Washington Beer

Brewing history touches every corner of Washington. When it was a territory, homesteader operations like Colville Brewery helped establish towns. In 1865, Joseph Meeker planted the state s first hops in Steilacoom. Within a few years, that modest crop became a five-hundred-acre empire, and Washington led the nation in hops production by the turn of the century. Enterprising pioneers like Emil Sick and City Brewery s Catherine Stahl galvanized early Pacific Northwest brewing. In 1982, Bert Grant s Yakima Brewing and Malting Company opened the first brewpub in the country since Prohibition. Soon, Seattle s Independent Ale Brewing Company led a statewide craft tap takeover, and today, nearly three hundred breweries and brewpubs call the Evergreen State home. Author Michael F. Rizzo unveils the epic story of brewing in Washington."
Author Michael F Rizzo does the considerable legwork for us in Washington Beer, reaching back to brewing s homesteading origins in 1865, through the growth of hop production at the turn of the century, and into the massive industry it has become today. American Craft Beer

"Michael Rizzo takes the name a Washington beer game to a whole other level. Washington Beer mentions hundreds of beers, brewers, and breweries that poured from our taps since territorial days from Dayton and Walla Walla to Ellensburg, Langley, and Ballard." Wa-List

"Mike Rizzo's book has got the nitty gritty on WA state brewing starting from the very beginning when King County had only 350 people in the census to current day. Rizzo has taken on the difficult job of documenting a time and place where there was little structured history recorded. He's done a noble job of trying to reconstruct the industry's history from oral stories and bits and pieces of written documentation. A great read for anyone interested in finding out how the beer industry developed in WA state!"
Mari Kemper, Chuckanut Brewery"
"Mike Rizzo's book has got the nitty gritty on WA state brewing starting from the very beginning when King County had only 350 people in the census to current day. Rizzo has taken on the difficult job of documenting a time and place where there was little structured history recorded. He's done a noble job of trying to reconstruct the industry's history from oral stories and bits and pieces of written documentation. A great read for anyone interested in finding out how the beer industry developed in WA state!"
Mari Kemper, Chuckanut Brewery