Many restaurants and lounges in town have tried tossing out a wine-tasting weekly or monthly in recent years. But similarly scheduled beer tastings are more difficult to come by.

One of those few is The Willows' Hops & Grinds. The monthly, which notches its second birthday tonight, would be a sweet pau-hana hang for beer connoisseurs and casual suds fans even if it had any competition.

Each month's Hops & Grinds is planned around themes expected (British beers, Belgian beers, etc.) and not-so-expected ("date night beers," "beers named after animals," etc.).

Beer expert and Hops & Grinds founder Andy Baker selects 15 to 30 craft beers fitting the theme from around the world for sampling. Willows chef Jay Matsukawa then cooks up an all-you-can-eat pupu buffet menu complementing the theme.

Tonight's "Winter Blues" theme focuses on Christmas-season and winter brews. Matsukawa's buffet offerings will attempt a holiday theme (see box).

Starting with blues rockers Jeff Said No! tonight, every Hops & Grinds will also feature live music.

Your $30 ticket ($25 in advance) gets you all the food you can handle and six sample cups of beer. The amount of samples per ticket seemed too small for us — until we started actively imbibing and noshing, growing quickly sated.

For those angling to taste all 30 brews, however, additional samples are available for a reasonable enough $1 per cup.

A handout program offered the lowdown on every beer and their respective breweries. Beers and food were offered from Hops & Grinds 5:30 p.m. start time to the 8:30 p.m. conclusion, so even late arrivals could taste everything.

The Hops & Grinds I attended with a microbrew-loving friend in late September had an early Oktoberfest theme. Chef Matsukawa offered up a tasty, rib-sticking menu of bratwurst and sauerkraut, sauerbraten, ham steaks with braised red cabbage, German potato salad, and pork and whole-grain mustard soup. (Boy, those Germans love their meat dishes!)

Baker's 30-strong tasting menu featured a well-selected mix of German-brewed beers and German-style American-brewed beers. Brands included the familiar (Beck's, St. Pauli, Lowenbrau) and not-so-familiar (Aecht Schlenkerla, Spaten, Franziskaner) in every style.

Hops & Grinds keeps its overall vibe casual and relaxed. Patrons — ranging in age from twenty- to sixtysomethings — could chill indoors near the beer and food, or on outdoor tables under the Willows' courtyard palms.

Conversation and laughter grew louder at tables as the evening drew closer to last call. Patrons returned to pourers for additional helpings of favorite brews instead of new ones. Like us, many remained beyond 8:30 p.m. to chat and finish our beer and food outside.

Finally, a German tune with the rousing chorus of "Sauerkraut! Sauerkraut!" escaped from the sound system.

"You know it's time to leave when a song (about) sauerkraut gets played," said Kevin Salas of Waimanalo.

Or fruitcake tonight.

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.