“In heaven there is no beer / That’s why we drink it here / And when we’re gone from here / our friends will be drinking all our beer.”

So goes the 1956 German drinking tune that the Palouse Falls Beer Chasers have adopted as their own. The Beer Chasers, a local group of running enthusiasts with a penchant for the fizzy source of carbohydrates, have met weekly since the summer of 2010.

“If your main goal is to run to be fit and lose weight, that’s not what we’re here for,” said Dan Froelich, who has been with the group since the beginning. “We run because it’s fun, and we have a couple beers because it’s fun, and we all have a good time.”

The Beer Chasers’ Facebook page has attracted more than 250 members, but co-founder Scott McMurtrey said the group was originally much smaller.

“We started at the Palouse Falls Brewery,” McMurtrey said. “The first day, about five or six people showed up, and that grew slowly.”

Since then, the Beer Chasers have twice changed the location of their post-run meetings. When the Palouse Falls Brewing Company closed in 2012, they began meeting at the Fireside Grille on Bishop Boulevard. Now Birch & Barley, just down the street, hosts the large group of runners.

Josh Clark, the owner of the restaurant, said he has enjoyed working with the Beer Chasers.

“It’s a really fun, symbiotic relationship we have with them,” Clark said.

Co-founder Anne Ernest said Birch & Barley has been a good fit for the Beer Chasers, so they’ll probably continue to frequent the place for a while.

Ernest said members feel comfortable in the group because there are no expectations or requirements for participation. They simply engage in some form of exercise and then meet for food and drinks on the patio of the restaurant. Additionally, Ernest said, the Beer Chasers are a diverse crowd.

“I think that’s the draw to Beer Chasers,” she said. “It’s not just the fast-running community.”

The group is comprised of runners of all ages and with varying degrees of experience.

“In Pullman, it’s hard for people who aren’t undergraduates to find a place to hang out with people who are like-minded,” Ernest said. “It’s really cool that we have this group because it’s like we found each other in a place where we wouldn’t normally look.”

The Beer Chasers sing that drinking tune while inducting members into an exclusive group called the Keg Club, which is comprised of those who have consumed a keg’s worth of beer in their time with the group. That’s 124 pints.

In addition to the congratulatory song, those who complete the task earn a Keg Club patch and their choice of which beer goes on tap next.

Beer Chasers events are not isolated to the Birch & Barley patio. Every two weeks, the group meets at the Kamiak Butte for a trail run. It also hosts events such as the multi-annual “beer mile,” in which runners drink a beer before each lap of mile-long race.

Some members carpool to various running competitions and events. Stefanie Tietz, who joined the group around a year ago, said the beer after each run represents an accomplishment.

“When we go do a run somewhere else, we find the closest brewery and have a beer in celebration,” Tietz said.

The Beer Chasers meet at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays.