Beer industry: A mighty force in politics and political contributions.

There might be no greater political compliment than saying a candidate is someone you want to have a beer with. It recently played into one of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most visible campaign stops about two months ago, when she raised a pint to Wisconsin at a brewery in La Crosse. “Hillary Clinton pours a beer – and drinks it,” CNN reported. She and her fellow pols aren’t just communicating to the beer-drinking public, they’re also toasting to powerful business interests and their well-connected lobbyists.

We still drink more milk, bottled water, juice and coffee than beer, but beer is big business in the U.S. Last year, the industry sold 206.7 million barrels of beer – equivalent to more than 2.8 billion cases of 24 12-ounce bottles or cans, according to the National Beer Wholesalers Association. It’s a $106 billion industry, beating out wine and liquor.

A sizable chunk of that money goes back into lobbying, in both Washington and Sacramento, to keep the industry on top, with an interest in influencing laws affecting labeling and distribution, drinking age and mergers, among other issues.

In Washington, the National Beer Wholesalers Association has given more than $2 million in political gifts so far this year, and gave more than $4 million in 2012, the last presidential election year.

Through March of this year, the California Beer and Beverage Distributors spent more than $36,000 on lobbying in California, according to financial reports filed with the Secretary of State.

Some of that cash was spent in the form of small gifts to local politicians, including $1,000 to Luis Alejo – a current assemblyman who’s running for county supervisor, and who has a campaign committee to run for state Senate in 2018. A clean $2,000 went to Alejo’s wife, Watsonville City Councilmember Karina Cervantez Alejo, who is running to replace her husband; $1,300 went to the re-election campaign of state Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel; and $1,500 to state Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, and his nascent campaign for lieutenant governor in 2018.

As craft beer is taking an increasingly significant piece of beer revenue – sales grew by 13 percent last year, now accounting for 12 percent of the total U.S. beer market, while growing rapidly – it has also appeared on the lawmaking agenda.

Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, authored AB 893 to help craft brewers cut through red tape faster. The bill, which took effect Jan. 1, allows the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control to process applications for new product labels electronically, shortening the time it takes for beermakers to get their products to market.