As the toasty summer finally begins its comforting descent into autumn, we’re confronted with a leisure-time question: what to do about the 28 remaining Nats home games? The weather’s getting nicer, but the baseball’s getting nasty. Last night, more than 21,000 enjoyed a 77-degree evening at RFK, but spent it watching the tattered remains of a Nats pitching staff get knocked around the yard in a 9-6 loss. With AAA-level baseball being played at RFK, what gives us a good enough excuse to head over to the ol’ ballyard?

You might be able to guess our Friday answer: beer.

Fortunately, in Wednesday’s paper, the WaPo‘s Greg Kitsock did some legwork for us. Kitsock — the editor of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News and American Brewer Magazine — went to the re-opened RFK and sought out beers that outstrip the standard stadium light beer fare.

Kitsock had some pleasantly surprising findings: Redhook IPA, Widmer Hefeweizen, Kirin Ichiban, and the apparently never-before-seen “Home Run Ale.” That said, local brews are largely absent, especially after the demise of the Foggy Bottom Bar, owing to an apparent disconnect between local brewers and RFK concessionaire Aramark:

“We’ve tried, but have been singularly unsuccessful,” laments Jerry Bailey, president of Old Dominion Brewing in Ashburn. Bailey says he left three phone messages asking his D.C. distributor to push his beers to Aramark, the company that handles concessions at RFK. “We never got an answer back.”

Aramark’s official reply? Fans should leave specific requests with RFK Guest Services at the stadium, which certainly doesn’t sound like the new, fan-friendly RFK the Lerners want. So, readers, you tell us: as you head over to RFK for this weekend’s series with the NL-best New York Mets, what beer would you like to enjoy? What fine ale or stout could effectively pass the time between Soriano at-bats?

Photo by Flickr user epmd.