Cervejaria Backer

The brothers Halim and Munir Lebbos founded Backer in Belo Horizonte in 1999 to supply their nightclub, and it is registered as the first craft beer of Minas Gerais. By 2020 it was estimated to hold about 40% of the state’s craft market. Between December 2019 and January 2020 drinkers fell ill with a kidney and nerve syndrome: a leaking tank had contaminated its beer with monoethylene and diethylene glycol, and ten people died. Investigators found contamination in 36 batches made from January 2018. The brewery stopped in 2020 and restarted in April 2022 without Belorizontina, its former best seller. Its owning company has been in judicial recovery since 2023, and in November 2025 a court acquitted the ten criminal defendants for lack of individual proof while leaving the company’s civil liability in place.