Are you a fan of fresh, local and regional craft beer? I so, you’ll want to treat yourself to the local leg of the Berkshires Beer Trail! The excellent quality and wide variety of the craft beers available is truly amazing.
Craft breweries, also called “microbreweries” have been popping up all over the U.S. in the last 20 years, especially in the last ten! This is good news for people with discriminating taste. Beer is only just now being taken seriously in the U.S. after decades of being treated like adult soda pop.
Getting in on this revolution of taste is as easy as visiting your own, local brewpub. Things get even more exciting when you travel to new areas and get to try the local, microbrewed beer. It’s especially fun if you can tour the brewery as brewmasters can be some very colorful, impassioned folks!
Even if you can’t get a tour of the brewery, though, sampling fresh, local beer at their tasting room or beer pub is a reward in itself. Brewery tasting rooms serve the freshest beer you’ll ever find. Brewers are particularly impassioned about their product and work to see that your beer is as fresh and clean as possible. At a tasting room, you know you’re tasting beer at it’s very best.
To get you going, we’ve included a list below of our local leg of the Berkshires Beer Trail. All of the craft breweries listed are within less than an hour of our Berkshires B&B, Brook Farm Inn, in Lenox, MA.
The full Berkshires Beer Trail can be found on the www.berkshirefarmandtable.org website. The list includes the four breweries below and a number of others throughout the Berkshires. While the Berkshires Beer & Cider Trail is not a comprehensive list of all the craft brewers and cideries in the area, it is a great start!
Lenox Area Berkshires Beer Trail
Wandering Star Brewery
11 Gifford Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201
Wandering Star is a 15 barrel microbrewery witha wide variety of styles. Their facility includes a tasting room and is open for tours, tastings, and growler fills on Saturdays from 12pm to 3pm.
Barrington Brewery & Restaurant
420 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230
Barrington Brewery makes 25 different beers over the course of a year and always has nine beers on tap. The brewery is solar powered and the restauruant features a pub style menu. If the Chocolate Stout Cake is on the menu, you should order it. It was Bon Appetit’s recipe of the year and we dare you to try and eat an entire piece by yourself! Barrington Brewery offer no tours but is open 7 days a week.
Big Elm Brewing
65 Silver Street, Sheffield MA 01257
Big Elm Brewing reates several seasonal beers and 3 full-time beers: 413 Farmhouse Ale, Gerry Dog Stout, and IPA. Stop by their taprooom from 12-6 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays for a pint or two. You can also buy 4 packs, 6 packs, and fill your growler. Free tours on Saturdays.
While you’re in the Big Elm Brewing area, if you’ve s nose for spirits as well, be sure to check out Berkshire Mountain Distillers. They’re just around the corner from the brewery: 356 South Main Street, Sheffield, MA 01257.
So go ahead, come explore the Berkshires. When you do, Brook Farm Inn would love to be your Berkshires lodging choice!
Posted in:
Dining
Tags: Barrington Brewery, Berkshire Mountain Distillers, Berkshires B&B, Big Elm Brewing, craft beer, Craft breweries, Glass Bottom Brewery, microbreweries, Wandering Star Brewery
The Berkshires are well known for their stunning scenery, picturesque villages, award winning museums, stage companies, and annual festivals – but did you know we’re also home to a number of outstanding wineries? Come discover the Berkshire wineries near our Lenox, MA B&B.