It’s been about 18 months since Backlash has been selling beer commercially. Damn, where did the time go? Somewhere amidst the endless beer tastings, beer fests, brew days, labeling days, waxing days, and lots of drinking, a year and a half went by. We set goals — some we hit and some we did not.  We made pretty awesome beer.  We made a shitty beer. We’ve grown, a lot. One thing has been consistent though since we started — All of our beers have been Belgian. I’m not sure why it’s been that way to be honest.  I have nothing against hops, but I think when I started brewing for Backlash I was just burned out on IPA.  I...

  Ask anyone. I’m a perfectionist – to my own detriment. As a brewer, I’m predisposed to being my own biggest critic (as I think all brewers/creators of any art form are).  I’ll be the first person to point out that maybe I could have done better on the hop character, malt flavor, dryness , color, etc of a beer.  I’m never quite content. As a business owner, I obsess over details.  Because really, if I don’t, who else will?  It’s me at the helm, and that’s it.  Look away for too long and you’re off course, coasting into peril. I pour over the ins and outs of everything I can control, looking for an advantage or any insight...

  I remember back in late July, last year — when the fine people at Paper City saw our first batch of Groundswell bottles, they asked “How long are you going to be wax dipping those for?” To which I responded:  “As long as possible.” We all knew this day would come, right?  I mean, to be honest, I’m surprised we made it this far.  To put it into perspective:  we’ve hand labeled, dipped and stamped over 10,000 bottles of beer since our inception. That’s just fucking ridiculous. I wouldn’t go back and change anything at all.  I take pride in the fact that we put such a personal stamp (see what I did there?  Keep up if you...

  Damn  It’s insane to think that a year ago today, we were launching Groundswell at Sunset Grill and Tap in Allston.  A ton of awesome people came out to help two ambitious kids kick off a long shot, at best, of an idea.  Flash forward and here we are:  Backlash can now be found in all corners of Massachusetts and we’ve launched another two beers to accompany our flagship.  I truly feel like the beers are getting better with each release as I learn the intricacies of scaling up recipes from our pilot system to our production system.  With some luck, we’ll be getting access to ingredients in our second year that we wouldn’t have had access to...

  Sometimes, the silver linings find you. Allow me to explain, and it goes a little something like this: Last week was a bit of a shit sandwich for yours truly.  Driving to Holyoke from Boston 5 days in a row to label/wax dip bottles of beer isn’t exactly the most fun thing to do, especially when it’s balls hot.  It also doesn’t help when you’re by yourself for 3 out of 5 of those days, and all 8 hours you spend at the brewery seem to barely make a dent in the task at hand.  A bit demoralizing at times. On Thursday, in the midst of the mindless repetition, approaching my “fuck this shit” point, I was served...

I like to add a little visual to every post, and it might seem weird that I chose to go with an empty glass for a post entitled “Growing Pains”, so let me explain. Backlash Beer, as a company, is about 9 months old.  For all intents and purposes, we’re babies. It might not seem that way, because we came to market at a time when a lot of other companies were starting out as well. Relatively speaking, we’ve been around longer than some of those folks, but still, we’re newborns. I’ve been aware of the term “growing pains” for a while now, and I never really gave it much thought. I figured growing means change, change can suck, therefore growing can...

I had to take a second, while the ink on our newly signed distribution contract is still wet, to share some feelings around this new development here at Backlash. Awwww isn’t that cute! He’s gonna talk about FEELINGS! Yea, I know.  Whatever.  Shut up. Seriously, it’s hard to put into words the overwhelming sense of joy, pride and, most importantly, GRATITUDE I feel right now.  Maggie and I have been in this thing, head down, day in and day out for the past six months.  Often when you’re so involved in a task or project, you lose the forest for the trees. Wait…did I just use that correctly?  Fuck it. Basically what I’m trying to say is that you lose...

After working long and hard and just drooling with anticipation for our new Saison “Convergence”, the time has finally come.  Our distributor (Burke) just took in a bunch of this beer and we’ll be brewing it again so it’s around longer this time around.  It’s fall and nothing is going to be more refreshing and delicious than this seasonal special.

Groundswell took Boston by storm! Only a few short weeks after releasing our first beer, Groundswell, it seems to be all but gone! We could have never anticipated such a great reception and we are beyond thankful for all the support we’ve been receiving.  You guys really know how to make 2 beer geeks feel special.  The unbelievable success and positive feedback inspires us to keep brewing the best beer possible for you all.  Thank you so much!