Beverly 'Wandering Soul' Brewer Plans Comeback After Hiatus

BEVERLY, MA — Matt Smith, the Beverly brewer who founded and distributed the popular line of "Wandering Soul" craft beers for four years before announcing plans for an "indefinite hiatus" this past fall, is making plans for a comeback.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Smith said: "I just wanted to say that Wandering Soul is coming back. I'm really excited about it. I'm bad at keeping secrets, I guess, so I needed to say something here."

A former homebrewer who still test pilots beers out of his licensed Beverly shed, Smith founded Wandering Soul and its flagship beer Melody Maker in 2018 as a tribute to his daughter, Melody, who was stillborn. The Wandering Soul line of beers was distributed throughout the state, and beyond, before Smith said in September that he was stepping away from brewing to focus on his mental and physical health, as well as spend more time with his two young daughters.

"I am so beyond proud of what has been built with Wandering Soul," he posted in a handwritten note at the time. "I feel that I've accomplished what I set out to do — build a legacy for Melody while helping others struggling with loss."

He said at the time that he hoped to bring Wandering Soul back in some form at some point, thus calling the December ramp-down an "indefinite hiatus."

"I spent the last several months thinking about what direction I want to take my life in," he told Patch on Tuesday. "I think I just really needed a reset from being in the beer industry. I have been in it for 10 years now.

"But the more I was away from it the more I realized I missed it."

He called brewing Wandering Soul "a life purpose," adding that "it's more than just making beer for me. It's a lot more than that."

"I'm bringing it back because I realized there is a community around it," Smith said. "You guys have shown the support to me and that this has resonated with so many of you. ... The truth is that I really miss it. I miss what I, and what we, were doing."

He said that "there is a beer in the tank right now" that is getting packaged next week — what he calls a "big, big IPA" named "Dark Clouds Must Pass." He termed the 9.5 percent ABV beer — which is based on his Ales for ALS brew "The Theory of Synchronicity" — a New England triple IPA.

He said a new batch of "Melody Maker" is also coming in June.

"When I started brewing that in 2018 it took me a solid year to get the recipe right," he said. "I did it, like, 20 times. Where I landed was the same exact recipe that it is today for that beer."

He said another branch of Wandering Soul called "Hidden Path" will debut this summer featuring non-alcohol beers and beverages. He added that "conversations have opened up again" around a potential taproom and that he hopes to have an update on that soon.

"I feel like I have learned a lot over the last few months," he told Patch. "Some of that learning has already gone into practice with the new beers."

Smith said he will continue to self-distribute in order to control where the beer is sold and added that he counts on Beverly stores and restaurants for the majority of his sales.

"I'm humbled by this project every day," he said. "Putting something personal out into the world and having people respond to it is one of the most powerful forces for me personally, and it's been a driving factor in why this is coming back.

"There is still work to do. ... It's too important to go away. So here we are."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)