On a typical weekend night at Over the Moon Farmstead in Pittsfield, strings of fairy lights hang from the rafters and people sit in the cozy barn, swaying in time to music performed at the front of the room. Freshly-baked pizza rests on their plates, and home-brewed mead or beer fill their glasses. There’s conversation, laughter and the occasional voice singing along to the melody.

For Michael Fairbrother, who runs the farmstead alongside his wife, Berniece Van Der Berg, this scene is exactly what he dreamed of in 2021 when he decided to purchase the property, which included a large colonial farmhouse dating back to 1753.

“If I think about Disney World when I took my kids, it wasn’t the cost of what things were, but it was the memories that lasted forever, and that’s, to me, what I want,” Fairbrother said. “It’s always about the experience.”

Perched on a hill overlooking 100 acres of land, Over The Moon Farmstead is home to Hidden Moon Brewing, Moonlight Meadery, a restaurant, taproom bar and event space. Fairbrother brews mead and beer in the basement of the farmstead alongside longtime friend and co-brewer Michael Robinson.

The pair enjoys crafting new flavors and innovating successful drinks, many of which have gone on to win awards.

“People think mead is going to always be sweet because it’s made from honey, but I can control how much sweetness remains left over,” Fairbrother said. “So I can make sweet mead, but I’ve made dry and semi-sweet. I use a lot of fruit as well as the honey in the making of mead so I can get a really nice tart or drier finish.”

Robinson, a former banker who has been brewing for three decades, finds inspiration for beer and mead in the world around him.

“It could come from anything,” Robinson said. “A lot of times it’s just the weather, my mood, what season’s coming up next, what styles fit in with what seasons. I did 60 different styles over a two-and-a-half-year period, kind of as a fun challenge. So we saw lots of things going in and out of the tap room. We’re able to put out beer that a lot of breweries haven’t made since the ’90s, different classic styles, and have a big variety.”

Moonlight Meadery stocks large grocery stores in 38 states, including New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlets, and in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada. They hand-bottle everything they sell. Hidden Moon Brewing, however, can only be purchased on tap at the farmstead, although Fairbrother and Robinson hope to soon scale up production.

“I just want people to be happy,” Robinson said. “There’s nothing funner than sitting across the room from someone and watching them taste something and go, ‘Man, that’s good.’”

Fairbrother imported a 5,000-pound pizza oven from Italy, where he also sources flour and other ingredients. The kitchen has recently strengthened connections with local farms, building a more comprehensive farm-to-table experience.

“I believe that food has to be a story,” he said. “It has to be this thing of passion.”

He had been working as a brewer for the past 15 years after having stepped away from the software engineering industry. The farmstead provided the perfect space to expand his dream.

He built the bars in the restaurant and the taproom by hand and has decorated the spaces to emphasize a connection to farming roots. Again, it all comes back to passion.

“The key thing that all of us on the team have is passion, that passion to make sure it’s the best, because nobody’s gonna come up to Pittsfield if it’s mediocre,” he said. “I need people to go home and go, ‘Oh my God, have you seen this place? You have to come up to have dinner.’”

For more information, visit overthemoonfarmstead.com. u