Joe Zimmermann, Correspondent

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Beer is about as old as society itself, but the methods of producing the alcoholic beverage continue to change. Recent decades have seen a surge in the number of small breweries — known as microbreweries or craft breweries — that brew in smaller batches and are usually independently owned.

In Maryland, the first microbreweries began to pop up in the early 1990s, with a boom around 1996. The number gradually increased until another spike in 2011, when six opened in the state — a pace that hasn’t slowed since.