The Berkshires’ First Distillery Since Prohibition — and the Whiskey Distilled from Beer

1. Chris Weld — from the ER to the still house
2. The farm, the spring, and the greenhouse
3. The spirits — Greylock, Ethereal, Berkshire Bourbon, and beyond
4. Two Lanterns — the collaboration that bridges beer and whiskey
5. Visiting Berkshire Mountain Distillers

Chris Weld — From the ER to the Still House

Chris Weld grew up in Westchester County, New York with an early and specific interest in distillation. In the eighth grade he attempted to build a still for a class science project — the plan was shut down by his mother when she realized it was a federal offense. He channeled the same curiosity into biochemistry as an undergraduate, earned a master’s degree in emergency medicine, and spent the next twenty years as a physician’s assistant in one of the busiest emergency rooms in the San Francisco Bay Area.

He is, by his own description, someone who puts things together. The biochemistry gave him a scientific framework for understanding fermentation and distillation at a molecular level. The emergency room gave him calm under pressure, decisive judgment, and the ability to manage complex systems with multiple variables simultaneously. Both turned out to be essential when he left San Francisco, moved his family to Berkshire County in western Massachusetts, and started building the Berkshires’ first legal distillery since Prohibition.

“I had literally been at a friend’s house a few months ago and they had the vodka and gin at their house,” Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said on a visit to BMD. “I said ‘Jeez, I’ve never heard of those guys — I’ll have to make a note that if I’m out in the area to go pay them a visit.'” The Governor showed up and bottled spirits alongside the staff. That kind of genuine community engagement — local bartenders making drinks in the tasting room, regional events at the distillery, partnerships with neighboring farms and producers — is what Chris Weld means by “big picture viewpoint of the world with a little local tenderness.”

The Farm, the Spring, and the Greenhouse

Chris and Tyler Weld bought a neglected apple farm in Sheffield, Massachusetts with a couple of hundred apple trees. The original plan was to restore the orchard and make apple brandy. Then Chris discovered the granite-based spring beneath the property — water of exceptional purity and mineral character, filtered through the ancient granite bedrock of the Berkshires. That spring changed the plan. Apple brandy became a much larger vision: a full-spectrum craft distillery using regional grains, local botanicals, and that granite spring water in everything it produced.

The farm-to-glass philosophy at BMD extends well beyond the water. Three greenhouses on site grow the botanicals used in the gin program — angelica root, lemon verbena, lemongrass, lavender, licorice, Blue Hubbard squash, green peppers, sunflowers, and more. Grains for the whiskey and bourbon come from neighboring Berkshire County farms. The distillery uses regional materials wherever possible, creating a spirits portfolio that genuinely reflects the agricultural and geological character of the place it was built.

The Spirits — Greylock, Ethereal, Berkshire Bourbon, and Beyond

Two Lanterns — The Collaboration That Bridges Beer and Whiskey

The collaboration between Berkshire Mountain Distillers and Samuel Adams began with a shared conviction: that the craft beer and craft spirits movements, which had developed largely in parallel, had more to say to each other than either industry had yet explored. Chris Weld and Jim Koch had both been pioneers — Koch brewing the first batch of Samuel Adams Boston Lager in his kitchen in 1984 and launching the American craft beer movement; Weld founding BMD in 2007 as one of the first wave of American craft distillers.

Two Lanterns American Whiskey is the most ambitious expression of what their partnership produced. BMD distilled Samuel Adams Boston Lager — the actual beer, fermented and then distilled rather than distilled from wort — and aged it for four years in vintage bourbon barrels. The resulting whiskey carries distinct notes of malt and piney Noble hop bitterness through the sweet fruity esters and barrel character of the four-year maturation. It is something that has never existed before: a whiskey that genuinely tastes like the beer it was distilled from, transformed but not erased by the barrel.

“After barrel aging for over four years, we can’t wait for drinkers to finally have the chance to enjoy Chris’ Two Lanterns whiskey distilled with Boston Lager,” Koch said at the release. “Chris is doing a lot of really cool things and it was fun and interesting for us to see how the ingredients and flavor in the beer influenced the final whiskey.”

Visiting Berkshire Mountain Distillers

Berkshire Mountain Distillers is located in Sheffield, Massachusetts — in the southern Berkshires, about two and a half hours from New York City and three hours from Boston. The tasting room hosts local bartenders who create seasonal cocktails from the BMD range, and the distillery’s community events — tastings, pairings, and regional celebrations — reflect Chris Weld’s commitment to the local community that sustained the business through its early years.