Serving Beer with a Social Mission Chaser
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTINA RAHR LANE
On a chilly February evening, the wind whipped snow flurries around downtown Pittsfield, but the vibe inside Hot Plate Brewing Co. was plenty warm. It was the first night of the city’s 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival, when local businesses and arts organizations sponsor 10 days of crowd-pleasing cultural events and activities. Sarah Real, who runs Hot Plate with her husband, Mike Dell’Aquila, had pledged to host 10 themed events at the brewery and to create a new beer for each evening event. This tells you a lot about Sarah. When she’s in, she’s all in. “We saw it as an opportunity to continue doing what we’ve been doing in the community in a very intense way,” she says.
Featured on the evening we visited: a new brew called “Astonishing Ms. Airy Brown Ale,” served in 500-ml wax-sealed bottles, sporting a colorful label created by artist Jesse Tobin-McCauley, who designs all Hot Plate’s labels. Jesse was at the event as well, seated at a table in the corner, working on 10 paintings that would later be donated to the Berkshire Art Association’s Real Art Party. There was a musician laying down mellow beats on a keyboard as patrons sidled up to the bar, gathered around tables, or got cozy on a big leather sofa. A little white terrier snuggled on his person’s lap, occasionally being fed a bit of pizza; a rambunctious Bernese mountain dog settled down under a table and gnawed on a chew toy; a toddler examined the artwork; and we tucked into Brazilian food, ordered from nearby Espetinho Carioca and delivered right to us.
A THIRD PLACE
When they opened Hot Plate in February of 2023, Sarah and Mike had more in mind than just beer. “We really wanted to make a third space for the community,” Sarah says, referring to those places that are neither home nor work but serve as welcoming and inclusive gathering spots. The couple has come a long way toward achieving that goal. Sarah is the passionate and inventive brewer, intent on using local produce and hops as much as possible; Mike is the marketing and creative force and can often be found behind the bar, where he chats up customers to get feedback on Sarah’s brews. “Sarah has a passion for operations and she’s much more mechanically inclined,” says Mike. “Storytelling and bringing the brand to life is in my wheelhouse.” Both are committed to three core values: craft, community, and conservation. Their pre-Pittsfield lives tell us a lot about that commitment and how they came to live out those values in the Berkshires.
Mike and Sarah met at Penn State, where, Sarah says, “you drink a lot of bad beer. It was just quantity over quality.” After graduation, in 2005, they drove cross-country and made a stop at New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado. “I walked in and, at the time, they just had a little taproom and everyone was having a great time, and I was like, ‘I want to do this. Whatever this is, I love it,’” Sarah recalls. But Mike, the more practical of the two, suggested that it might be easier to pay the rent if they used their degrees and landed professional jobs. After a short time in California, they moved to New York, where Mike got a job as a copywriter at Macy’s and Sarah joined Turner Broadcasting as a research analyst. But both had been bitten by the beer bug.
Over the years, they tinkered with home brewing in their Brooklyn apartment, took a class at a home brew shop in their neighborhood, and attended beer festivals. And then Sarah heard about Pink Boots Society, an organization that supports women and nonbinary people working in the fermented beverages industry. She wanted in but, as someone who did not yet work in the industry, did not meet the membership criteria. Still she badgered her local chapter until they relented and allowed her to attend meetings. “From there, all bets were off because everyone was so open, and I got really spoiled,” she says. “I was able to make great connections with them.” A few years later, those connections and the knowledge they imparted would help Sarah launch the sole Latina-owned independent brewery in Massachusetts
COOKING WITH[OUT] GAS
Sarah and Mike continued brewing at home, tinkering with various recipes, and hosting tasting parties for their friends. And just when Sarah declared that she was determined to open her own brewery, the gas in the couple’s Brooklyn condo building was turned off due to a building code violation. “We didn’t have heat, hot water, or a gas stove,” Sarah recalls. Undeterred, she bought a hot plate and forged ahead with her home brewing. And that ordeal dragged on for almost four years.
