Not only did Edmonds resident Reid Larson get to name the new organic American Pale Ale created by American Brewing brewmeister Skip Madsen, he got to have the first taste when the keg was tapped at the Edmonds brewery Wednesday afternoon.

Larson won a contest, sponsored by the brewery, to name the 99.2-percent organic beer, which Madsen created for the upcoming North American Organic Brewers Festival June 24-26 in Portland.

According to American Brewing’s Julie Anderson, the contest was announced on Facebook and Twitter, with over 50 entries submitted. “We laughed (and groaned) at several of them,” Anderson wrote on American Brewing’s blog. “A few had us scratching our heads…really? But in the end, one in particular made us laugh, hinted at the organic theme and made us all wonder WHY? Why didn’t we think of something like this ourselves? Hop, Skip & Go Natural…fantastic!”

A computer programmer with no product-naming experience, Larson said he decided to enter after he received an email from American Brewing announcing the contest. In about two minutes, he came up with the name. “The most important thing in a pale ale is the hops, so that’s where the Hop came in,” Larson said. “The second is the skill in brewing it, and you’ve got Skip (Madsen).” As for the Go Natural, Larson remembered “a somewhat obscure college drink called ‘Hop, Skip and Go Naked,'” and it clicked. “Naked is almost the same as Natural and Natural is another word for organic,” he said.

How did the beer taste? “Really good,” he declared. “It has kind of a citrusy flavor, the kind of beer people will enjoy when the weather warms up.”