WASHINGTON has a lot to be proud of, from the beauty of our Sound, mountains and canyons to the innovative nature of the people who live and work here. It is home to the best coffee and computer software in the world.

Lesser known but equally important is that Washington is home tomore than 80 microbreweries - many of them internationally renowned award winners that would earn a tip of the hat from any Belgian beermeister.

Last year the state's microbreweries, defined as any establishment that produces fewer than 15,000 barrels a year, produced and sold 283,220 barrels of the frothy after-work refresher â?" and that doesn't include Redhook Ale Brewery Inc. of Woodinville or Mac & Jack's Brewery Inc. of Redmond, which are producing well beyond microbrewery parameters. At this year's Great American Beer Festival competition in Denver, Elysian Brewing Co. of Seattle, No. 8 on our list, won the gold medal for its Dragonstooth Stout, and No. 25, Walking Man Brewing Co. of Stevenson, took home two gold medals for its Blootvoetse Bruin and IPA varieties.

BIG PRODUCERS
Topping this year's list is Pyramid Breweries Inc., the Seattle-based beer-maker with headquarters across the street from the Seattle Mariners' Safeco Field. In the No. 2 spot is Olympia's own Fish Brewing Co. At No. 3 is Seattle's Georgetown Brewing Co., where Roger Bialous and Manny Chao crank out kegs of Roger's Pilsner, Manny's Pale Ale and the seasonal Bob's Brown Ale, a hoppy mixture of malt, caramel and chocolate named after their good friend, the late Bob Hirsch.

It's no wonder beer is so popular here, as there's a lot of clean water from glacial runoff and great growing conditions for hops. Washington, specifically Yakima and Benton counties, is the largest grower of hops in the nation, producing 40,000 of the 54,000 pounds grown in the country, according to the Washington Brewers Guild. The beer industry in Washington also accounts for more than $25 million in wages and contributes more than $200 million to the state's economy.

ENTERING THE FRAY
To the beer-loving novice, running a microbrewery may seem like a romantic career detour, akin to operating a winery. But, as I found out for this report, making beer takes time and is sensitive stuff. My tutor would be Jeff Rea, president of the Cascade Brewers Guild. I met with Rea at Mountain Homebrew & Wine Supply in Kirkland. Store manager and award-winning beer maker Joel Engel supervised and provided a store recipe for Outback Amber Ale.

1:30 p.m.: Outside the back door of the store, we filled an aluminum brewing pot with about three gallons of water and set it on a propane burner. As we waited for the water to heat up, Rea, who by day is a venture capital consultant (he was instrumental in launching Grace's Kitchen Inc. of Seattle), talked about his beer-loving past. At the Miller Brewing Co. in Milwaukee, Wisc., he was "the head of new products from 1991 to 1992, the only part of the business that was growing," he says. Miller, like Budweiser, was trying to figure out how to make money from the growing trend of craft beer production. Budweiser, of St. Louis, bought a stake in the publicly owned Pyramid Breweries.
 
1:45 p.m.: I dropped in a muslin bag of 20 ounces of crushed malted grains. This turned the water into a big cup of tea. Rea says he started brewing beer in 1983 in Walla Walla. He says his dad used to brew, too.

2:10 p.m.: I twist open the lid to what looks like caramel but is malt extract and pour it into the roiling mixture. The mixture, called the "wort,"? thickened, and as we added the first bag of Chinook hops, it boiled over. Engel reached under and tried to lower the flame, but with no luck, so he turned the burner off. Rea, meanwhile, in a blue Asian dragon shirt, hosed off the spill from the parking lot.

2:35 p.m.: A second bag of hops and a teaspoon of gypsum is added, and the darkening wort continues to boil. Sitting on a stool in the back room of the store, Rea says an under appreciated and overshadowed beer-making nation is Belgium. That country, he's pretty sure, has more breweries than any other in the world. And in some of the breweries, the yeast is collected naturally from within corners of the facilities themselves. "They're more imaginative than in other places,"? he says with a smile.
 
2:50 p.m.: The final bag of hops is added. This completes the wort, but it must continue to boil for another 45 minutes or so. As we wait, Rea talks about how Molson Coors Brewing Co. in Golden, Colo., keeps its "Rocky Mountain"? image despite producing so much in breweries outside Colorado. The mountain water is literally delivered by rail to the various brewing facilities, which then mix in the rest of the ingredients. And Rea, who by most beer enthusiasts' standards has a sophisticated palate, says of Miller, Coors and Budweiser, "For what they are, they're good."?

3:35 p.m.: Almost done. Now, to cool it quickly, so bacteria don't have a chance to disturb the wort, a copper coil is dropped into the mix; through it, cold tap water flows, reducing the temperature to 80 degrees. Anything hotter kills the final ingredient: yeast. The beer is poured into a 6.5-gallon glass carboy, a big glass jug with a narrow mouth, and the powdery yeast is added and sloshed around. Then it is air-locked, and a dark plastic bag is pulled over it.

A few days later: The wort begins to churn like a hot tub, as the yeast eats the sugar, creating the carbon dioxide and alcohol. In two weeks it will be ready to bottle or keg.

Two weeks later: I meet with Jon Mendrick, owner of Mountain Homebrew & Wine Supply, and together we taste-test, bottle and keg the beer. The beer is bitter and flat but has great promise. Mendrick drops a carbonation cube into each bottle. Then I, with the help of a siphoning instrument and a crimping tool, pour the beer into and cap each bottle.

Final analysis: The beer is stored at room temperature for another two weeks at which point it can be refrigerated. Tasting my first attempt at home brew, I have to say, I may just have what it takes. It really wasn't that bad at all. I've named it "Bitter Myke's."
 
In addition to tasting the beer at my leisure, the moment I capped those bottles, I felt a surprising wave of satisfaction come over me. That's how home brewers feel about their hobby. And home brewing in Washington draws from the hundreds who fashion small labs in their garages or basements. Mendrick says several of his clients happen to be CEOs and C-level managers, some from Microsoft Corp., Genie Industries Inc. and The Boeing Co. "They come in here and they love it,"? Mendrick says. "It's very relaxing for them."