It really was luck that landed Nathan Perry his first brewing job. He and Mesi Charles had recently moved to Philadelphia, where she went to nursing school and he took up home brewing—a hobby that lit him up. He got a job on the bottling line at a brewery outside the city in 2010, and when a brewer left the following year, he “got trained up to brewer.” He never looked back.
The couple hatched a plan: Charles would get travel nursing jobs, and Perry would find work at breweries wherever they landed. Against all odds—brewing jobs are limited—it worked.
They’d been in Denver for a year when a brewer job opened up at Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, California, a heavy hitter in the beer world. Perry hesitated to even apply, but the brewery flew him out for an interview. After a few days on-site, the job was his and the couple settled for a few years in California, where their son was born.
Perry grew up in Conway and went to University of Massachusetts Amherst; Charles went to school in Rhode Island, so settling in New England was always in the cards. In 2018, Building Eight Brewing in Florence “reached out to Nathan, knowing his background, and it was perfect timing,” says Charles. The couple settled in Leverett, where their daughter was born. Perry worked at Building Eight as head of brewing for six years.
For years, they looked for a space of their own. Then, in May of 2024, the couple learned that the owners of Hitchcock Brewing in Bernardston planned to retire. They secured permits and financing, and Incandescent Brewing started selling beer in March of 2025.
Perry likes to tinker with his West Coast IPA, the crisp, bitter style Russian River is known for, as he’s committed to variety and experimentation. “I like seeing the way the different brewers that I’ve worked with have done things, learning from that and trying things,” he says. “Having a taproom here and 12 taps, it’s fun to experiment and see what people like, see what they respond to, and to try new stuff for myself.”
On a cold day, pours included the St. James Gate, a Guinness-style dry stout poured from a nitro faucet. The crisp, dry Riverbend saison is made with Valley Malt, grown in Holyoke, and Four Star hops from across the river in Northfield. “It’s a really thirst-quenching beer,” says Perry, “but as compared to, say, pilsner, which is also dry and thirst quenching, it’s got much more expressive yeast characteristics. You get this clove and spice from the fermentation. It’s a farmhand beer. There’s a lot of romance built into the mystique of the style, so it makes sense to me for that style of beer to be brewed with locally grown ingredients.”
Charles, who still works as a nurse, is “not a brewer,” but she makes the taproom’s seasonal shrubs from local produce. Mixed with their house hard (5.5% ABV) or n/a seltzer, the seltzer cocktails (blueberry or peach in summer, carrot in fall) provide a beer alternative. No fan of hops, Charles is committed to ensuring there’s something for everyone on the menu. Perhaps her most critical role in the partnership is her responsive, ever-evolving creative vision for the physical space and its potential uses.
The space was very functional but had an industrial feel. “It really needed some heart and soul,” says Charles, who infused the taproom with warmth and color: muted brights, ’70s rose, shades of mustard, and deep plum. Fig trees reach toward the light streaming in from the front windows. An artfully coordinated mishmash of secondhand furniture—chartreuse velvet sofas, distressed coffee tables, sisal rugs—replaced some of the high-top seating.
“When we were thinking of the space, I thought people should be able to bring their kids, because otherwise they’ll never get to go out,” says Charles. “We have a patio, so there’s plenty of space to sit outside when it’s nice out.”
Music is more central to their vision than they had originally anticipated, but the building came with a stage and equipment and an active roster of local acts. While Charles never thought of herself as a live-music person, she’s developed an awareness of what’s lacking in the local music scene and how the taproom space—more intimate than the Shea but with a greater capacity than a bar— could fill a niche. She aims to bring in a variety of musical styles, and to draw music fans from southern Vermont and Hampshire County.
Private events are also part of the couple’s long-term plans. Two baby showers are on the calendar, and Charles dreams of teaming up with local vendors for unique, unfussy weddings. They plan to expand the food menu when they can, but for now, they’re offering hand pies and soft pretzels from Sweet Lucy’s bakeshop down the road. Half of their beer is self-distributed to local stores, and the pair aims to add more restaurants and retail locations in the year ahead, along with more festivals and events.
There’s a palpable energy between the partners when they talk about the future; ideas seem to coalesce in real time. “I imagine a separate bottled brand,” says Charles, “where it’s wild fermented, like, going out and capturing the wild yeast, and a sour line, a little bit higher end.”
“As we develop our little niche space, it could be a little niche line,” Perry replies. “Broader than that, you could call it a barrel program that would include wild sour beers, but also spirit barrel aged. We have lofty dreams, but it takes baby steps to get there.”
As the brewery’s opening approached last year, the couple bounced name ideas off one another. Something about wolves? The moon? Luminescence? Incandescent was uniquely fitting for a brewery, its literal definition, light meeting heat, but also the secondary definition, the idea of giving an incandescent performance. “I like the way those work together in a brewing sense,” says Perry. “You know, you’re heating, you’re boiling beer. That gave rise to one of our tag lines: That’s Brilliant.”
Incandescent Brewing
203 South St., Bernardston
413-648-3172
incandescentbrewing.com
