Forget “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” Pub music in these parts is going upscale.

Silver City Brewery is hosting a contest to find a song that can be used as the Silver City Drinking Song.

It all came about after Kurt Larson, director of sales and marketing for Silver City Brewery, Scott Houmes, owner, and Don Spencer, brewmaster, were sitting around having a beer and talking about how many European counties have traditional celebratory songs.

“It’s not really like that in the U.S.,” Larson said, “let alone in the Pacific Northwest.”

And, he said, that’s particularly odd because the Pacific Northwest loves its music and it loves its craft beers.

“The combination of those two things is what’s really neat about this,” he said. ‘We’re really hoping to promote local musicians along with local craft brews.”

Through June 9, local musicians can submit their songs online at www.silvercitybrewery.com.

Songs can be from any music genre and any length.

“As of now we’re gotten two songs entered and we hope to have 20 by the time the contest ends,” Larson said. “Anything from country, rock’n’roll, hip-hop, R&B, — whatever is inspiring.”

Songs need to be family-friendly, audible, spirited, and recorded in a somewhat professional manner.

Larson said part of the contest includes an opportunity to record the winning song at a professional studio and there will be a video made featuring the song, by iHeartKitsap. All of that will be used in future marketing for Silver City Brewery.

“We don’t really have a specific thing in mind,” Larson said. “We want our local musicians to just be creative. And the song doesn’t have to reference us — just the idea of having fun in the Northwest.”

Larson said he hopes to see the idea catch on and see other local breweries create their own “pub” songs, too.

“That would be pretty freakin’ cool,” he said.

For this contest, Silver City Brewery has teamed up with Seattle radio station KISW, “to get this message out,” Larson said.

“People will be able to hear the songs on our website and then people can vote for the song they like,” he said. “After all that is tabulated, we’ll have the final vote based on which song we think is more fitting for us.”

Some who vote will also be awarded tickets to beerfests in the coming year, he added.

“We hope we have a really tough decision,” Larson said. “We hope we have a lot of songs to choose from.”

Silver City Brewery was founded in 1996 by brothers Steve and Scott Hourmes in Silverdale where they still have a restaurant.

In 2010, the brewery moved to Bremerton to allow for more room to serve patrons at the restaurant. The brewery also has a taproom that opened a year ago.

Their beer is available in stores and restaurants from Bellingham to Olympia and in Seattle. Silver City varieties also are available at beer festivals in Oregon, Idaho and at the annual beer festival in Denver where they have won several awards.

In its first year, Silver City sold 1,300 barrels of beer, or 2,600 kegs. This year, Silver City brewed 8,000 barrels or 16,000 kegs. They now have about 100 employees.

But quality has always been the most important factor.

“Our primary focus is to supply as much of our beer as we can, close to home, so that the locals get the freshest beer possible,” Larson said. “Craft beer is made to be enjoyed fresh. It’s all about quality and consistency.”

As for the song, Larson hopes it will catch on and be sung throughout the area.

“We really love music and we really want to support local musicians,” he said. “We just think our local craft beers and local musicians need to be enjoyed together.”

The restaurant is located at 2799 NW Myhre Road in Silverdale. The brewery is located at 206 Katy Penman, in Bremerton.

Their website is www.silvercitybrewery.com.