Fri, Aug 10, 2001 page24

• Brewmaster dives into his work

  BUZZ AT THE OFFICE Beer is bitter, and people taste bitterness on the back of the tongue. That means every taster has to swallow the samples

  • By Scott Leith / NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  Michael Poley has the kind of job that dreams are made of.

  Brewmaster.

  

  Michael Poley, the resident brewmaster at the Anheuser-Busch plant in Cartersville, Georgia, is examining hops during one of the many stages of the process. Such jobs are fairly rare because most companies would hire technicians who have backgrounds in chemistry as taste testers.

  PHOTO: NY TIMES

  Five days a week, Poley's task -- and many would say it's a rather enviable one -- is to test, test, and retest the beer that flows through the Anheuser-Busch plant in the hills near Cartersville, Georgia. At 50, he's been doing this kind of thing his entire working life and isn't close to tiring of it. He even buys all kinds of beer at the store so he can test them at home.

  "Tasting the beer is the part I love about the job," Poley says.

  Such jobs are fairly rare. For example, Coca-Cola Enterprises, which bottles most Coke products in the US, has 17 lab technicians at its plants in Marietta and College Park who are trained as taste testers. Most have backgrounds in chemistry or microbiology.

  You might wonder: Is the life of a taste tester really all that fun? Yes, says Poley: "It's a blend of art and science."

  Poley is a native Californian and, for a guy who drinks beer all day, remains remarkably thin. As brewmaster at the Anheuser-Busch plant, he oversees production of 20 brands.

  He's so interested in the process of making beer and wine that he once tried to start his own vineyard (a failure, by the way, because he couldn't coax a good grape crop from his property in Georgia).

  Poley is part of a select group. Anheuser-Busch, as big as it is, has only 12 breweries in the US and two abroad. The Cartersville plant is the newest; it shipped its first beer in 1993.

  For Poley, every day is about trying to make new Bud taste just like yesterday's. August Busch III, the company's president and chairman, tests beer from every brewery, and brewmasters from different plants swap samples.

  Keeping a working-man's brew like Bud the same might sound simple. But brewing is filled with variables that aren't found in making a product like Coke Classic.

  Budweiser ferments for six days, then sits for another 21 in giant tanks for aging.

  Poley and a handful of other taste-testers at the plant have a session each day, either late in the morning or in mid-afternoon.

  The room where this happens is high atop the brewery, with windows that overlook the plant and, beyond that, the hills and trees of northwest Georgia. It is a surprisingly opulent space, with dark wood cabinets and black granite counters. A table surrounded by plush chairs looks like it would fit in a corporate boardroom.

  The taste-testing lineup includes ingredients -- water from nearby Lake Allatoona and barley malt that originates on farms stretching from Montana to the Dakotas -- as well as finished beer.

  Malt gives beer much of its flavor. Samples appear in a lineup of small bags, each filled with malt from the trucks and train cars that arrive at the plant.

  Poley knows by taste whether the grain is right.

  "It should be sweet. It should be somewhat toasted," he says. Before joining Anheuser-Busch, he once worked as a "maltster" at another company. His whole job was to manage the process that turns plain barley into barley malt.

  Noticing subtle differences in beer takes time to learn, and not everyone can do it. Even Poley loses his sense sometimes. A cold can throw him off. That's why there are others who taste the beer.

  Unlike wine tasting, this isn't a sip-and-spit occasion. Beer is bitter, and people taste bitterness on the back of the tongue. That means every taster has to swallow the samples.

  But there are limits -- the samples add up to a maximum of about two bottles -- so staffers aren't woozy at the end of the day. Also, beer wears down the senses.

  "You can fatigue your palate pretty quickly," Poley said. "You're really limited on how much you can do."

  Even after trying brews all day, Poley likes sampling other beers, including micro-brews. But he claims that when he's sitting around the house, his favorites are still Bud and Bud Light.

  Then again, that might be just an extension of the workday. "We're a little bit obsessive, I think."
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