Incandescent Brewing Company Toasts One Year With All-Day Community Bash

Twelve months after Mesi Charles-Perry and her husband Nate Perry opened the doors at 203 South St. in Bernardston, Incandescent Brewing Company threw the kind of anniversary party that doubles as proof of concept. On March 28, the brewery marked one year with an all-day bash featuring two live acts and the Caravan Kitchen food truck pulling up out front — a near-mirror image of the grand opening that launched the place exactly a year earlier.

The lineup told its own story. Folkestone, a band featuring members of Deep State playing what they describe as acoustic, foot-stomping music good for drinking beer, held the afternoon slot from 2 to 5 p.m. AfterGlo, a high-energy cover outfit working through rock, funk, and punk, closed the night starting at 6. The booking was deliberate. "AfterGlo, you know, they played like one of our first shows last year, and so I thought it was appropriate to have them for our anniversary party," Charles-Perry said. "And Folkestone sounded quirky and fun."

For any homebrewer eyeing a taproom someday, that choice is worth studying. Incandescent did not build its first-year audience with rotating taps alone. Live music has anchored every weekend since opening, including a structured Brews, BBQ and the Blues series running every other Saturday from January through May. Consistent, calendar-driven programming gives people a reason to return on a schedule; it converts curious first-timers into regulars in a way that new beer releases alone rarely can.

The other piece of the first-year playbook is a clear flagship. Nate Perry, who started homebrewing in Philadelphia in 2008 before eventually brewing professionally at Russian River Brewing Company in Sonoma County and Flying Fish Brewing Company in New Jersey, built the tap list around accessible pricing and at least one standout: the "Lightning in My Hands" New England IPA, the only beer priced above the house rate of $6 for a 12-ounce pour. A defined flagship gives first-time visitors something to come back for and something to tell their friends about.

The brewery itself occupies the former Hitchcock Brewing Co. space, and Perry and Charles-Perry took it over after its previous owners retired. Keeping a known taproom address alive and relaunching it with new energy meant the location already carried some community muscle memory. Add weekly live music, a food truck presence, and a brewer with over 12 years of professional experience behind the bar, and the combination cleared the industry's notoriously brutal first-year threshold.

"I'm excited about all the shows coming up and the diversity of them, the music and the people representing them," Charles-Perry said. For homebrew clubs considering event programming of their own, that framing is the real takeaway: think beyond the beer. A tasting event with a rotating local band and a food vendor on the patio pulls a broader crowd than a tasting event alone, and broader crowds build the kind of word-of-mouth that sustains a small operation through year two.