PRESS RELEASE / March 5, 2025 (Pittsfield, MA) – Hot Plate Brewing Co. was just recognized as one of the Top 3 new breweries in the United States according by USA Today. They were the only Massachusetts-based brewery to make the list, and they also happen to be the only Latina-owned brewery in the Commonwealth, too. In an industry where fewer than 1% of all breweries are owned by women of color, Hot Plate’s success is unique, but it’s not the only way that this brewery’s journey has been unconventional.
In 2017, the condo building in which homebrewers Sarah Real and Mike Dell’Aquila lived was issued a code violation from the New York City Department of Buildings, which ultimately resulted in the building losing its gas. Instead of abandoning their dreams of opening a brewery, the couple continued homebrewing on a literal hot plate, which is how their company got its name.
When the COVID-19 pandemic swept through New York City in March 2020, the couple was still living without heat, hot water, and a functioning stove, and because of those extreme circumstances, they decided to make a big life change and relocate to Western Massachusetts to pursue a long-deferred dream of owning and operator a craft brewery.
Having lived in two different Brooklyn neighborhoods that were completed transformed in the early 2000s, the couple was drawn to the opportunity they saw with the City of Pittsfield. The city has been working with public and private organizations to revitalize its downtown, and the Hot Plate team understood the way a brewery could help accelerate that.
“Before we made the transition to joining the craft beer industry, we were fans for almost twenty years,” says owner and head brewer Sarah Real. “Whether traveling across the country or even in different industrial neighborhoods in Brooklyn, we saw how breweries could become anchor tenants and lead to all sorts of development around them.”
The City of Pittsfield agreed. Through a variety of grants and forgiveness-based loans, Pittsfield offered a variety of economic incentives to help the brewery get up and running.
“Hot Plate has been a wonderful addition to the downtown and has capitalized on the economic incentives the city has provided,” said Mayor Peter Marchetti. “The City of Pittsfield is committed to continuing this work on attracting new businesses to not only downtown but all across Pittsfield.”
In addition to bringing a new small business to Downtown Pittsfield, Hot Plate had a vision of combining their desires to make the craft beer world more accessible and inclusive with the project of revitalizing the downtown community.
“There’s a lot of chatter in this industry about how beer brings people together,” said co-founder and General Manager Mike Dell’Aquila. “The question is what do you do once you have those people together, and can you create a diverse enough audience to create a real-world impact?”
The couple endeavors to do just that. Employing a mostly female and mostly queer staff, collaborating with a variety of mission-aligned organizations, and programming the taproom with an eclectic mix of events, they have been able to raise thousands of dollars for local nonprofit organizations and have been awarded by organizations as diverse as Mass Econ, the National Alliance on Mental Illness – Berkshire County, and Berkshire Pride, a local LGBTQIA+ organization.
“We have our motto ‘do what you can with what you have’ on one of the pillars in our taproom,” Real said, “and not only is it a reminder of how we got to where we are, but it’s a call to action for how to keep navigating these volatile and uncertain times.”
To learn more about Hot Plate Brewing and its community collaborations, visit https://www.hotplatebeer.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/hotplatebrewingco/
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.
