Throughout the summer, the Beers Made by Walking program led walks in local forests to teach participants about native, edible plants – and inspire beer makers’ creative concoctions based on what they learned. The walks explored places like Seward Park, Discovery Park, and Cougar Mountain, spots where native plants like spruce trees and thimbleberry and Oregon grape thrive.

The resulting beers will be released at an event on October 23 at Naked City Brewing. Program founder Eric Steen hopes these beers will give those who imbibe them a “sense of place” via a drinkable landscape portrait.

While the brewers were not allowed to forage in the city parks visited on the walks, they drew inspiration from the landscape and its native plants and then turned to licensed vendors for commercially-available items. In some cases, they were able to find the same plants seen on the walks; in others, they found similar items. On tap will be nine beers total, seven from the participating Seattle brewers and two brought up from Oregon. Among them:

• Epic Ales: Wild watercress farmhouse blonde

• Naked City: Belgian Saison with rose hips

• Fremont Brewing: Brother Imperial IPA with spruce tips and elderflowers

• Big Al Brewing: Saison with wild berries and flowers (varieties TBD)

• Schilling Cider: Cider conditioned with Red Cedar tips

• Brickyard Brewing: Belgian-style saison with fresh-cut Salal leaves

• Hi-Fi Brewing: Cedar-smoked porter

• Fort George: Spruce Budd Ale

• Laurelwood: Saison with rose hips and elderberries

Ryan McGee of Hi-Fi Brewing says it took him a while to notice the cedar trees lining the trail at Cougar Mountain. “It was kind of funny. We were hiking along, talking about all these edible ferns, and looking intently at plants two to four feet high, and you kind of forget you’re in a forest full of these really tall trees,” he says. McGee wanted to utilize a plant that seems taken for granted and “do something uncommon with it.”

“You occasionally see cedar-aged beers, where a brewer will put the beer in or on cedar for a while to get some wood flavor into the beer,” he says. “And you often see smoked beers, which are made with malt that has been smoked in the same way you would smoke cheese or meat. But you don’t often see a beer made with cedar-smoked malt. So we decided to try that.” Judging by the way Hi-Fi smelled during brewing, McGee predicts a pretty tasty beer.

Schilling Cider’s Chris Passarelli is mimicking the bitter, tart Oregon grape with French juice from traditional apples, giving the cider plenty of tannins.

“After fermenting it to a pleasant dryness, I have a cloudy, sunset gold cider that will be conditioned with Red Cedar tips,” he says. “This will add a bright, zesty evergreen and citrus character to spring up from the dry, fruity foundation.” Of the hike, Passerelli says he was surprised to learn that the native blackberry is easily overtaken by the all-too-common invasive Himalayan variety.

The tasting event at Naked City Brewing will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Entry is free, with beers available for sale by the pint or in samplers. Proceeds will benefit the Friends of the Cedar River Watershed, whose staff helped plan and lead the Seattle walks.