Great Barrington area beer/brewery suggestions

Suarez and Sloop aren't too far across the NY border.

 

I was going to say this. 45 minutes or so to Suarez is definitely the best quality you are going to get.

 

Not many breweries in the area. Barrington Brewery, has okay beer and good food. Railroad public house had good food and a solid taplist, but much of it was not local (Toppling Goliath, Maine beer etc). Prairie Whale has very good food and had some good local beers on tap (The Shire). I haven't stopped at any of the bottle shops but Domaneys and Plaza Package both look promising and I keep on meaning to stop but every time I'm in the area I'm on a schedule or already stocked.

 

Just before the bridge on 7 south is a really good bottle shop Plaza Package.
And just a bit south (3miles) is Big Elm Brewing Solid and great people.
Cheers

 

If you happen to make it to the Mass MoCA museum in N. Adams, there’s Bright Ideas Brewing. I went there two years ago, enjoyed the museum and then had a few small pours with pizza that they made in house. I believe they had a collab IPA on with Foundation, as one of the brewers is from the area. The owner was British if I’m not mistaken, and he couldn’t believe the amount of hops being used in NE IPAs. Fast forward to today, and I checked their current tap list and they’re brewing a bunch of them. They had a handpull cask which was great, and Great Barrington Brewery has one as well.

 

I feel like this post needs some modification.

A lot has changed at Bright Ideas in the last year or so. Chris Post (the English guy) is the owner/brewer of wandering star brewing in Pittsfield. He helped start the brewery, but has since moved on 1.5 years ago. He was not the owner. The brewer from Foundation took over as an interim Head Brewer from January of 2018 to April 2018. Since then there has been a new head brewer who has taken a different/more modern approach to the beers. There is a lot more haze, sours, and big beers than before with still keeping a few more traditional beers on tap. Right now there is a NE triple IPA with galaxy and citra on tap. The pizza place has also moved on, but in it's place is a brand new take out bbq place across the walkway. You can bring your beer to AOK BBQ and order and they will deliver your food right to the brewery.

To answer OP's question, Barrington Brewery does very traditional beer. Plaza is a great package store for cans. Shire Breu Hous in Dalton has a full brewpub with food. Big Elm Brewing in Sheffield has decent beer. Wandering Star in Pittsfield is very English with a great outdoor area. Bright Ideas in North Adams has BBQ, beer geeky beer, and the largest modern art museum in North America next door.

 

Mass Moca actually has a brewery on premisis (Bright Ideas). Never been but someone I work with went and said it was fine.

 

Thank you for the field report. This saves me a huge amount of research time. Great information included with your post. Headed to see David Sedaris at the mahaiwe performing arts center and was hoping to pickup something to drink for my picnic before the show.