Walking into the Timberwolf Pub in Tempe, Ariz., for the first time, a beer worshiper may feel compelled to talk in hushed tones. The tables in the large pub are set to the sides, leaving an aisle down the middle. The lighting is dim except on the back wall, where, instead of bathing an altar, lights shine on 150 beer taps.

Folks are getting serious about beer in the Phoenix area. It's not Portland or Seattle, but Arizona breweries did take home eight medals from the last Great American Beer Festival, and there are six brewpubs as well as one brew-on-premise/brewpub in Tempe alone. The direct route from Chandler on the southeast side of the Phoenix area to Glendale on the northwest side is 37 miles, but the trip would last a few days and cover considerably more miles if you tried to stop at every brewpub in the metropolitan area: There are 16.

"This market is maturing before our very eyes," said Chris Swersey, brewer at the gleaming Leinenkugel's Ballyard Brewery.

Swersey moved to Phoenix when the Ballyard Brewery opened last year. He spent the previous three-plus years at Mickey Finn's Brewery in the Chicago suburb of Libertyville, IL. Mickey Finn's is located in a 100-year-old brick building that has housed a tavern since Prohibition ended in 1933. Chicago, although not necessarily its suburbs, is rich with neighborhood taverns long on history, and many of its brewpubs, including those in the suburbs, operate from old buildings.

"They give you that sense of place," Swersey said. "They look like they've been there forever, and you get the feeling they are probably going to be there forever."

In the Phoenix area, it seems that almost every brewpub is in some sort of mall, or at least next to one. Some, like Copper Canyon Brewery & Alehouse in Chandler, are storefronts, while others are free-standing buildings. Bars and taverns also tend to be new; for instance, the George & Dragon -- the first English pub in Arizona -- is just four years old.

"There aren't many places that have that look and feel (of old taverns)," Swersey said. But they are pouring characterful beer, including beers from far away and local products. Since opening its brewpub, Leinenkugel's has earned about 25 draft accounts for Leinenkugel's Hefe Weizen (brewed in Wisconsin), and Swersey expects that Batter Up Brown Ale, made at the brewpub, will soon be available in other bars. Four Peaks Brewing Co. has more than 75 accounts, while Rio Salado, Sonora Brewing and Oak Creek Brewing beers are available at a variety of places.

Between the brewpubs and the distributing micros, there's plenty to choose from, so here are 10 beer things to do while deciding which beer to drink next in the Phoenix area:

1. Get a beer tossed in your face.
It costs $20 to join Bandersnatch Brewpub's Beer in Your Face Club, which is just what it sounds like. Members pick out a waitress whom they want to have toss beer in their face, grab a seat in an old-fashioned barbershop chair and listen while "the whole place" counts down to beer-tossing time.

"We were looking for a fun thing, something different, and my husband had read somewhere about a beer-in-your-face club," said owner Addie Mocca. That was back in 1988, when the Tempe brewpub opened. More than a thousand customers have joined since, some more than once. "It's like a kid playing in mud," Mocca said.

2. Get your car parked by a valet, or at least watch somebody shopping at Gucci get their car parked by a valet.
Hops! Bistro and Brewery runs a brewpub in Fashion Park Mall and has a stake in Christopher's Fermier Brasserie in Biltmore Fashion Park (in a spot that was formerly a Hops!), a brewery-restaurant that takes a step up from Hops!'s already upscale setting. Both malls offer valet parking for shoppers and diners alike. Super Hops! (which also has pubs in California but which is not related to members of the Hops Grill and Bar brewpubs operating in the rest of the country) also owns Cougan's at Arrowhead in Glendale.

It would not be fair to call Cougan's a step down from Hops!, but it tries not to be as "Scottsdale" as Hops! Cougan's is beautifully appointed, with an inviting separate bar area. It is quiet enough for conversation but loud enough that children don't seem out of place. The dishes show Hops! executive chef Alan Skversky's flair for presentation. While a number of its beers are from the light end of the spectrum, it's hard to resist a place that serves grilled meatloaf in wine demiglace accompanied by an assertive India pale ale. No valet parking here, by the way.

3. Listen to the roar of a Harley-Davidson while you order a "small beer."
Uptown Brewery by the Streets of New York has a Harley-Davidson motorcycle sitting inside the restaurant, and sometimes they actually kick-start it. The Streets of New York is an established pizza chain that first opened the Tempe brewpub and then an Uptown Brewery in Scottsdale, with more on the way. The fare is signature pizzas, sandwiches and pasta on the upscale side. The pub is woody and luxurious and the waitstaff dresses in classy black and white. Cigars, Scotches, martinis and tequila are all available, but beer doesn't take a backseat. In January, for instance, Uptown brewed a "small beer" from the second runnings off its barleywine.

