Blackstone Aleworks hopes to be the first packaging brewery in Worcester, Massachusetts since 1964. In true artisanal fashion, we’ll brew handmade craft beer in VERY small batches to be kegged up and served by the more forward-thinking publicans of the Worcester area. Such tiny batches afford the brewer a considerable amount of freedom in crafting a wide variety of beer styles.. from the trusty American pale ale, to the more exotic Belgian tripel, to the oak-aged imperial roggenwine that’s still just a (admittedly highly questionable) idea.
If you’re wondering how such a minuscule operation could possibly make any money, the answer is that it almost certainly won’t. I enjoy the art and science of brewing, I enjoy sharing my beer with people, and I especially like seeing the increasingly vast selection of craft beer at our local bars and stores. I’m not quitting my day job to do this, so I’m frankly happy to sell my beer to cover the material expenses of its manufacture. Would I build a proper brewery if I won the lottery tomorrow? Absolutely. Does this tiny operation serve as a pilot brewery for eventual expansion into a real microbrewery? You bet. I’m perfectly happy to slave in the brewhouse, honing my craft, developing my recipes, and cultivating my customers until that day comes.
This site will serve to document my progress towards becoming a commercially licensed brewery. I expect the process to be frustrating and its pace to be glacial. Hopefully, lovers of craft beer in Worcester will take in interest in what I’m trying to accomplish.
About the brewer:
Your would-be local brewer (photographed in flattering light at left) is Keith Antul, which is to say, me. I went to school for English Literature, so naturally I work in healthcare IT and strive to be a brewer. I am a moderately successful and over-ambitious homebrewer; I am the generally the most brutal critic of my own product, which hopefully keeps me honest. I try to be a connoisseur of good beer without being a snob; I don’t know how many different beers I’ve had to date, but it’s well into the thousands, probably dating back to my first Guinness Foreign Export Stout some fifteen years ago or so. I’ve been homebrewing for years, and volunteer at the Gardner Ale House as time permits to glean some of Dave Richardson’s professional experience.
As a brewer, I’m both a “style guy” and an experimenter. Innovation is critical and keeps the craft scene interesting; certainly, we should not be so vain as to believe that we already know everything there is to making beer. And I also believe that there are classic styles of beer, tried and tested for decades and even centuries, that ought to be remembered and brewed authentically. So you can expect Blackstone Aleworks to brew to both philosophies.