By their third winter without heat, Sarah and Mike had had enough. Miraculously, they managed to sell their condo during Covid, and the pandemic gave them time to make a plan. Without investors, starting a brewery in Brooklyn was out of the question, so they began exploring other areas, including the Berkshires, where Mike had attended writing workshops. Pittsfield seemed to fit the bill: It was a city in the midst of a comeback; there were state grants and loans available for new business owners; and, most fortuitously, the city had already laid the groundwork for a new brewery, but the plan had fallen through due to Covid. Mike and Sarah connected with Michael Coakley, Pittsfield’s business development manager, who was eager to fill the void. Ultimately Hot Plate was awarded $265,000 in grants and loans by the city of Pittsfield, and Mike and Sarah were off and running. Michael Coakley is pleased with the investment. “They bring residents and visitors into our downtown, and people go from there to restaurants and the theater,” he says. “It worked out wonderfully.”
Today, the beat-up hot plate that Sarah first used to make beer is mounted on a wall near the bar—a constant reminder of Hot Plate’s humble beginnings. She wants the community to know the story behind the beer, and for Hot Plate to be part of the community’s story going forward. To that end, the brewery is all about mutually beneficial partnerships—with the city, other business owners, and local nonprofits.
BREWING UP A SOCIAL MISSION
Hot Plate doesn’t have a kitchen, but it has something even better: good friends who cook. Espetinho Carioca, the Brazilian restaurant next door, will deliver food right to Hot Plate. And Hot Plate reciprocates by filling up growlers for restaurant patrons. Brewery customers are encouraged to order from any restaurant that offers takeout and to bring food into the taproom. During college football season last year, Patrick’s Pub brought wings, chicken nuggets, and mozzarella sticks to Hot Plate, where chafing dishes were set up to keep food warm. And Mike has forged some ongoing relationships with food truck owners such as Cousins Maine Lobster, Charlie’s Bistro Bus, and Migration Taco. “When we get into the busier season, I’m hoping we can have a food truck out here every Friday or Saturday,” says Mike. “And folks who have a catering license can come and serve in the taproom as well.”
Cultural organizations are on Hot Plate’s radar as well. In collaboration with Berkshire County Historical Society at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead, Hot Plate will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Melville’s Billy Budd by hosting a read-a-thon of the novella at the brew pub and creating a custom brew for the event.
And, says Mike, they’ll do something similar later in the year with Clark Art Institute to celebrate the work of artist Kathia St. Hilaire.
But the company’s most meaningful partnerships are with the nonprofit community. That started last year when Hot Plate sponsored a bingo night to benefit Cathedral of the Beloved in Pittsfield. Mike thought the fundraiser would be a one-time event to help the pastor raise money for people who are food and housing insecure. But it was so successful that Mike and Sarah decided to do bingo night once a month, choosing a different nonprofit partner each month. They’ve worked with Roots Rising to help the organization raise money to purchase a farm; Elizabeth Freeman Center in recognition of Women’s History Month; and Volunteers in Medicine, which recently opened a Pittsfield office. And at the end of last year, Hot Plate also worked with Zion Lutheran Church to raise $13,000 for people who were struggling to pay for heat. “We lived without heat ourselves, so it was very meaningful to us,” says Sarah.
In addition to bingo night, Hot Plate designates one of its 12 beers on tap as a “community beer” and donates $1 from every pint sold to a designated organization that changes every three months. Among past beneficiaries are Berkshire Pride, Pink Boots, and Vibe North Street (a collaboration between Berkshire Black Economic Council and Downtown Pittsfield).
BEYOND THE TAPROOM
Last November, Sarah and Mike signed a distribution agreement with Berkshire Brewing Company, which now distributes Hot Plate’s beer throughout the Berkshires and beyond. Their beer is on tap at Methuselah Bar and Lounge in Pittsfield, and the Locker Room in Lee; Hot Plate’s cans are stocked at Guido’s, Dare Bottleshop, Provisions, and Wild Oats Market, among other retailers. At this writing, there were three varieties in cans and Hot Plate was getting ready to add a fourth—Earth to Beer, an American wheat beer that’s part of a national campaign that supports conservation in the brewing industry. Hot Plate was one of just 12 breweries nationwide that were invited to participate.
The journey from hot plate to Hot Plate started as a somewhat solitary pursuit in a cold Brooklyn apartment—one woman with a dream, standing over a kettle, experimenting with recipes. Without Sarah’s brewing skills and Mike’s flair for branding and marketing, Hot Plate would have been a nonstarter. But its ongoing success is less about beer and more about the community that Sarah and Mike have built around it. “It feels like one tiny step in an enormous journey,” says Sarah. “There’s a trope in the industry that beer brings people together,” Mike adds. “We’ve tried to bring people together with a shared purpose.”
