USA, MA: Hot Plate Brewery to debut in Pittsfield this winter

"One of the things we believe in craft beer is that it brings people together, and we wanted to build a brewery that could really take that to the fullest extent of the idea," Dell'Aquila said.

"So what we like about coming here is that there are so many nonprofits we can support, there are so many small businesses that we can help cross-promote and there was just this real, I think, energy that we found from a lot of people trying to revitalize Downtown Pittsfield, and we thought that we could very much kind of join that cause."

Located on the ground floor of the Onota Building on School Street, the brewery is being built out and plans to start producing in November.

Dell'Aquila and Real first looked into opening their business in the Berkshires two years ago after finding that the region is underserved from a craft beer perspective. Both have marketing backgrounds and channeled those skills into this venture.

"When you look at the population, and you look at the demographics of who the core craft beer consumer was, a lot of them live up here," Dell'Aquila said.

"And so we were surprised that there were only five breweries or so in the area."

The couple contacted 1Berkshire with their idea and eventually presented to —and were welcomed by— Mayor Linda Tyer's Red Carpet Team, which develops strategies for attracting and expanding business opportunities in the city.