"Is someone bringing this woman a beer or what?"

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____ The antsy customer was the president of the United States, Barack Obama, and the woman in apparent need was the president of a brewery, Deb Carey, who knows a few things about delivering suds.

Carey, co-founder with her husband, Dan, of New Glarus Brewing, not only swapped her own beer for half a six-pack of the president's home brew during a meeting at the White House, she made some economic points on behalf of small businesses, sat across from Obama and got a kiss on the cheek from Vice President Joe Biden.

Carey was invited along with 15 other successful small business owners to meet with the White House Business Council. It was her fourth such meeting — "they have not all been happy meetings," she noted — but the first time Obama and Biden were present in the Roosevelt Room.

Carey, who was wearing a "Brewers For Obama" pin (a reference to the ale and porter beers brewed in the White House, and the political support that brought), brought along two champagne-sized bottles of New Glarus Brewery's new Serendipity apple-cherry-cranberry beer as a gift.

(no actual beer was consumed during the meeting)

read more: : http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/state-and-regional/new-glarus-brewing-president-meets-shares-beer-with-obama/article_b6a88344-3a33-11e2-ac6b-0019bb2963f4.html



I got beer from the White House!" says thrilled Wisconsin brewery owner after closed-press economic discussion...

After President Obama had a closed-press meeting with about fifteen small business owners on Tuesday to discuss the impact of the fiscal cliff, his guests left the West Wing carrying gift bags embossed with the Presidential seal. Deborah Carey, co-founder of Wisconsin's New Glarus Brewing Co., was pretty excited to discover that her bag contained bottles of the President's special White House homebrewed beer.

"I got beer!" Carey exclaimed to reporters as she left the meeting, Politico reported. "I got beer from the White House!"

read more: http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/2012/11/foam-fiscal-cliff-president-obama-gifts.html#more



“I was really shocked,” Carey said of the audience with the president in the White House. “There’s a lot of lobbyists in Washington. (Obama and his administration) certainly don’t need to be talking to the little people and seeing what we think.”

Carey said she was thrilled to have a seat at the table.

“It’s very encouraging for small businesses that we have an administration that is willing and actively listening to us,” Carey told me Wednesday, speaking on the phone from New Glarus.

Carey said the small business owners present Tuesday were asked what changes they’d like to see to help their businesses. She told the president more needs to be done to boost the pool of skilled trades workers. Her business has struggled for several years to find qualified workers, such as welders and workers who can maintain beer tanks and pumps.

“It was really interesting because the president was a very, very active listener,” Carey said. “He gave most of the answers. It wasn’t like he passed it off to somebody else. He was genuinely interested.”


read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/blog/2012/11/new-glarus-carey-talked-fiscal-cliff.html?page=all


The White House released this photo of Carey shaking hands with the President in the Roosevelt Room

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