Matt Smith

Matt Smith is the founder and owner of Wandering Soul Beer, a craft beer brand based in Beverly, Massachusetts, as well as Hidden Path Brew, a non-alcoholic beverage line. Smith has been in the beer industry for approximately fifteen years, working for other breweries and home brewing before launching his own brand. The business was born from profound personal tragedy: in 2017, his daughter Melody was stillborn at full term, and Smith channeled his grief into creating Melody Maker, a New England-style hazy pale ale that became the foundation of Wandering Soul Beer. The brand gained traction quickly, with its best year coming in 2020 during the pandemic when sales reached nearly half a million dollars. Smith shut the business down at the end of 2022, feeling he had accomplished what he set out to do and wanting to exit on a high note, but brought it back the following year after repeated customer requests. He now works with a distributor after seven years of personal delivery, runs operations from his home office, and is focused on maintaining a healthy separation between his business identity and personal life.