If bartending school seems too long and expensive, there’s a new outlet for those interested in learning more about beer. A local tavern holds classes every month, so those who walk in knowing nothing about the beverage will walk out with a decent knowledge of seasonal beer.

Every third Saturday of each month, a crowd gathers at The Map Room, a Traveler’s Tavern, 1949 N. Hoyne Ave., to become skilled “beer people.”

Greg Browne, a brewmaster for 14 years, has taught the class every month for the past 14 years, but said he tries to make sure each class is different. He went to school for a couple of months, but it took him years to become a brewmaster. He said his title encompasses a lot of hands-on experience and just like any other field-the more practice, the better.

“[Brewmaster] covers a little bit of microbiology, chemistry, engineering and it crosses with a lot of different disciplines,” he said. “Learning to make beer is not for everyone because it is time-consuming and it takes a lot of patience.”

The idea for a bar school came from the theme of the tavern. Owner Laura Blasingame said she didn’t know how to incorporate the “traveler’s” part of the bar’s name with the place.

“We thought beer would be a good way [to incorporate traveling], like having beers from all over the world, but we knew nothing about beer,” she said. “We met Greg Browne, and he taught us about beer. We learned that just to have 100 different types of beers doesn’t make you a good beer bar.”

Browne said out of the 45 who attend his classes, many are college kids and middle-aged patrons who don’t know anything about beer. He keeps the classes minimal because most are at the same level, and classes run no longer than two hours.

“We keep it simple, and we don’t talk about the brewing process,” he said. “It’s more of a beer appreciation class rather than how to make it and the mechanics.”

During the class, Browne discusses how different ingredients influence styles of beer. With every month comes a different style of beer like ale, lager and hybrid beers. If it’s not a style, then it’s a different country and its well-known beers, like Belgium’s.

Unlike bartending school, the class is only offered once a month for a couple of hours. Charlene Fiegel works at the Chicago Bartending School, 634 S. Wabash Ave. She said in order to be a certified bartender, one has to attend classes four hours a week Monday through Friday for three weeks.

“When we teach the mixology course, our goal is to make sure that people have a background and some history of all the different types of liquors so they are informed,” she said. “Then we proceed from there and teach them how to make drinks and familiarize them with all the different types of beers. It’s very important to know about beers and the different styles.”

The $25 tickets for beer school at The Map Room are sold the Monday before the actual class, and Blasingame said that the tickets sell out faster every month because the classes are becoming more popular in the city, and those who are attending are bringing new people along.

Browne said the most-attended classes so far have been those during the holidays, before Thanksgiving and before Christmas, as people are interested in the holiday beers that are in season only once a year.

“Many breweries produce a stronger spiced beer for the holidays, so we concentrate on those during November and December,” Blasingame said. “The attendees get to taste those beers and they love it since a lot of them are not sold in the U.S.”

For more information on the beer school and the schedule, visit MapRoom.com/School.