the most unusual 
protests in the history of the District's protracted fight for full 
voting rights.

The aromatic brew is the latest in a series of imaginative objections 
since House Republicans attempted to block a voter-approved ballot 
measure, Initiative 71, to legalize marijuana for recreational use in 
the capital.

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) pressed forward with implementing the 
ballot measure last month over threats of jail time by congressional 
Republicans. Possession, sharing and home cultivation of marijuana is 
now legal in the District. But Congress has blocked legal sales or 
purchases of pot.

The conflict has spurred sitins, marches and, as late as Tuesday, a 
band of pro-marijuana advocates dressed up in Colonial garb who 
barged into the Capitol Hill office of House Oversight Committee 
Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a leading opponent of legalization 
in the District. The protesters offered a glass peace pipe of sorts. 
Chaffetz's staffers declined.

Brewing a marijuana protest beer, however, was far less spontaneous. 
It's been fermenting since last fall, said Brandon Skall, chief 
executive and cofounder of DC Brau.

The company and Longmont, Colo.-based Oskar Blues Brewery, both of 
which can their beer rather than bottling it, had for more than a 
year been looking for a reason to team up on a brewing project.

In e-mails last fall, Skall laid out the case for doing a beer 
together around D.C.'s legalization effort and the continued plight 
of the nearly 660,000 D.C. residents who have almost no voting rights 
in Congress.

Oskar executives were sold, and brewers there took to their lab, 
Skall said. They found three experimental hops that, when combined, 
produced a distinctly marijuana-like aroma.

"The experimental hops were definitely unique," said DC Brau brewer 
Christopher Graham. "Some were over the top with melon. Some had a 
lot of berry notes. But all had that undertone of piney, resinous, 
dank quality that someone would expect from a nugget" of marijuana, he said.

For Skall, the issue is more about the tax bill he said he pays every 
year to the District while feeling like a second-class citizen.

"I' ll tell you straight up, I don't smoke pot," Skall said, "but I 
believe 100 percent in people's freedom to do so. I think that if we 
didn't have people standing for the end of prohibition . . . this 
business would not be here today."

But at its root, he said, the problem is that the District could only 
partially legalize marijuana, instead of fully like Colorado, which 
designated much of the revenue from taxes on pot to go to schools.

"Something needs to change with D.C. - it's ridiculous," Skall said. 
"I live here. I'm about to have a second child here. We're sending 
our children to school in Washington, D.C. - there's no reason we 
shouldn't be able to benefit the same way they do in Colorado.

"You walk into a D.C. public school, you see empty bookshelves, you 
seen underfunding, you see teachers going out and spending their 
[own] money to buy kids supplies. We should be able to benefit the 
same way that other states do."

The unveiling of the beer was scheduled for Tuesday night at Meridian 
Pint in the District's Columbia Heights neighborhood, where 
Initiative 71 supporters gathered on election night last year to 
celebrate the legalization vote.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom