Brewing with a Purpose

[...]starting in the early 2000s, when they were students at Penn State, both of them, and especially Real, developed a real passion for craft beer that led to home brewing - and thoughts of making beer their next career. [...]the condo was cold because the gas had been turned off due to a code violation, one that forced that home brewing to be conducted on a hot plate, a reality that would eventually inspire the name for the venture they would undertake in downtown Pittsfield. [...]Hot Plate has put a special emphasis on locally sourced ingredients, said Real, noting that both its hops and malt are from Massachusetts producers, and such buying brings attention to the expensive, and not-so-eco-friendly, supply chain within the brewing industry. Hot Plate has brought a variety of different bands to the site - Dispatch played there before a performance at Tanglewood, for example - while also hosting food trucks, trivia and open-mic nights, tarot readings, and meetings of the Pittsfield chapter of the Silent Book Club, which gathers members in public at bars, cafés, bookstores, libraries, and online to read in quiet camaraderie.