4. Visit an Elvis shrine.
Four Peaks Brewing Co. began as a microbrewery with a tasting room but has since added its own kitchen. Decidedly not a mall brewpub, it is located in a spacious former Bordens Creamery building, a turn-of -the century brick warehouse. It is laid back, with a living room area complete with a couch and armchairs. Customers are invited to add items to the brewery's "Elvis Shrine," a large glass display case that is a tribute to the King. Four Peaks won two medals at the 1998 Great American Beer Festival and sometimes offers beer on handpump.

5. Sidle up to an old Western bar.
The 35-foot-long bar inside the original Coyote Springs Brewing Co. (on 20th Street) has been around. It has served customers in St. Louis; Portland, OR; and Butte, MT; and you can ask the bartender to point out a bullet hole that's said to be more than 100 years old. Coyote Springs is a beer place, with a board listing the specifications for beers on tap and details about those in the works.

If you want real Wild West, consider a trip to Prescott, about an hour and a half drive to the northwest. Prescott was first an Indian outpost, then a thriving mining and trading community in the 1800s. Whiskey Row ran along one side of the town square, and the Palace Bar -- built in 1877 -- was its jewel. In 1900, a fire ravaged the Palace and most of Whiskey Row. Patrons carried the Palace's ornately carved Brunswick bar to safety across the street, where they allegedly resumed drinking.

The Palace, rebuilt soon after the fire, was fully restored in 1996. It still has the magnificent bar, but is as much a steak-and-seafood restaurant today as a saloon. Fat Tire from New Belgium Brewing Co. is on tap, along with a variety of mainstream offerings. If you want small batch beer, try Moctezuma's a few doors down on Montezuma Street. It's a down-to-earth place offering everything from mass-produced beers to micros from its 13 taps. Or head to the south side of the square to Prescott Brewing Co., an award-winning brewpub with excellent food.

6. Grab a $2 beer during a trip to the ballpark.
Leinenkugel's Ballyard Brewery sells 18-ounce glasses of its beer for $2 while games are in progress at Bank One Ballpark, a few steps away. Smart and thrifty fans often ask for a pass out from the park, run over to the brewpub for a beer and then head back to the game. The brewpub, named the best in the country in 1998 by Nightclub and Bar magazine, is understandably crowded on game days. Patrons have been known to consume 10 barrels of beers (that's more than 150 cases of 12-ounce bottles) on those days.

7. Buy a jar of Guinness from somebody named Seamus.
Seamus McCaffrey was the first bar owner in Arizona to offer Guinness on tap, back in 1986. After operating the Dubliner and Blarney Stone, he opened McCaffrey's Irish Pub six years ago. He's from Belfast, and so is much of the other stuff in this downtown pub that feels likes a pub.

8. Have a beer underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
Alcatraz Brewing Co. is right across from Rainforest Cafe at the expansive Arizona Mills Circle Mall in Tempe, but it doesn't give an inch to the well-known theme restaurant when it comes to "eatertainment." Inside the brewpub, searchlights beam from a replica of the Alcatraz lighthouse, and you can hear foghorns, barking seals and cable car bells. A free-standing, 65-foot-long replica of the Golden Gate Bridge runs above the bar area, and there's a 3-D mural of escapees attempting to row a small boat to freedom. Alcatraz beers have won GABF and World Beer Cup medals, and its food is way above mall food court standards, although not as expensive as California Cafe, the white-tablecloth restaurants under the same ownership.

9. Have a beer outside (at least on the days they aren't frying eggs on the sidewalk).
It's hard to decide which view is more impressive: standing outside the Bank One Ballpark and looking at the Ballyard Brewery, which has patio seating running the length of the brewpub and a balcony above that; or looking up at Gordon Biersch Brewing Co., which commands the corner of Mill and Fifth in Tempe and also offers spectacular balcony seating.

There are less palatial but equally delightful choices. Uptown in Tempe is part of an office complex with a pond in the middle and water running over the rocks beside the pub's shaded patio. In the Coyote Springs on 20th Street, you can watch traffic crawl by on Camelback during rush hour, and at Four Peaks admire the brewery's Mission Revival-style brick work.

10. Worship at the church of beer.
The Timberwolf Pub offers more draft choices than all but one other bar in America (the Yard House in Long Beach, CA), with all 150 taps pouring beer 90 percent of the time. Like its parent in Houston, it is decorated to look like a Yukon lodge. "If you have 16 taps, you have to go with whatever sells the most. We have the luxury of those other taps," said general manager Dave Keiper. "We can take a chance and put on a keg two months before anybody else."

This was written after a trip to Phoenix in early 1999.