PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Hot Plate Brewing Co. was recently recognized as No. 3 in USA Today's list of  "Best New Brewery."

 

A panel of beer experts selected their top picks and then readers cast their votes to determine the "10 Best" breweries founded since 2022, according to the publication. No. 1 was Frazier Creek Brewing & Distilling Co. in Stuart, Fla.

 

Hot Plate, which opened in 2023, is owned by couple Sarah Real and Mike Dell'Aquila.

 

"I started home brewing first, Sarah was just much better at it than me," Dell'Aquila laughed. He got a home brewing kit in 2013 and a couple of years later Real decided to try and brew as well.

 

"Hot Plate was sort of born when we were living in Brooklyn and the city came and turned off the gas in our condo building because there had been a code violation so that meant no heat, no hot water, no functioning stove," he said. "But Sarah had already decided that she really wanted to pursue this."

 

Real bought a hot plate to start brewing, a hot plate that is hanging up at their brewery today. 

 

Dell'Aquila said he wanted to change the industry through diversity, equity, and inclusion.

 

"When we saw that less than 1 percent of breweries in the United States were owned by women of color and Sarah being a Hispanic woman, for me it was I could help tell the story and be a change agent for an industry that has been increasingly homogenized." Dell'Aquila said.

 

The couple did just that by employing a mostly female and queer staff, collaborating with a variety mission-aligned organizations, creating a mix of events and raising thousands of dollars for local non-profit organizations. They have been rewarded by organizations as diverse as the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development (MassEcon), the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Berkshire Pride, a local LGBTQIA+ organization.

 

They wrote up a business plan during the pandemic and looke for a place to open their brewery. Dell'Aquila remembered his time in Berkshire County, liking how close the towns are to each other but how different each is, and noticed downtown Pittsfield didn't have a brewery.

 

"When we were checking stuff out we found out that there wasn't a downtown brewery or an urban taproom and so for us being familiar with in Brooklyn, from early 2010s to the time we left here, was this boom of breweries and taprooms and spaces like this, we just saw an opportunity to put something here that we had been envisioning ourselves," Dell'Aquila said.

 

One of their biggest challenges they said is getting people back out after learning for years to stay home.

 

"You talk to restaurant owners kind of across the board and no one has seen a return from pre-COVID levels of people just like going out organically," Dell'Aquila said. "So that's why it's put more strain on us to always find new events and new things to do, to offer to the community." 

 

Hosting those events are one of the ways they create reasons for people "to meet at a certain time and space."

 

They were surprised by the USA Today poll and said it has not hit them yet. 

 

"It was an unexpected surprise and it felt very validating that all the things we've been working on for the last two years and all the different ways we were trying to show that we were endeavoring to do something slightly different than what everyone else was doing, that someone did notice that," Dell'Aquila said.

 

But the community is what made them the happiest.

 

"Seeing the way the community responded was more important than the win itself because it showed that we really did inspire and excite the community here," he said. "We're just looking for ways of bringing people through that are like minded to us and bringing them to Pittsfield."

 

One way is a free summer music series at Dunham Mall  that Hot Plate is hosting in partnership with Downtown Pittsfield Inc. They will provide a beer garden along with local food vendors and have touring bands every Friday night.

 

Hot Plate is located at 1 School St. and is open Mondays 3 to 9, Tuesday through Thursday 3 to 10, Friday from noon to 11 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. It also offers coffee and teas, baked goods and prepared snacks but encourages patrons to order in food from local eateries.