Welcome to the first edition of "Goin Through The Breweries" where I go out and tour the many breweries in New England perhaps even beyond. First off, I'd like to thank The Valley Beer Group from Meetup.com for sharing this experience with me. I met met some very nice people that were very knowledgeable about beer and all the places across the region. I hope we all get together again very soon.
Now before I begin the review, I thought I'd give a little background information on The BBC. First off, Berkshire Brewing began in the fall of 1994 in South Deerfield, where it is still based today. They came in with a simple mission: Create high quality brewing that beer lovers across the Pioneer Valley can enjoy. The brewery began with creating seven barrels at a time and as word of mouth spread, it soon became one of the premier crafts brews in the region with shipments going all across New England. And now...
The Tour: The first thing I noticed when I walked in was just how clean and sterile the whole place smelled. With the breweries I've seen to in the past I could get either a very faint of very strong scent of hops so that was a very interesting welcome. They then took us inside the tasting room that was filled with neon signs of various beer logos. The room reminds me of something out of a local dive bar or a "man cave" that my dad's godfather's son had whenever I went to go visit when I was a little kid. The tour guide, who I believe is named Noah, gave the group a quick overview of the history of the company and then went into a description for the current menu of beers n tap at the moment. The one that stuck out the most to me was the Jalapenito, which is suppose to be a spicy brew. I remember the organizer of the Valley Beer Group Cindy did some playful banter with Noah over the pronunciation of the name of the beer and they had a funny back and forth exchange so Cindy if you're reading this, you definitely provided the funniest moment of the tour. Another thing that stuck was when Noah said that their signature beer, The Steel Rail, was created in some ways to serve as a transition between big name beers and crafts. It should
After that, we to to go into the milling and malt storage room where Noah described the process of taking the grains being used for the beer, putting it into a grain silo, and opening the husks to get the sugars underneath. In a contrast to the main halls of the brewery, the smell of the grains fills up the room. It was in here I learned that the BBC actually uses the same distribution centers that Budweiser uses for their shipments to Northern New England states. I just find it nice that the big name beer brands can coexist with independent breweries on things like that. Although at the same time, Noah did point out the increase in bigger breweries buying up the local ones, something that was very prevalent just a few years ago and something this brewery has felt as well, which is why they are trying to come up with more creative brews and for some time has proven successful.
The rest of the tour consisted of the actual brewing process from the brewing house and the fermentation room. A lot of the more technical side of things were discussed during these times, but some of the things I to from this was they always try to keep the temperature close to 150 degrees and around 20-22 minutes for the entire brewing process before it gets sent over to the fermentation room to finish the process. Noah also told us the three main reasons why hops are used: bitterness, aroma, and flavor.
So overall, the tour itself was well done. Noah seemed like a pretty laid back person and was someone who was very knowledgeable about the whole brewing process, although it also helps that he is the son of the owner himself. I think it would've been nice if we saw the bottling and packaging process since I feel that's my favorite part of any visit, but I guess there were so many questions being asked that time was of the essence, which is understandable.
The Beers: I tried three beers from this place
BBC Steel Rail- Now I know what you're all thinking: Why review something a beer that perhaps that a good portion of beer drinkers in the area have probably had many times? And it's a good question. I picked it basically for the ones that maybe never even heard of BBC beers, so this goes out to them. The appearance Golden brown color, a bit cloudy in appearance, the head is very foamy and doesn't dissolves too quickly, The taste is smooth and lager-like. It's understandable how this can be used as a transition from. Comfortable but nothing too inventive ** 1/2
Jalapenito- One of the more unique brews that has only recently been created, which is why I picked it. The appearance is of a pale brown color, a little cloudy when you look at the glass. I was actually surprised at how spicy the aroma smelled. The taste actually has a very mild spice to it and just like if you take a sip of a ginger beer, you can feel that small bit spice in your throat for a little bit. I must have a unique palette because one of the group members who also had it said he couldn't feel the spice. But very interesting brew, I might pick it up when it hits stores when i feel like having something with a spice to it ****
Drayman's Porter- I picked this since at the current time of this publication, I've been really into the stouts and porters. Has a dark brown appearance with a medium size head, an almost chocolaty aroma to it. Taste goes down clean, a bit roasty, but not as prevalent as the Black Dawn I had in my last blog post. It's a decent brew ***
Overall: At a time where more and more breweries are popping up in the area and competition increases more and more, this tour showed me that there's still a place for The BBC after all these years. I would go there again, if anything to drink more of their brews and perhaps see the things I wanted to see but that there wasn't anytime for. I give this brewery a ****
Thank you for reading and don't be shy and leave any feedback you want. I'd love ot hear any requests for brews or breweries to review so please let me know. But until next time, this is Andrew saying Cheers to you!
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