With the ongoing proliferation of new breweries popping up everywhere, I often get asked what I think of the trend. I guess the question behind the question is really: Can we sustain this kind of growth?
I have no idea if or when this bubble will burst. We have seen some reductions in growth as far as certain aspects of sales, but not really in terms of people willing to throw their hats into the ring as the next new brewery.
And while I’m always happy to see more craft brewers, I do sometimes worry how many will survive. But there is one aspect of many newish breweries that I love: They are also employing their bars or tasting rooms as music venues.
With many music venue bars closing or shifting away from that model over the years, it can sometimes seem like there are fewer and fewer places to go out to dance, see your favorite band, or hear some new original music. But plenty of craft breweries seem to be ready to fill in the gap.
For example, two of Easthampton’s breweries, New City and Fort Hill, have featured bands for quite a while now. (New City had not resumed music post-pandemic yet, but I assume it will soon). Both have stages and regular rotations of bands. Fort Hill brings live music Thursday through Sunday every week.
Likewise, Iron Duke in Ludlow books bands in its taproom and just restarted its live music schedule a few weeks ago. Up in Bernardston, Hitchcock Brewing also has revived its Thursday-through-Sunday music slate. Westfield River Brewing (in the city of the same name) only has sporadic music events listed right now, but maybe that will change as protocols relax a bit more.
And not that the super-popular Tree House Brewing needs to do anything besides make its esteemed beers, it looks like the new location in Deerfield will be holding events, including concerts at some point.
My own local, the Northampton Brewery, has long had Sunday afternoon Irish music sesiuns with Banish Misfortune, and I assume those might resume as things get safer.
Likewise, I hope Brew Practitioners, formerly of Florence but soon reopening in East Longmeadow, will bring back its open mic night that was so popular in the former location.
I apologize if I didn’t mention a local brewery that features live music, but there are so many, I couldn’t get to them all. I mainly wanted to showcase what a symbiotic relationship beer has with music. It’s really a match made in Heaven (a place that I’m sure has beer, despite what the Clean Living song claimed years ago).
June 20, 2021 at 08:41PM
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Beer Nut: Brews and live music a perfect match - MassLive.com
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