State regulators are investigating the accusations of Somerville brewer Dann Paquette, who touched off an online firestorm when he said two popular Boston bars were refusing to carry his company’s beers because other brewers or distributors paid illegal bribes to reserve taps there.  In a series of impassioned, late-night posts on Twitter this week, Dann Paquette, the co-founder of Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project, said so-called “dirty lines” were the reason his beer is not served at the Lower Depths Tap Room in Kenmore Square and Bukowski Tavern in the Back Bay.  Paquette and other beer insiders allege such “pay-to-play” schemes are widespread at Boston bars and restaurants, and that it is hurting small breweries trying to make a name for themselves.Boston is a pay to play town and we're often shut out for draft lines along with many beers you may love.— PrettyBeer (@PrettyBeer) October 14, 2014  Boston is a pay to play town and we're often shut out for draft lines along with many beers you may love.  “Boston is a pay-to-play town and we’re often shut out for [draught] lines, along with many [other] beers you may love,” Paquette wrote on Twitter. “A great beer culture deserves more than greedy, shifty bar owners and brewers [trying] to fill their pockets.”  Can anyone guess why we're not served @bukowskiboston or @LowerDepthsBOS and other from that group? Correct, we won't illegally buy lines  Paquette created a hashtag, #dirtylines, to spur online debate. As his tweets gained traction, other brewers took to the Internet to cheer Paquette on. Many of them have long complained that when their salespeople approach bars, they are told that the lines are already “committed” to other brands that were willing to pay or give away free kegs in exchange for prime tap spots. But until now, those brewers have been reluctant to make their gripes public, saying they feared angering the establishments they count on to market and sell their beer to consumers.  “I was just fed up that nobody was speaking out,” Paquette said in an interview. “I thought somebody had to jump into the fire and maybe get in trouble.”  The rant also got the attention of regulators at the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, or ABCC.  “Now that this incident has been brought to our attention, we are looking into it,” said Chandra Allard, a spokeswoman for Treasurer Steven Grossman, whose office oversees the ABCC. “If the allegations of wrongdoing are found to be true, we will go forward accordingly.”  @EZembeck @beermetarbender This law is pro-consumer, there is no argument on that. Pay to play increase price, decreases selection.  While the practice is common in other industries -- many restaurants and stores sell only Pepsi or Coke products and receive signs and coolers in exchange, for example -- payola for liquor and beer is explicitly illegal under Massachusetts and federal laws and regulations.  State regulators have said they receive few complaints about pay-to-play practices, and that the complaints they do receive tend to be petty spats between competing bars that are difficult to substantiate. The Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission has not taken any enforcement actions based on fair play complaints in at least 18 years, a spokesman said.  Gordon Wilcox, whose Wilcox Hospitality Group owns the two bars named in the rant, responded with a blistering open letter saying he “never asked [Paquette] for a damn thing.”  “Though [the] practice of giving away kegs or other gifts to move product may be common with other companies, I am forced to question your own practices,” Wilcox wrote to Paquette. ”[I] will not serve your inferior product.”  Wilcox’s letter did not explicitly address whether his company had ever accepted payments or gifts in exchange for tap placement. He said his restaurants did not carry Pretty Things’s beers because they were far more expensive than other similar brews, though Paquette disputes the accuracy of the prices Wilcox detailed in his letter. Wilcox did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Paquette said Wilcox is understandably angry at being singled out.  “In this town, it’s how business is done,” said Paquette, who guessed that more than half of Boston’s bars and restaurants engage in pay-to-play. “I could totally see why people would be upset when the norm is disturbed.”  Scoring draught lines at bars and restaurants is vital, brewers say. That’s because beer aficionados usually buy their old favorites at package stores, but are willing to try a glass of something new at their trusted local bar, which imparts a kind of implicit endorsement on the beers it serves.  “If the brewery is a band, I liken draught beer to the radio. You won’t buy the record if you don’t hear the single on the radio and get exposed to it,” Paquette said. “Draught beer is the least profitable part of our business, but it’s where we get the most exposure.”  Craft beer is booming, growing 17 percent by volume from 2012 to 2013, according to the Brewers Association. But even as more and more hobbyists jump in the game by founding their own microbreweries and brewpubs, the overall beer market slumped slightly, the association found, ratcheting up the pressure on brewers to hang onto their slice of a shrinking pie.  If pay-to-play goes unchecked, Paquette said, it could stanch the tide of new breweries.  “There’s stuff you don’t see when you’re just homebrewing two days a week and trying to raise money for a business,” he said. “These new breweries are in for a rude awakening.”
A Somerville brewer says two Boston bars won’t serve his beers because other brands have illegally paid to “reserve” tap lines. Worse, he alleges, the practice is widespread.