Massachusetts Craft Breweries Celebrate Landmark Achievement

Farmers Market Sales Now Legal

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — After six years and three legislative sessions, the Massachusetts craft beer industry is celebrating a major milestone: breweries across the Commonwealth can now sell their products at farmers markets, joining cider and wine producers. This change is made possible by Governor Healey’s signing of the sweeping Economic Development bill yesterday.

The legislation provides craft breweries equal access to local markets, allowing direct sales to consumers for off-site consumption. Previously, breweries could only offer samples at agricultural events or obtain permits for beer gardens where pints were consumed on-site. The inability to sell to-go products at farmers markets limited opportunities for breweries to showcase their beers and connect with their communities.

“This is a monumental step forward for more than 230 breweries across Massachusetts,” said Adam Romanow, president of the Mass Brewers Guild and founder and CEO of Castle Island Brewing Co. “Farmers markets offer an invaluable platform to connect with customers, support local agriculture, and promote taproom visits. We’re thrilled for our craft beer community to have this new avenue for sales and visibility.”

Beyond driving brewery growth, the measure is expected to create jobs across the state and strengthen ties between breweries and local farms. Many breweries source ingredients such as malt and hops from Massachusetts farms, and this expanded access will enable them to deepen these partnerships, fostering a more interconnected, resilient economy.

“When breweries succeed, the ripple effect benefits farmers, suppliers, and everyone involved in bringing local craft beer to life,” Romanow added. “This law supports small businesses, stimulates job creation, and enhances community connections. We extend our heartfelt thanks and raise our glasses to the Healey/Driscoll administration, House Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka, House Majority Leader Michael Moran, and Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem. We also applaud the hard work of the Economic Development conference committee led by Chairman Aaron Michlewitz and Chairman Barry Finegold. Advancement of this measure would not be possible without our passionate original bill sponsors Senator Jaime Eldridge and Representative Adam Scanlon as well as our numerous co-sponsors and various committees who championed this legislation.”

About the Mass Brewers Guild
The Mass Brewers Guild is the state’s non-profit trade association dedicated to promoting and protecting the interests of Massachusetts craft brewers. Through advocacy, education, and community-building efforts, the Guild supports its members and ensures a thriving beer culture in the Commonwealth. For more information, visit massbrewersguild.org.

10 Breweries New to Massachusetts in 2023-24

Tom Allen (left) and Matt Guernsey launched Arlington Brewing Co. in 2023.

Economic growth in the craft beer market slowed nationwide in 2023, but the bubble isn’t bursting, according to Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson. Today’s educated consumer wants variety and innovation, Watson said in his keynote address at the annual Massachusetts Brewers Guild conference in November 2023, Brewbound reported, adding, “that sounds exactly like the kind of thing that craft can excel at.”

In Massachusetts, entrepreneurs prove this true every year with new breweries, taprooms and ideas — and 2023 was no exception. Despite some closures, more than a dozen taprooms opened across the Commonwealth. The list of new breweries in Massachusetts includes second locations for MBG members Mighty Squirrel, White Lion, Bright Ideas, and Untold brewing companies. Among more than a dozen novel beer businesses that opened in 2023 — and 2024 so far — are 10 new members of the Mass Brewers Guild.

Meet the MBG freshman Class

Hot Plate brewing co.

The lore of this seven-barrel brewery in Pittsfield is that owner and founder Sarah Real dialed in her beer recipes on an electric hot plate. Since February 2023, the taproom and public house she co-owns with husband Mike Dell’Aquila welcomes all with a diverse selection of beer and gluten-free beverages, while giving back to the community by using local ingredients and supporting nonprofits.

Portico Brewing in Somerville has a pop-up kitchen from Taqueria el Barrio.

Portico Brewing

A longtime contract brewery, Portico opened its first taproom in Somerville just in time for Earth Day in April 2023. Founders Alex Rabe and Alex Zielke counter the brewery’s energy and material usage with positive actions to benefit the community and the planet, like brewing Earth Hour Pale Ale with 100% local malt. The Somerville spot also features a pop-up kitchen from Taqueria el Barrio.

Outrider Ber Company 

Beer industry buds Anthony Lauring and Carl McCowen teamed up to open this community-focused brewpub in Amesbury in May 2023. Along with house beers like Joystick IPA and Medium Delight Dubbel, there’s a wide menu of comfort food like steak and cheese eggrolls, falafel-topped salads, sandwiches, burgers and more. 

