Beer Tastings at Pub Create Big Brew-Haha : Americans Seem to Be Acquiring a Thirst for Knowledge on Relatively New Topic

Wine tasting, sure. But--beer tasting? Can the average beer drinker learn to distinguish roasted barley from malted barley? Or are people more concerned with such pitchmen as Spuds MacKenzie and Phil Collins than they are with highfalutin discussions of hops and ales?

“We try not to be too technical in our beer tastings here,” said Greg Nitzkowski, managing partner of the Santa Monica’s City of Angels restaurant and brewery. “We want to keep it fun.”

Earlier this summer at the restaurant, Nitzkowski, with brew master Dennis Miller, began an informal series of beer tastings designed to educate the consumer and the home brewer to the sublime differences in various beers.

“We want people to really understand what components make up a quality beer,” Nitzkowski said.

“And we want to keep it accessible to everyone,” Miller added, “from beginners to people who have some knowledge of beer, like home brewers.”

Nitzkowski, 30, a former corporate lawyer, opened City of Angels earlier this year. It was Los Angeles’ first “brewpub” (a restaurant with on-site beer making), and became a place where beer aficionados could stop by to discuss brewing methods or just enjoy a glass of freshly made Heavenly Gold or Impale Ale.

Nitzkowski and Miller plan to continue the brew tastings every other Tuesday night. A series of five tastings costs $100 and includes the chance to taste about a dozen beers, sample appetizers from the City of Angels kitchen and take an optional tour of the brewing facilities.

“We don’t do contests,” Nitzkowski emphasized. “This isn’t about judging which beer is best and which is worst. It’s about learning a little about beer--and having some fun.”

Tuesday night. Downstairs at City of Angels, diners are sampling smoked trout, oyster shooters, (an oyster in a shot glass with salsa) and beer-steamed clams. Upstairs, the true beer fans are straggling in for some suds sampling.

The specialty at tonight’s tasting is dark beers: lagers, ales, stouts and City of Angels’ own Dunkel Weisen, one of the specialty beers that Miller brews for City of Angels during the year.

Keith Urashima and Dave Shaffer are two friends who work together at Hughes Aircraft during the day and are avid home brewers by night. They heard about the beer tastings during one visit to City of Angels, and haven’t missed an evening in the series yet. They hope to open their own brewpub one of these days.

“Most Americans have a limited knowledge about beer, and we’re here to learn more,” Urashima said, as Nitzkowski moved down the table, placing bottles of frosty beer in front of every person.

“Hold it up to the light,” Miller urged, as a dozen eager tasters pour out glasses of Michelob Classic Dark and Beck’s Dark. “Write down your impressions of the color of the beer and the texture of the bubbles.”

In front of each taster sit nine bottles of beer, several glasses, a slop bucket, and samples of five types of barley. Nitzkowski tasted the barley as Miller demonstrated what to look for in a beer. There’s also a bottle of beer wrapped in aluminum foil; at every tasting, they have a mystery beer contest, where everyone has a chance to guess the lineage of the foil-wrapped beer.

A large bucket full of pieces of soft bread sits on one side, ready to cleanse palates between samplings.

The assembled tasters hold their beers up to the light, sniff and take a swallow. Some, like Shaffer and Urashima, seem more serious about the finer points of beer appreciation, while others prefer to appreciate the beer the old-fashioned way: mouthful by mouthful.

To aid in evaluation, each participant also has a rating sheet, with spaces to make notes on color, aroma, taste, body and to offer general comments.

“Jot down some impressions on the Michelob,” Nitzkowski said. “Anybody have any thoughts on the aroma?”

“None,” someone volunteered, and the tasters nod their heads. “It tastes like regular Michelob,” agrees someone else. “Only the color is different.”

One young woman who tasted the Beck’s and nodded approvingly reacts to the Michelob with a screwed-up face. “This tastes like . . . like college ,” she finally decides, and several people laugh.

With the help of Nitzkowski, Miller nudged opinions out of the group, helping them to begin making distinctions about the beers they taste.

A few people pick up the foil-wrapped “mystery beer,” trying to glean some clue to its identity by examining the bottle. (It turns out to be Watney’s.)

“If no one guesses correctly, the prize will roll over,” Nitzkowski joked. “Or Dennis and I will drink it ourselves.”

The evening continued with more beer: domestic (St. Stan’s Dark Alt, Sierra Nevada Stout, Anchor Porter); imported (Ireland’s Guinness Stout, Britain’s Mackeson Triple Stout); and City of Angels’ own Dunkel Weisen, a delicious dark beer brewed on the premises by Miller.

When all the beer has been consumed, along with a good amount of bar treats brought up from downstairs, the evening concluded. For those who wanted to sample some of the golden nectar, there were 10 different beers.

And for those who wanted to learn, there was Miller’s soft-spoken introduction to the finer points of beer, and a referral to the Woodland Hills home-brewers’ club, the Maltose Falcons.

Education has rarely been so painless.