Like the sign says, they really are brewing beer today at Napa's Downtown Joe's brew pub. For the past 12 years the popular hangout has been dedicated to the craft of beer making, even as the microbrewery popularity waned from the heady brewing days of the late 1990s.

"There was a lack of buzz about beer in general for a while, but now it's turned around," said Downtown Joe's master brewer Colin Kaminski.

"Now people come in and they're very excited about talking about beer and brewing," said Kaminski.

"Our beer customers are getting more sophisticated palettes just like the wine consumers did in the last decade," said the brewer.

"It's very common to find tourists that pick their travel destination based on where the brewery is, and actually travel from brewery to brewery," said Kaminski.

Downtown Joe's and the craft beer industry as a whole are enjoying a resurgence, with sales growing at their fastest pace in a decade.

Production of craft beer -- those specialty brews typically made in small regional or local breweries -- grew by 9 percent last year, the biggest jump since 1996, when the microbrewery fad of the '90s was still going full tilt. Mainstream beer sales, meanwhile, fell slightly.

At Downtown Joe's, sales have risen 20 percent, said Kaminski.

"We're very lucky that we're in a neighborhood that's growing. As the neighborhood grows so do our sales," he said.

"Our beer sales have grown from the day we opened," said Kaminski.

"The only hiccup we had in our beer sales was when we picked up hard liquor," he said.

Kaminski noted that beer drinking tastes have evolved.

"We're seeing an increased interest in flavors that used to be fairly esoteric like Indian Pale Ales, (known as IPA), which are very hoppy, high in alcohol, and very full flavored. We're selling four times as much of IPA as three years ago," noted Kaminski.

Downtown Joe's brews following what's known as the Pacific Northwest style. "Pacific Northwest brewing is producing some of the finest ales ever produced," he said. Described as very "hoppy," the brewing style can add bitter qualities but intense flavors and floral aromas, explained Kaminski.

Making the product more consistent has become a goal of the brewery. "That's the nature of gaining experience in the industry," said Kaminski.

While targeting quality and production, Downtown Joe's is starting to max out their beer production capabilities. "We make as much as we can and serve the customers that we have," said Kaminski.

The 1990s boom times

The industry is growing again, but at more sustainable levels. Ed Stebbins of Maine's Gritty McDuff brew pub, said brew pubs don't need to grow at astronomical levels to be profitable.

"I think we've learned that the beer industry doesn't have to grow in leaps and bounds, that it will grow steadily and slowly," Stebbins said.

Americans last year bought more than 6.3 billion gallons of beer, dominated by pale, golden-hued varieties, according to Beer Marketer's Insights trade newsletter. The top five brands were Bud Light, Budweiser, Miller Lite, Coors Light and Natural Light.

But for consumers who demand more variety, there are craft beers. These beers, in general, are made with malted wheat or barley -- without corn, rice or sugar adjuncts -- and include ales, bocks, stouts, marzens, porters and other styles that can be light or dark in color and are typically more complex in taste.

They are often made in small batches and are more expensive -- sometimes double the price -- than the best-selling brands. Gritty McDuff's six-packs, for instance, usually sell for $6.99 to $7.99 at supermarkets.

The best-known craft beers are national brands like Samuel Adams or Sierra Nevada, but there are hundreds of small breweries nationwide that distribute their own brews locally and regionally. As of December, there were 1,368 breweries and brew pubs making craft beer, according to the Brewers Association trade group in Boulder, Colo.

Craft beer accounts for just 3.5 percent of U.S. beer sales, and imports make up 12.5 percent, said Eric Shepard, executive editor of Beer Marketer's Insights. But those numbers are going up, while the market share of mainstream beers is declining.

"It was a good year for the high-end (beers), and we'll see where this goes," Shepard said.

In the 1990s, craft beer sales took off and the industry was filled with optimism.

Many breweries aimed for rapid expansion, and the most hopeful thought the industry could claim 10 percent or more of the U.S. beer market.

But the market became saturated, growth stalled and craft beer production grew at rates from 0 to 4 percent a year from 1998 through 2003. More than 500 brew pubs and microbreweries closed between 2000 and 2004, outpacing the number of startups, according to the Brewers Association.

The business is now on an upswing, with production up by about 7 percent in 2004 and 9 percent last year, according to the association.

Overall beer sales in 2005 fell 0.2 percent in volume, according to Beer Marketer's Insights. Sales of wines and spirits last year grew by less than 3 percent in volume, according to industry organizations.

In Seattle, Georgetown Brewing Co. doubled its production last year to about 186,000 gallons. Georgetown's beers, a pale ale and a pilsner, are sold at more than 380 bars and restaurants, or about double the number of a year ago.

Just like coffee drinkers, beer drinkers' tastes are changing, said Bret Chopp, operations manager and partner at Georgetown.

"I think it's a maturing of the customer base," Chopp said. "First of all people didn't know there was anything out there, and once they tried it they like it."

The aging of America helps to explain the market shift, said Ray Daniels, director of marketing for the Brewers Association. Baby boomers are edging up toward senior status, and the median age of the U.S. population grew from 32.8 in 1990 to 36.2 in 2004, according to the Census Bureau.

"I think ultimately as consumers get older their tastes are more sophisticated," Daniels said. "And that's a big part of the growing interest in the category."

"The macro-brewers like Anheuser-Busch are getting increasingly concerned with our sales growth," said Kaminski. "I would expect they will try to make products that look like micro-brewed products but that aren't," the Napa brewer said.

"They see the numbers. They see the trends," Stebbins said. "So they're planning their marketing around those trends."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.