Michael Godfrey teaches a Beer and Culture class in the winter quarter.

Unlike wine, beer doesn't typically conjure up images of culture and sophistication. But beer has been around since approximately 5000 B.C.-long before any wines were discovered-and has played an important role in world history and culture.

Michael Godfrey, assistant professor of restaurant operations at Cal Poly Pomona's Collins School of Hospitality Management, hopes to eliminate the perception by many that beer is a blue-collar party beverage meant to be pounded or swigged.

"In many other countries-Belgium, for example-drinking beer is a very social function," says Godfrey. "When having lunch and chatting at a sidewalk café, they have a beer and it's a sipping beverage.

"But in the United States, we have created this negative image of beer being a power beverage only meant to quench our thirst," he says.

Just like wine, there is an art to learning to incorporate beer into cooking and pairing it with different foods, says Godfrey, who teaches the new Beer and Culture class at the Collins School.

In this 10-week course, students study brewing methods, the role of beer in food and beverage operations, and a brief history of beer, including the growth of microbreweries during the last third of the 20th Century. Additional class topics include how beer is made, beers of the world, beer evaluation and food pairing, beer promotion and careers in the brewing industry.

The course, available to all Cal Poly Pomona students at least 21 years of age, was initially taught during winter quarter 2002, and then again in the spring. Both times, all 48 seats filled quickly and students signed up on a waiting list. The class seems to hold broad appeal to a large cross-section of the campus.

"Maybe 20 percent of the students in the class were hospitality students. The rest were from all over-graduate students, business students and students who were home brewers," Godfrey says.

Godfrey took up home brewing at his Ontario home about 15 years ago. His on-campus office shows obvious signs of his interest in the hops and barley beverage as issues of "The New Brewer" and any number of empty import and microbrew beer bottles from throughout the world adorn his bookshelves.

Before the Beer and Culture course was offered, Godfrey taught one beer session in the Wines and Spirits course. He says it is actually quite rare for a hospitality school to offer an entire undergraduate course on beer.

"I'm sure beer is a sub-topic in other hospitality courses nationwide, but I haven't seen any course that deals with beer as a primary topic," he says. "We have some students who are interested in being in the retail end of the hospitality business, such as working for breweries or liquor distributors, and there is clearly too much valuable information about beer to teach it in one or two lectures."

Eric Holliday, a senior hotel and restaurant management major from Diamond Bar, says he took Godfrey's course to gain knowledge necessary for becoming a successful restaurant manager.

"I now have a better understanding of the range of beers that are out there and I know ways to pair them with different foods," he says. "I learned that beer is meant to be enjoyed in moderation rather than just gulped."

At each lecture, students sample and then discuss three different beers, about 1.5 ounces of each kind. But Godfrey doesn't let the drinking go to their heads.

"The very first lecture we do deals with responsible alcohol consumption and issues of drinking too much," he says. "I paint a very clear picture that part of what I'm trying to do with this class is bring beer to another level and that it shouldn't just be considered part of the party life."