Antimony Brewing

On Memorial Day, beer fans in the Berkshires welcomed a new brewpub in Lenox. Chemical engineer-turned-restaurateur Rob Trask oversees a seven-barrel brewhouse and kitchen at Antimony, dishing up brewpub fare such as fried cheese curds with IPA honey mustard, sourdough pizzas, grilled steak, and fish tacos.

Long Live Roxbury has a distinctive look.

Live Long beerworks Roxbury 

One of Rhode Island’s biggest names in beer added a Massachusetts outpost in the summer of 2023. Long Live Beerworks gives a colorful makeover to an 1850s piano factory-turned-15-barrel brewery in Roxbury, frequently hosting Boston-exclusive beer drops and events like Thursday night jazz and weekend food pop-ups.

Doctor’s Island Brewing company

Gregory Hoffmeister and his beer-loving family opened this scenic spot last summer on Nantasket Beach. Doctor’s Island returns at the end of April for its second season with small-batch beers and waterfront, sunset views of the Boston skyline from Hull. 

Epigram Brewing Co. 

Epigram Brewing Co. debuted in Tyngsboro in October. The sprawling beer hall has been a hit with Merrimack Valley locals since day one, with an ample beer selection, plenty of seats, and a full food menu, including hard-to-find in the area South Shore-style bar pizza.

Forty Second Brew Co. 

Forty Second Brewing Co. opened a comfortable taproom in Kingston in November 2023, a few years after neighbors Paul Schiele and Matt Ward began brewing together as a hobby. Now, their beers like Three Sheets to the Wind IPA, Down the Hatch Pilsner, and more are self-distributed.

Liz Nicol is the founder and head brewer at Drawdown Brewing Company in Jamaica Plain, Boston.

Drawdown Brewing 

Since opening in December 2023 with a stated mission to be an inclusive spot for viewing sports, Drawdown has drawn crowds to Jamaica Plain, particularly for women’s college basketball. Owner and head brewer Liz Nicol is offering malt-forward brews like a cream ale and porter.

Arlington Brewing Company 

As engineers and Arlington residents Tom Allen and Matt Guernsey look for a permanent home for their hometown brewery, they’re producing cans like Spy-P-A and My New GF, a gluten-free saison. ABCo. has a pop-up taproom Friday nights through April 26 at the Roasted Granola Cafe in Arlington.

Meet the Industry Insider Behind This Year's Mass Beer Week Artwork

Mass Beer Week returns March 2-9 with a logo designed by one of the industry’s own. Zach Manza, founder of Manza Media and an employee at Shovel Town Brewery in Easton, is the winner of the second annual fan-voted art contest hosted by the Massachusetts Brewers Guild. Manza’s original artwork will be used on collectible glassware available at participating breweries throughout Mass Beer Week, and across all promotional materials for the statewide celebration of craft beer.

Illustrator and Shovel Town Brewery cook Zach Manza designed the 2024 Mass Beer Week logo.

Manza, a lifelong illustrator, took inspiration from scenes across the Bay State for this year’s Mass Beer Week design. The Mashpee resident explains, “the western part is a can, and then it spills over” into the South Shore and Cape Cod. He credits his wife and muse, Stephanie, with the idea to center the landscape on a spilled can of beer, which relates to his day job and fits in with his playful, whimsical style. 

Manza works in the kitchen at Shovel Town, takes photos for the brewery’s social media, and also collaborates with the marketing team to design label art. He started as a line cook two years ago, and has since reimagined the Easton company’s branding to feature a shovel-shaped template on every can. Consistent imagery is more marketable than the outsourced, can-by-can artwork Shovel Town previously commissioned, and collaborating with their employees fits the vibe of a local craft brewery, Manza says. His bosses, coworkers, and fellow craft beer fans “love that kind of community, where a guy who works here does the cans.”

Shovel Town Brewery’s redesigned cans. / Art and photo by Zach Manza

In January 2023, Manza also painted a full-scale wall mural inside the Easton taproom. The large, hand-drawn piece was a challenge for the self-taught illustrator, who likens his style to mid-century children’s books like Corduroy and Harry the Dirty Dog and typically uses pencil and watercolor (or, their digital equivalents on the illustration app Procreate). 

Manza, who grew up in New Jersey, moved to Massachusetts after high school and has been a freelance illustrator ever since. He has illustrated many children’s books, including the Puffa the Lionhead Bun series, but publishing is a competitive industry with fairly low pay for artists, he shares. “In the brewery space, anybody with a creative thing will end up wearing different hats,” says Manza, who is also a musician. “I’m being compensated, and I love being in it.”

