Continuing #WGDB’s coverage of the beer business, craft brewers from across the country met with 11 Senate Democrats this week, including Mark Begich of Alaska and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

“Wisconsin’s economy has been built on making things: paper, engines, tools, ships — and, yes, cheese, brats and beer,” Baldwin said. “Brewers have been at the center of Wisconsin’s culture since our beginning.”

The attendees included representatives from places all over the country, from Sprecher Brewing Co. in Wisconsin to Stone Brewing Co. in California to Matt Brewing Co. in upstate New York.

The meeting came during American Craft Beer Week, and it followed a push by 18 senators to reduce excise taxes on smaller brewers.

Begich is the chairman of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, which hosted the meeting. Begich also posted a video on YouTube with Ben Millstein, a brewer at Kodiak Island Brewing Co. in Alaska.

“I’m proud to sponsor The Small BREW Act and pleased to welcome Ben to the Senate because Alaskans are proud of their local small breweries. I look forward to visiting Ben in Kodiak during Crabfest. We should be doing all we can to help them hop ahead like other small businesses,” Begich said in his own statement.

The video, via Begich’s office, appears below: