Photo by Marcellina

This week just keeps getting better for the Washington-area beer scene. Bill Butcher, the owner of Port City Brewing Company, is in Charlotte, N.C. today, where he will address the Democratic National Convention this evening about the Obama administration’s relationship with the small business community.

Butcher, who founded his Alexandria brewery in 2010, says its startup was helped in large part by a Small Business Administration-backed loan made possible by the 2009 stimulus act. Port City’s success since then—it’s a frequent sight on the tap lines at our favorite local beer bars—helped land the attention of President Obama’s re-election campaign earlier this year when Butcher appeared in a video promoting the successes of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The YouTube clip was apparently a success for Chicago high command, because tonight, Butcher will be addressing delegates in the plum 9 p.m. hour. (He’s scheduled to go on just before California Attorney General Kamala Harris, one of this evening’s headliners.)

“They were looking for regular normal everyday Americans to talk about the president,” Butcher says in a phone interview.

The core economic debate in the race between Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney is boiling down to one over the role of government in fostering businesses and creating jobs. For Butcher, the answer seems pretty clear.

As Butcher was preparing to open Port City, he went bank-hopping in search of a loan to finance the purchase of expensive beer-making equipment. “Starting a brewery is not something many individuals can do without a loan,” he says.

He says he went to 10 banks before one finally agreed to back Port City Brewing. Under the stimulus act, the SBA waived its fees and reduced the bureaucratic barriers between lenders and upstart businesses.

“By bringing the SBA in, it gave the banks security by having an additional guarantor of the loan,” Butcher says. “We could take the money we would have paid in fees and invested in more beer-making equipment.”

That’s the gist of what Butcher will be telling the convention tonight in his two-minute speech. For his business, government was not an impediment. And as far as businesses that get a boost from federal coffers go, Port City Brewing Company is a solid use of taxpayer funds, at least in our beer-loving estimation.

“In starting a business, any entreprenuer is going to take advantage of what’s available to them,” Butcher says. “Government was helpful.”