Fans call them micros, but they're getting bigger and bigger.

American makers of "craft beers" -- including microbreweries (producing less than 15,000 barrels annually) and brewpubs -- sold 7 percent more beer in 2004 than 2003. That makes craft beer the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. alcoholic beverage industry -- over wine, spirits, large breweries and imported beer -- according to the Boulder, Colo., Brewers Association, which represents 1,400-plus crafters of these all-malt brews.

John Heller, Post-Gazette Lew Bryson, right, shares a laugh with Mark Benson, a home beer maker at Teutonia Mannerchor, North Side. Click photo for larger image. Our state has five of the biggest In the current Brewers Association ranking of America's 50 largest breweries, five are in Pennsylvania: No. 6 -- D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc., Pottsville, Schuylkill County 9 -- Latrobe Brewing Co., Latrobe, Westmoreland County 11 -- Pittsburgh Brewing Co., Pittsburgh 17 -- Lion Brewery Inc., Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County 45 -- Straub Brewery, St. Marys, Elk County Only California has more top 50 breweries -- six-- while Oregon and Wisconsin also have five, followed by Colorado with four. For the full list, visit www.beertown.org.

T hat was one of the trends toasted Monday night at a celebration of Pennsylvania's bubbling beer scene held at the Rathskeller of the Teutonia Mannerchor, the venerable and lovely North Side German club.

The event, organized by Millvale's Vecenie Distributing Co., attracted more than 150 bar and restaurant owners, beer geeks and others interested in craft brews. They got to sample more than two dozen varieties from 10 of the state's brewers that Vecenie distributes.

They also got to hear an informal talk given by Lew Bryson, a prolific beer writer and author of "Pennsylvania's Breweries," the third edition of which is to be published this summer.

He reported that while many brewing operations have closed since the last edition (including Pittsburgh's Foundry Ale Works and Valhalla), about two-thirds of the listings are new. And several breweries around where he lives in Eastern Pennsylvania -- Stoudt's, Troegs, Victory -- have expanded or are planning to. "Things are really kicking into a higher gear."

That would apply to Western Pennsylvania, where the latest beer news flashes include:

The opening this winter of a cool brewpub in Slippery Rock, Butler County -- the North Country Brewing Co.

The widening availability at Pittsburgh watering holes of the tasty beers made by Scott Smith at his new one-man East End Brewing Co. in Homewood.

Bryson touched on other interesting developments, from the Hereford & Hops, a chain steakhouse and microbrewery, planned for Cranberry, to chainsaw artist Brian "The Barbarian" Sprague's plans to open a brewhouse in his barn in Venango County, of all places.

Earlier this month, plans were announced for a Hofbrauhaus, a chain based on the famous one in Munich, at the SouthSide Works.

These would join existing local craft brew operations including John Harvard's, a chain in Monroeville; the (also expanded) Pennsylvania Brewing Co. on the North Side; Red Star Brewery & Grille, Greensburg; and Rock Bottom Brewery, a chain in the Waterfront in Homestead.

Lawrenceville's Church Brew Works served up news in the form of just-bottled versions of two of its brews, Pious Monk Dunkel and Pipe Organ Pale Ale. The Church's Sean Casey said cases of the bottled beer will start to be distributed around Allegheny and surrounding counties within a month or so.

Vecenie salesman Tony Knipling pitched craft brews as a way for bar and restaurant owners to distinguish their businesses and attract people who are into these brews.

People like Ohio Township buddies Frank Gryzwinski and Bob Hunt, who sat at the bar and worked their way down the "featured selections" list, which included pilsener, porter, double bock, stout, even a bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout from Weyerbacher named Heresy.

"You walk into a beer store, you don't know what you're looking at," marveled Hunt.

"It's really neat to try beers you've never tried before," said Gryzwinski, who took a few sips of the Pious Monk Dunkel and pronounced, "That's a keeper!"

That interest in trying different and unusual beers is fueling the craft beer boom, which is showing up in far-flung places.

A group of three friends came from little watering holes they run in Beaver County. "Beaver County is Budweiser country -- Budweiser, Coors Light. But that's changing," said Jay Wooley, who's been bringing new beers and new customers into his Cricket's Pub in New Brighton. Of its eight taps, six are craft brews, he said. "That's what they want."

Frank Elia convinced his dad, Rock, to add craft brews to Hollywood Gardens, the Rochester bar he's run since 1958. They didn't drop any beers, but the three craft drafts have tapped a new, younger clientele.

New Brighton's Copper Dog cafe even has a beer engine for hand-dispensing cask-conditioned ale and experiments with four different beers each week, noted bartender Stasha Kay, who sipped a "chocolate covered strawberry" -- a mix of Lancaster Brewing's Milk Stout and Strawberry Wheat beer.

Bryson, who was in town to speak at the annual Pennsylvania Restaurant and Foodservice Expo West, reiterated a tale he told there about how the U.S. wine industry went from crappy to quality over the past 40 years.

"I see no reason whatsoever that beer can't do the same thing," he said, putting craft brewing at about five years into a similar transformation.

In the Rathskeller of a German singing club where the beer flowed free, it was preaching to a choir of "Cheers!"

For a detailed overview of Pennsylvania breweries, visit the Web site www.lewbryson.com.