Zach Manza designed and painted an indoor mural at Shovel Town Brewery. / Photo by Zach Manza

Manza’s art will emblazon social media fliers, glassware and T-shirts to highlight Mass Beer Week and help drive traffic and tourism to our state’s breweries. Sales of the collector's glass—this year, 17-ounce Sidra tumblers—are a fundraiser to support the Mass Brewers Guild’s mission to promote craft beer in the Bay State.

Besides bragging rights, the artist received cash and a prize pack from the MBG for submitting the winning design. 

Mass Beer Week runs Saturday to Saturday during the first week of March. Visit breweries throughout the state to get this year’s collectible glassware. To learn more about Mass Beer Week, check out massbeerweek.org

Massachusetts Craft Brewers Festival is for local brewers, by local brewers

Our marquee event returns with a new name and the same dedication to Bay State beer.

What better way to support Massachusetts craft breweries than with a big ol’ beer fest? So that’s exactly what we at the MBG are doing: Bringing our fans and friends together for our biggest fundraiser of the year. The Massachusetts Craft Brewers Festival, coming up on Saturday, April 29, at the Cyclorama in Boston, showcases more than 40 local breweries pouring the beers they’re most excited to share.

Known as the Power Beer Fest since our first foray in 2017, we changed the name this year to amplify that the Massachusetts Craft Brewers Festival is run by local brewers, for local brewers.

From the Berkshires to the South Shore, areas throughout the state are represented in the brewery lineup. With great anticipation, we’re watching as they share their draft lists ahead of the festival: Beer fans will have a chance to try:

• Holy Schnitt! Munich Helles by True North Ale Co., a 2022 Best of Craft Beer bronze medal winner

• Quaffable Waffle Blueberry Pastry Stout by Bright Ideas Brewing

• a plethora of New England IPAs

• a few flavor-forward finds from new-to-Mass. brewery Long Live Beerworks

• and many, many more. (Here’s where we remind everybody to please drink responsibly!)

Check out the growing beer list here.

As the beverage landscape has changed and craft brewers are producing more seltzers and hard ciders, so, too, has our festival adapted. New this year: There will be a limited number of non-beer offerings available from breweries making alternative drinks. 

We’ll have water stations available, so BYO bottle to fill. Attendees are also welcome to bring snacks and pretzel necklaces. Our friends and food purveyors The Burgundunian, The Sausage Guy, and Wild Fox Pierogi will be on hand with more substantial fare for sale. Hands full? No problem. Phygit Foods will be selling pretzel necklaces and wearable snacks with proceeds benefiting the Federation for Children with Special Needs.

Sound fun? You better get tickets soon—the first session is nearly sold out. 

The Massachusetts Craft Brewers Festival spans two sessions, from 1-4:30 p.m. and 6-9:30 p.m. Tickets are $55 for general admission and $10 for designated drivers and available on Eventbrite. As always, all ticket proceeds support the Mass Brewers Guild’s mission to protect and promote the interests of craft brewers. 

Buy This Shirt & Support Local Breweries

Hello Incredible Craft Beer Family: 

As the world stops to aid in the battle against COVID-19, local breweries that depend on bustling taprooms and open restaurants are being especially hard hit right now.  

Proceeds from the sale of this shirt will directly benefit the Mass Brewers Guild, the state’s trade association that exists to support the brewing community and assist them through this difficult time.

T-Shirts are available in men’s and women’s sizes XS to 4XL and are $25-$28 ea. + shipping. 
Presale orders are being accepted now through April 24. Click HERE to order yours today.

 What does the Mass Brewers Guild do?

• We serve as the unified voice on Beacon Hill, advocating for our breweries at the legislative level. As social distancing protocols change the way our businesses can operate, we work to keep them open and seek other avenues within the law for them to generate revenue. 

• We provide resources regarding the state and federal relief packages so they can access the critical aid they need to navigate these next few months. 

• We serve as central command for questions and advice, and help to keep our brewing family connected and informed in this ever changing landscape. 

 Please help us to continue to help our brewers. 

Stay home and stay safe, and have fresh #MABeer delivered to right your doorstep or take advantage of contactless-curbside pickup.

 Thank you for all you do for us. 

With gratitude,
Katie Stinchon 
Executive Director 
Mass Brewers Guild