Published June 16, 2010

The New York Times reported last week that Boston Beer Company — which “helped create the red-hot small-beer movement when it introduced Sam Adams 26 years ago” — is in danger of losing its “craft” beer status. The company is getting too big.

“If we’re not a craft brewer,” said Jim Koch, president of Boston Beer, to the Times, “what else are we? We’re certainly not Budweiser.” (Don’t miss WBUR’s interview with Koch back in April.)

Sen. John Kerry has introduced a bill that would increase the production limit of small breweries from two to six million barrels a year.

Last night, I met a Cambridge couple that is definitely not in danger of losing their craft beer status — but they are growing fast. Dann Paquette and his wife, Martha Holley-Paquette, hand-brew Pretty Things beer. And they’re one of the few brewers left inside of 128, they say. (Pretty Things can’t officially be called a “brewery,” since federal law forbids that label unless they own the equipment.)

Pull up a chair. Dann Paquette and Martha Holley-Paquette brew Pretty Things artisan beer in Cambridge. (Andrew Phelps/WBUR)

My foodie friends rave about the stuff, and I came away impressed after a tasting at Deep Ellum in Allston. I sampled the flagship Jack D’or, whose mascot is a dancing, mustachioed barley corn; the complex Baby Tree, which is made with dried plums; and the rustic Field Mouse’s Farewell, the late spring seasonal.

Paquette has been brewing beer for about 18 years (after a stint as producer for “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”). The couple launched Pretty Things almost three years ago on $10,000 in capital. In the first year, Paquette says, they sold $180,000. Their brews are served at a number of high-quality establishments in Boston, and they’ve just hired the first employee, a sales rep, to branch out in New York and Philadelphia.

And it’s clearly a craft. Paquette tends to every ingredient and detail, even using a microscope to inspect for bacteria in the final product. The two designed the fantastical labels themselves, and each bottle is inscribed with poetry about that brew.

I interview them for a future radio story on Radio Boston. Look for a post on Public Radio Kitchen later this week.