Officially in its second year, Hot Plate Brewing in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, has some star power behind one of its next releases. Effervescent lemongrass saison shares its name with comedian Patton Oswalt’s standup special, performed at a nearby theater later this month.
Owner and head brewster Sarah Real describes how the beer came to be in the latest edition of A Round With … — an exclusive Q&A with industry leaders for Brewbound Insiders.
Here is our conversation with Sarah:
Hot Plate is collaborating on a beer with comedian Patton Oswalt in honor of his upcoming show in your area. How did this come together?
Sarah: It was facilitated by The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. We’d collaborated with them once before on a Ben Folds show because one of our beers, Capable of Anything, was inspired by a Ben Folds song, and they wanted to see if we could do something special for the Patton Oswalt show.
We pitched this idea to them and Patton Oswalt’s team, and they were on board with the whole thing.
Tell us about the beer itself. Why was a lemongrass saison the way to go?
Sarah: Well, two reasons really: One, we love all Belgian beers, and especially saisons, but sometimes it’s hard to get someone to try something new, so doing a collab with a famous person outside of the beer world will pique people’s interest.
Secondly, there’s a lot of nuance to stand-up comedy (my husband and I are huge comedy fans) and we felt like the complex flavors of a saison speak to the way that really good comedy works on multiple levels.
Why are arts-adjacent collaborations like this important to craft beer?
Sarah: One of the double-edged swords of the craft beer boom over the last 20 years is that there is now a ton of amazing American-made beer. The challenge is trying to stand out in an increasingly crowded field, as well as courting consumers who don’t think that craft beer is or can be for them.
By finding new points of entry, we’re hoping to show that beer can be a lot more than what they might think it is.
Hot Plate is now officially two years old. Congrats! What has been the most surprising lesson learned since opening your doors?
Sarah: Thank you! Learning that it’s possible to take a risk and actually succeed in trying something new has been a really big lesson. My husband and I were so risk-averse for so long and hung onto unsatisfying corporate careers because we got lulled into playing it safe – so learning that it’s OK to shake things up and try something new is something we’re still settling into.
What are you most looking forward to in Year 3?
Sarah: Optimizing around the processes and programs that we feel are most effective. For two years, we’ve been working as a double change agent (trying to make the beer world more inclusive and trying to help revitalize the downtown community we’re a part of), and that required a lot of throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks.
We’re starting to get a sense of what we do best, and how to do more of that – unique music and other performances in the taproom, small batch and experimental beers, etc.
You recently joined the Massachusetts Brewers Guild’s board of directors. What goals are you and your fellow directors hoping to achieve this year?
Sarah: The role of MBG is to advocate for breweries across the state and help showcase what a great brewery scene we have. Massachusetts has a lot of antiquated laws around beer and alcohol in general, so we’re trying to change some laws that will make it a lot easier for breweries to operate and increase their revenue by using tools and tactics that are available to breweries in other states.
What inspired you to step up and take on this additional responsibility?
Sarah: Our company motto, which we rallied around while we were still homebrewing on a literal hot plate, is “do what you can with what you have.” As a business owner in Western Mass, which is a region that sometimes gets overlooked in Boston, I have a voice to use to advocate for breweries out here.
And on a statewide level, I believe that my professional background of almost 20 years in consumer insights helps as we try to navigate the volatility in the current marketplace.
What’s keeping you up at night on the Hot Plate front?
Sarah: Like any business right now, increased operating expenses and amortizing the initial buildout costs requires a lot of high-margin revenue. Coupled with the fact that we’re in a neighborhood trying to reinvent itself, we must work extremely hard to get people to our door, so we’re constantly looking for ways to increase efficiency and reach new audiences. I’m sure that 99% of new businesses can probably relate.