Rachel Benkowski is the host of Beer School at Bone Haus Brewing in Fountain Hills. Allison Trebacz The Great Beerkowski Beer school is in session: You, too, can learn to savor craft brews. BY ALLISON TREBACZ I t’s the second Tuesday of the month, and Bone Haus Brewing in Fountain Hills is packed. The brewery’s owners are bringing in stools from outside and rearranging barrel tables to fit everyone in. Everyone’s trying to see a table by the tanks where a woman with bright red hair is set up with a microphone. “Hey, guys. Welcome to beer school,” she says. “Today, we’re going to get a flight of beer, we’re only going to get one taster at a time, and we’re going to drink it together.” Rachel Benkowski is a bartender and marketing manager for Bone Haus Brewing. She’s also a historian by day, specifically focusing on Egyptology, and is working toward becoming a second-level- certified cicerone, or beer sommelier. Benkowski has been running Beer School once a month for most of the last year, and this week, it’s sold out. “Working behind the bar, I’ve learned that many people love beer,” Benkowski says. “But they might not know what they like or why they like what they like. They’ll hear these key terms but aren’t sure what that means. My goal is to help people feel more confident and be better consumers.” Each Beer School session is different, 28 but they all involve a tour through a flight of Bone Haus beer and a lesson in beer history. The syllabus for this session covered helles lager, kolsch, and the differ- ence between stouts and porters. It also included descriptions from the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), the official source of beer styles used for international judging, and the cicerone program. Beer school was a natural bridge from Benkowski’s cicerone studies, she says. The second of four levels of certification involves seven individual courses that span beer styles, serving, tasting, food pairing, and more. Only 4,200 people have received the second level of certification, while more than 950,000 have received the first. It’s no small task, but Rachel “Beerkowski” has embraced the challenge and wants to share the knowledge. “Number one, please do not drink the beer until everyone has their taster. We’re going through all of this together,” Benkowski says as tasting glasses are passed around by Bone Haus staff. The first beer is the Sonoran Shimmer, a helles lager. “We need to assess the color before we taste. I wrote down what the BJCP says about all these styles,” she says, “and then we’re gonna learn what your palate picks up.” Simultaneously, a full taproom of people refrains from taking a sip. Instead, they oblige. Nearly everyone in the taproom holds the beer in front or above them, and Benkowski guides them through the appearance and aroma. “The BJCP says that this beer should be >> p 31 a pale yellow to a pale gold color. JULY 28TH–AUG 3RD, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
