Well, as we've said before, we here at DrinkCraftBeer.com like local beer. But you don't have to be small to be local. Having produced 105,000 barrels of craft beer per year, they're definitely one of the bigger breweries in Massachusetts. And, with their IPA, 100 Barrel Series and an array of other quality brews, they are definitely putting out some delicious and drinkable beers! We corresponded with Michael Smith, one of the brewers in their Boston facility, about how he got his start, what he likes about brewing, where he sees the industry going and more. Here's what he had to say:

DCB: How’d you get into brewing? Did you homebrew?
Michael Smith: My mother gave me a homebrew kit for my twenty-first birthday.  It really opened my eyes to the fact that people actually make beer—it doesn’t just come from the package store.  I read the Charlie Papazian book, then some Michael Jackson, and really became interested in all the different styles of beer and how they evolved.  I am fascinated by the convergence of history, geography, economics, science and good beer.

A couple months ago we began noticing an interesting trend. People who used to bring light beer to a party were now bringing Blue Moon, a witbier made by Coors. For us this is both good and bad. It's good because people are looking beyond a typical light beer, but we felt like people were missing out on so much. The selection of witbiers made by craft breweries is quite vast and we wanted to help showcase some of the other options out there. In our minds there were much better offerings than Blue Moon, but we wanted to see what other people thought.

Above: One of ourt tasters takes notes

A while back, in a move that surprised many in the Craft Beer community, Bell’s Brewing Company pulled out of the lucrative Illinois market over an issue with distributors. They distribution rights were sold to a larger house who did not want to deal with their entire line, but just a few of the best sellers. Larry Bell and his crew, worried that this new company would not fully have the best interests of the Kalamazoo company at heart and would not know how to best service a craft label such as Bell’s, opted to pull their business out of Illinois rather than work with a distributor who was not fully behind them.

While this could easily turn into an article about franchise law and how distribution works, it won’t. A quick summary is in order, though. As many of you know, Illinois has a three tier beer distribution system. Tier 1, the producer, brews the beer. Tier 2, the distributor, takes the beer from the producer then sells and ships it to the retailer. Tier 3, the retailer, then sells it to you, the consumer. Due to the nature of the brewing industry in post-prohibition America, with huge breweries and mostly small distributors, laws were put in place that make it virtually impossible to leave a distributor without good cause. Not carrying all your brands does not count in this case. This is why Bell’s left Illinois, rather than go to a different distributor.

So where are we going with this? Well, as you know, we like to keep you up to date on what’s coming down the pipeline for new beers. On our latest check, we found the labels to the right.

Now, this is fine. People put out new beers all the time. In fact, we love it! What’s curious is the line on the back: “Brewed especially for the people of the great state of Illinois.”

Is Bell’s putting out a new line of protest beers in their existing markets? Maybe some novelty bottles for a brewery only beer? I don’t know. I’m intrigued, though, as everything I’ve had by these guys during “Devon and Jeff Drink the Great Lakes” rocked!

We attempted to contact Bell's for this story, and got no response to our inquiries. For now, we're still in the dark as to what's going on.

In conjunction with our article, "A Battle Of Wits: Craft Beer Takes On Blue Moon", we're featuring 3 witbiers for your enjoyment. Summer is winding down, but it's not over. With a holiday weekend approaching we wanted to give you sampling of great summer beers that go down easy.

This month's tasting will be held on August 30th at Bauer Wine and Spirits on Newbury St from 5-7pm.

So, without further ado, we present you with our August selections!

Avery White Rascal
Appearance: White cloudy fluffy head; it's like Bob Ross in a pint glass...happy little clouds. Hazy very light straw color.
Smell: Light banana, wheaty

Taste: This beer is nice and light with smooth earthy tones. It's falvorful without being heaving in any way and is just plain refreshing. There is a nice wheat balance in this beer that makes it smooth. In short, this beer rocks, despite the creepy dude (rascal?) on the label.

Why we like it:
1. It's wonderfully refreshing... it's 93 degrees on the porch and this hits the spot
2. Lots of flavor for a light colored beer
3. It won the taste test












Allagash White
Appearance: Golden Hazy
Smell: Lots of wheat and a slight hint of banana

Taste: More body than many wits we've tasted. Quite dry, hint of lemon. Strong wheat finish. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't enjoy this beer.

Why we like it:
1. Another nice wit, simply put
2. Very easy drinking... We could certainly have a few
3. It's still really hot out and this helps















Otter Creek White Sail
Appearance: Very light very clear for style, white fluffy head
Smell: Sweet, lightly citrusy, wheat

Taste: Nice light orange flavor. Its the flavor we wish the whittier white had pulled off. And just by chance, we also happened drink this on another 90 deree day and it went down VERY easy. This may not have been in our blind taste test, but that doesn't mean it isn't every bit as good as the ones that were.

Why we like it:
1. Breaks a bit from style, not too hazy, and tastes a bit more like a regular ale with bit of wheat rather than a "wheat beer"
2. Nice citrus flavor without being overwhelming.
3. It tastes different and after trying a bunch of witbiers, that's nice