Almost 20 years after Chris Weld first opened Berkshire Mountain Distillers in Sheffield, Massachusetts, he’s expanding his offerings yet again. This time, he’s bringing the beer.
When Weld opened his distillery in April 2007, it was a bit of a risk. Nobody had distilled spirits in the area since Prohibition. Fancy cocktail culture was just emerging in major cities and alternative urban centers. The craft distilling market had not yet matured to its eventual level of popularity.
Nonetheless, the distillery was impressing casual tasters and critics right away. Its fresh granite spring water helped ensure ideal distilling conditions for its bourbon, vodka, gin and rum lines. The distillery won all sorts of awards, and their Greylock Gin was named one of the best craft gins in the country by the New York Times just five years into its run.
Making an exceptional spirit is one thing. Getting the average customer to try it is quite another. Weld estimates that maybe 50 craft distillers operated in the United States when he opened his doors. Today, following a dramatic post-pandemic spike in 2023, the American Craft Spirits Association estimates there are just over 2,000 craft distilleries in the country. That’s a lot of competition.
Berkshire Mountain Distillers (BMD) has done a lot to distinguish itself in an increasingly crowded market. It has released limited runs, like its Smoke and Peat series, in which whiskey and rum are aged a second time in used barrels from Scotland. Its Cultural Cocktails program saw BMD team up with local arts institutions like the Clark Art Institute,, Berkshire Botanical Garden and the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to create custom cocktail recipes inspired by the venues.
In 2021, BMD introduced the Craft Brewers Whiskey Project, partnering with regional breweries to distill their beers into whiskeys. The project has seen BMD collaborate with a dozen breweries, including Sam Adams, Two Roads in Stratford, Connecticut, and Big Elm, just down the street from the distillery in Sheffield. That first year, Smoke & Dagger Whiskey, BMD’s collaboration with Massachusetts-based Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers, won a gold medal in the beer-distilled whiskey category at the U.S. Open Whiskey and Spirits National Championship.
Unfortunately, their friends at Big Elm closed down their brewery and beer hall earlier this year, leaving a hole in Sheffield’s social scene. Weld decided to pick up the slack by making the distillery experience more like that of a neighborhood brewery. He brought in games, created a seasonal food menu, added seating to the tasting room and started booking musicians to play free shows on Saturday afternoons. There was only one thing missing: the beer.
After mastering the crafts of distilling and cannabis cultivation — Weld is also co-founder of local cannabis dispensary, The Pass — odds were good that he’d brew a pretty choice beer. But as is frequently the case when navigating regulations surrounding alcohol and cannabis, the seemingly endless and sometimes illogical red tape proved difficult to overcome in the short time Weld had before summer. So he tapped back into his partnerships, asking some of his brewery collaborators to help with his first beer releases.
So far, working with partner breweries, BMD has created three beers: an IPA, a hazy pale ale and a lager, with a hefty brown ale on the way. Many early consumer reviews rank their available varieties above four out of five stars on the beer-rating website Untappd. Until now, the beers have been available only at the distillery, but bottles will soon be available to take home.
Weld is thrilled to send customers home with bottles of his spirits and his beers, but this time, the main goal seems less about setting a brand apart from the competition and more to creating a space for locals, weekenders and, yes, even leaf peepers to gather, enjoy Sheffield and its people, and sample the fruits of Weld’s many labors.
To learn more about Two Lanterns Brewery and Berkshire Mountain Distillers, visit berkshiremountaindistillers.com.
