Men and women jostled for space along the porch encircling the Cady-Lee Mansion in Takoma, D.C., Saturday, turning their backs to the icy fall rain to sample sip after sip of locally brewed beer.
The mansion, located in the picturesque neighborhood of Victorian houses along Eastern Avenue, was the site of the Takoma Foundation's Beer Tasting, an event aimed at raising funds for the ailing nonprofit. The foundation, which provides grants to a variety of local community-improvement projects in spring and fall cycles, was not able to dispense any money this fall due to low donations, organizers said.
"The Takoma Foundation doesn't have an endowment -- we raise money and turn around and give it out as grants right away," said foundation President Kathy Porter, who helped collect $35 donations at the tasting.
By rounding up three more-or-less local brewers and enlisting the support of area beer expert and author Chris O'Brien, the group lured about 70 residents into the rainy weather to sample the Bohemian pilsner brew of the Rockville-based Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant or one of the other bitter-sweet concoctions from Washington, D.C.-based Capitol City Brewing Company.
Franca Brilliant, the foundation's grant committee chair, said the tightened budgets of the foundation's usual financial supporters forced the foundation to cut back on its own grants. The need is greater as well, she said.
"There has been a definite decline [in donations], but the other thing that happened is the demand for grants has gone up so much, and that has just really exacerbated the situation," she said. "Normally, we get 12 grant proposals [each cycle]; this spring we got about 28. ... We weren't able to fund them all."
The foundation has never had to run a fundraiser of any kind during fall before the beer tasting, but the foundation hopes to raise enough money to hold a make-up grant cycle before next spring if the all-volunteer group can put together enough money.
Former Takoma Foundation grants went to such community-building events as the annual Takoma Park Folk Festival. The foundation in the past has also bestowed grants on low-income tax-assistance programs and local parent-teacher associations – the Rolling Terrace PTA received several hundred dollars in the spring cycle to fund its student-book ownership program.
In keeping with Takoma Park's long-standing tradition to be an environmentally friendly nuclear-free zone, all the beer served at the event was 100 percent organic and equally nuclear-free.
"We're 99.9 percent sure no nuclear reactions have taken place in here," joked one taster, holding a beer bottle.
O'Brien -- who recently published a book titled "Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World," about the importance of organic beer brewing -- regaled attendees with his advice on brewing dos and don'ts, particularly as pertains to organic practices.
"The difference between these beers and a Coors Light is these beers have flavor," he joked while explaining how "organic" beers are brewed from barley that has never been subjected to chemical fertilizers or pesticides that erode the quality of the soil over time. "These big industrial companies, they market the beers to be ice cold and fizzy, when really what they're doing is masking the taste."
As for the attendees, it was hard to say whether more were drawn by a desire to support a community-supportive nonprofit or to enjoy a few choice home brews among friends. Larry Moulton, for instance, was sure the Takoma Foundation was a worthy cause, but he could not quite put his finger on what the group does.
"We don't know that much about them except they keep things running in Takoma Park," he said of his and his wife's decision to come to the event. "Our neighbor I think is on the board of the foundation, and he knows his beers."
