St. Louis-area Rep. Ann Wagner was feeling pressure Wednesday night at the third annual Anheuser-Busch Brew Across America Beer Festival where she was competing with nine other lawmakers in a brewing competition.
Since it was sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, and she was from the home area of the Busch family and Budweiser’s headquarters, she knew winning the “Brew Democracy Cup” was locally very important.
“It’s personal,” said the Republican, before taking a sip of her “Big House Brew” at the taste-off contest staged at Capitol Hill’s Eastern Market.
But her beer, flavored with local honey, beechwood chips, and chrysanthemums from the ancestral Busch family home, was apparently never in doubt of winning and in the end the 11 judges declared her the champ, giving the Bud headquarters brewery in St. Louis two wins in three years.
Handed the cup, she said, “It’s heavier than the Stanley Cup,” which was won by the St. Louis Blues this year.
This was the third year that 10 House and Senate members were linked up with Anheuser-Busch breweries and craft breweries owned by Budweiser to make a special beer.
Last year, Democratic Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley was the winner, teaming with Goose Island Beer Company to make “Scout’s Cerveza.” In 2017, Republican Missouri Rep. Jason Smith and the St. Louis Anheuser-Busch brew team won with “Gateway IPA.”
“Beer is bipartisan, and what better way to bring members of Congress together than over a friendly brewing competition?” said Cesar Vargas of Anheuser-Busch.
Friendly, maybe, but two Texas Republicans in the fight, Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Sen. Ted Cruz, launched a Twitter war over their brews, the appropriately named “One-Eye IPA,” from Crenshaw and Karbach Brewing Company and “Ale-Vengers,” made at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Houston and named by Cruz’s daughter who likes the Avengers movies.
Crenshaw, who lost his right eye while serving in Afghanistan, tweeted, “Hey @SenTedCruz See ya at @AnheuserBusch’s #BrewDemocracy beer festival tonight. Your brew looks great! Looks a little like…”
Weird… I heard your IPA has a peculiar taste to it.
The bitter taste of defeat. https://t.co/crKeWtuOea
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 18, 2019
Cruz responded, “Weird… I heard your IPA has a peculiar taste to it. The bitter taste of defeat.”
But it was Crenshaw who won the “People’s Choice” award, by a Texas mile. “The people have spoken! VICTORY. And cheers to Houston’s @KarbachBrewing for partnering with us to make an awesome IPA,” he tweeted.
