Paul Graham likes to say that beer is not recession proof, but rather recession resistant.

“People like to drink beer in good times and in bad.”

Graham is president of the Central Waters Brewing Company in Amherst and over the last three years he has watched his business thrive.

Just a few years ago they were making about 1500 barrels are year, but this year they are expected to produce 6000. Many of them are pub bound.

"Especially in Central Wisconsin we've seen a huge growth when it comes to the draft market,” Graham said. He attributes the increase in bars having Central Waters beer on tap to the company’s decision to finally use distributors. "Before we brewed it, we bottled it and then drove it around in the back of our pickup trucks."

But it’s not just Central Waters Brewery that is growing in popularity. In fact, the craft brew industry as a whole is seeing tremendous growth.

"The beer palate has been very dynamic over the last decade," Graham said. And if you ask bartenders in Central Wisconsin, they’ll tell you the same.

"You'll always have your, I guess, generic Miller and Bud fans that will drink that regardless of their mood, but with the breweries around the area growing and coming out with some more unique flavors, I think it appeals even more and more to the public," said Charlie Todd, a bartender at the Beach House on Lake Dubay.

Microbrews’ appeal is growing so much that while US beer sales dropped 2.2 percent last year, and imports nearly 10 percent, craft beer sales grew by more than 7 percent.

"People seem to like it,” Todd said speaking of the Central Waters brew the Beach House carries on tap. "They come with a little more unique flavor rather than just the ever day, I guess, beer water that people are drinking."

"A lot of people are really starting to enjoy tasting their beer, rather than drinking it ice cold and out of bottle,” Graham said. “They want to smell it and taste it."

The taste appears to even be worth paying a little bit more for. Craft beers tend to cost more because they are made with traditional ingredients like malted barley, rather than rice or corn used by many mega breweries.