Thirsty in the Berkshires

 Free event taking place at Hot Plate Brewery in Downtown Pittsfield. Reservations are not required.
Pittsfield’s commercial brewing history was over 60 years in the making when, in 1886, Jacob Gimlich, one of the principals of the successful Pittsfield brewery firm Gimlich and White, declared people should “use beer for their refreshment and invigoration in a temperate, manly, proper way.” A part of Pittsfield and Berkshires culture since the English and Dutch came to the area in the early eighteenth century, craft beer making is enjoying a resurgence squarely anchored by over 200 years of brewing and drinking one of the world’s oldest fermented beverages.

This  illustrated talk by historian and educator Cynthia Brown will illuminate this fascinating part of Pittsfield’s history and culture including the story of brewer Jane Prime (or Pryn), a Black resident of Lenox who is listed in the 1860 United States census as a “beer maker.” Commercial and solo brewers and breweries supplied Pittsfield taverns, inns, families, and individuals with their beer from before 1800 and lasting into the first years of Prohibition. After the manufacture and sale of alcohol was legal again, larger manufacturers cornered the market until the rise of the microbrewery movement that took hold in the 1990s. Exploring the early history of local breweries provides a connection to older brewing traditions and practices and provides rich stories and some intriguing mysteries still to be explored.

The event is part of Hot Plate’s “Small Batch Salon” series that features unique, taproom-only offerings. Because some documents from the early nineteenth century reference a Dutch “kuyt,” head brewer Sarah Real wrote a custom recipe inspired by traditional gruits, which were made from fermented cereal grains and were actually the precursors to modern beer. It is a fermented beverage that was often brewed in domestic settings, and may well have been brewed by Jane Prime. 

A portion of the proceeds from the evening’s sales will be donated to the Berkshire County Historical Society.

About Cynthia Brown
Brown volunteers with the Berkshire County Historical Society at Arrowhead. She also serves on the executive committee of Berkshire Educational Resources K12 (BERK12). She has a doctorate in United States history and her scholarly publications have included co-editing the institutional history, “Lesley University: Celebrating Excellence 1909-2009” as well as other book chapters and articles. She is currently Senior Associate Commissioner for Regulatory and Veterans Affairs at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

About Hot Plate Brewing
Hot Plate Brewing Co. is the only Latina-owned independent beverage company and brewery in Massachusetts. Co-Founders Sarah Real and Mike Dell’Aquila first discovered craft beer during their time at Penn State in the early 2000s. A love of the art and science of beer led them to take up homebrewing as well as traveling the world. After deciding to pursue a career in craft beer, their Brooklyn condo had their gas turned off for several years due to a code violation. Rather than giving up on their dream, Sarah started brewing on a hot plate, writing and revising her own recipes, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, they started working on a business plan. 

That dream has now turned into the 7-barrel brewhouse with an attached taproom that they opened in Downtown Pittsfield in 2023. They have begun distributing many of their products, including their signature recipe Capable of Anything, a Chamomile Blonde Ale.