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A view down North Main Street in South Deerfield village center on a sunny afternoon. A row of older two-story brick and clapboard storefronts running along the right side of the street with painted signage and ground-floor windows, mature street trees lining the sidewalk in front, parked cars along the curb, a brick tower with a clock visible above the rooflines further down, and a clear pale blue sky above.
Things to Do · Food & Drink
South Deerfield village center, February 2011. Photo by Doug Kerr (Dougtone), source, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Berkshire Brewing Company

Deerfield, Franklin County

Category
Food & Drink
Town
Deerfield
County
Franklin
Price
$$

Berkshire Brewing Company, usually shortened to BBC, has been brewing at 12 Railroad Street in South Deerfield since 1994, making it one of the older independent craft breweries in Western Massachusetts. The flagship is Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale, poured throughout the Pioneer Valley alongside year-round labels like Coffeehouse Porter, Berkshire Lager, and Berkshire White plus a rotating list of seasonals.

The brewery itself sits in a low industrial building a short walk from the village center of South Deerfield. The on-site taproom is open select afternoons and evenings, with rotating food trucks in the parking lot, live music, and pours of beers that are sometimes hard to find on draft elsewhere. Pints, cans, and growler fills are all sold there.

BBC distributes its own beer and a broader portfolio of beverages across Massachusetts and, for its beer, into nearby states including Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Steel Rail in particular is a common sight on regional taps and store shelves. Along with Northampton Brewery and the younger generation of valley breweries, it’s a fixture of the Pioneer Valley craft-beer landscape.

Visiting

The taproom is currently open Friday 3–9pm, Saturday 1–9pm, and Sunday 1–7pm; check the brewery’s site for the current week’s schedule and event calendar, since hours and event listings can change. The Railroad Street lot has on-site parking; the village’s bars and restaurants, including stops you’d pair with a visit to The Drake down in Amherst, are a short drive away.

Sources