While there's lots of great beer to be found, sometimes that is the hardest part, finding it. We hunt out good liquor stores, bars and brewpubs and we thought it was about time we started sharing some of our favorites with you. We recently stumbled across Berman's Wine & Spirits in Lexington, MA after Matt Steinberg of Mayflower Brewing mentioned his beer was sold there. Our first visit was for an emergency beer buy(yes we realize that sounds ridiculous but we had to pair a beer for an event and only had no time to waste). While in the store I noticed one of the staff was helping a woman buy beer for a BBQ she was having. She wanted to pick up a fruit beer but didn't know what to get. The employee was extremely helpful and guided her through a series of good craft beer offerings while sharing his opinion of one's he'd personally tried and being honest about one's he had not. While lots of stores can stock a lot of beer, having good people at a store can be worth even more. Fortunately after a few visits to Berman's we've found that they have both selection and great staff. Oh, and lets not overlook their awesome discount policy where you get 10% off if you buy 4 or more bombers! That employee that helped that customer turned out to be Jesse Dooley, Berman's beer manager. We took a few minutes to talk to him a little bit about the store and what got him so interested in beer.
DCB: How long has the shop been around?
Dooley: We recently celebrated our 100th anniversary. We have been in business since 1909 and has been family run in Lexington ever since.
DCB: When did craft beer become a focus for the store?
Dooley: We have had the basics like the Sierra Nevada's and Longtrails for as long as I can remember but a real focus took place about 3 years ago when I took over the beer buying.
DCB:What got you in to craft beer, or beer in general?
Dooley: No one thing in particular. I made a decision to try and learn about beer and what made one style different from another. Beer pairings with food was another real big part of my interest as I have always been a bit of a foodie. I have personally put alot of time care, effort and drinking into this store. If anyone has questions please don't hesitate to ask me. I don't have an encyclopedic selection but what I do have is picked with love. Thanks Again!
While Jesse may not see the selection as encyclopedic we'd argue that it's better than most. As he mentions it's clearly picked with care. The wall of bombers and 750's tucked in the back left corner (go directly there when you go in) has Pretty Things full catalog, tons of Allagash offerings, as well as Port Brewing, Bear Republic, Southern Tier and many many others. The review could go on and on about the selection really including a great wall of Belgian offerings but we'll just put it simply. It would be nearly impossible to come to this store and not leave with some seriously tasty brew at a good price. This is undoubtedly one of our favorite stores now.
Devon and Jeff here. We just wanted to say thanks to everybody who came out to the 
We have a lot of new events in the works, so keep watching DrinkCraftBeer.com!
For those in the craft beer scene New Glarus is one of those famed breweries that we all know about but many don't get to try. The reason for this is New Glarus only sells their beer in one state, Wisconsin. Fortunately for us a friend recently brought back some of their beers for us to try. In short, the hype is real, the beer is amazing and we need to make it out to Wisconsin now to go buy more. Raspberry Tart, perhaps the most famous beer from New Glarus, did not disappoint. We rarely enjoy fruit beers but you know something is good when 6 guys sitting around having some drinks all exclaim various versions of "wow," "delicious" and "amazing" upon first sip. This beer goes beyond beer, it's really more like sparkling raspberry juice that is also somehow miraculously beer. While very sweet it's in no way cloying and it doesn't wear on your pallet like many sweeter beers do. Raspberry Tart seems to walk some perfect line that no other fruit beer we've tried has been able to do, perhaps that's why it's so well known. 
Millstream Brewing Company John's Grocery Generation's White Ale 
We love local food almost as much as we love local beer. When we found out that Sweet Tomatoes in Osterville, MA had started featuring local beer at their restaurant we needed to find out more. Sweet Tomatoes serves gourmet pizza featuring fresh ingredients. Their flavors range from the staples like pepperoni to house specials like the "Pizza Sarah" which includes goat cheese, bacon, caramelized onions and mozzarella. Darren Bagley-Heath, proprietor of Sweet Tomatoes Osterville, MA, grew up in the UK and found himself missing his local "free house." For those not familiar with the term, a free house is simply a local pub, not tied to a specific brewery as many are in the UK, featuring local beer. Don't dismiss this effort as a simple recreation of a British Pub across the pond, Sweet Tomatoes has made a conscientious effort to take the essence of the British tradition and add American craft beer flavor. We decided to talk to Bagley-Heath and get some more details on how this new focus came to be.
DCB: Well we can certainly agree with that, what beers have you decided to focus on?