It’s been an eventful month and a bit since we last wrote and we’ve been treated to several more new brews. There’s also news from two more breweries creeping onto the scene as well as a special anniversary coming up soon.

New Brews

As Spring begins and the weather starts to improve, a number of new beers have made their way into the spotlight. We’ve been treated to a varied selection with promises of even more to come soon.

• Sikaru have been busy this year and have two new offerings for us this Spring. We also hear that they’ve been working with Sunstone Alehouse again, keep your eyes peeled for news of their latest collaboration over the next few weeks.
  • First up is Relaxed Griffin – a red ale with an intense caramel malt flavour.
  • Next they celebrate the recent good weather with Tropical Griffin – an American Pale Ale bursting with citrus, grapefruit and tropical fruit flavours.
• Sunstone Alehouse released a silky smooth coffee stout earlier this month. Silky Surf blends roast coffee notes with a velvety smooth bittersweet stout.
• Hop Hooligans also treated us to a cup of alcoholic Joe with their take on coffee stout – Tonka Rush. Using the coveted Tonka bean in their recipe, they’ve created a truly special stout.
• Bereta ™ serve up another helping of Juicebag, this time dry hopped with the fantastically unique, white wine and gooseberry-esque Nelson Sauvin hop from New Zealand. This one is bound to be special and is coming soon!
• Ground Zero seem to be perfecting the New England IPA style and present us with Split the Pot. Get it soon though, as it’s best enjoyed fresh to get the most out of the hops. They also created small batches of an Orange Wheat ale and a Grapefruit IPA, though these are no longer available. Check their page for more special events and tastings at their taproom. Finally, they seem to busy with some intriguing hops from New Zealand.

If we’ve missed anyone please give let us know!

What’s happening?

Putting the latest beers to one side for a bit, there are other goings on in the world of Romanian craft beer. Coming soon Ground Zero will be celebrating their two year anniversary in style, with something like a nano beer festival. All are invited to join the lads on April 1st at Verde Stop Arena (Bucharest). There will be food, music and of course, plenty of beer. Check out the details here. As a gift to themselves and to us all, they’ve also invested in a new 2000l fermenter, pushing their monthly production up to 10,000l of fantastic craft beer.

In other news, there are rumblings in Iasi, with Capra Noastra flying in a brew master from Belgium to oversee the first batches of Belgian style beers. More information coming soon.

In a similar vein, Oriel have more or less completed the construction of their brewery and are now just waiting on authorisations. Expect to hear more from them within the next few months. In the meantime they’ve been busy winning awards in more home brewing competitions. Most recently they took second place in a Hungarian competition with their excellent Bourbon barrel aged Quadrupel – congratulations!

Finally, Harvester Cider have their first cider tasting in Cluj Napoca next week. For 13 lei enjoy the three stages of the maturation process of cider, plus pastries and nibbles. The event takes place next wednesday (29th March) at Bricks. Check out full details here.

Where to find Romanian craft beer?

While it’s pretty difficult to reliably keep track of where you can find the latest Romanian craft beers, we can put together a brief list. Fortunately some breweries have made it easy for us by creating maps of where to find their beers. These maps will be posted on our upcoming website, but for the time being, check the following pages;

• Hophead
• Hop Hooligans
• Sunstone Alehouse
• Bere a la Cluj

Otherwise the following shops and bars are generally well stocked with all our favourite brews.

• Bucharest – Beer O’clock, La 100 de Beri, Piua Book Bar, The Real Beer Shop,
• Timisoara – Bibliotheka, Viniloteca, Reciproc Cafe
• Cluj Napoca – Off the Wall, Flying Circus, Hugo Restaurant, The Liquor Store
• Iasi – Beer Zone
• Sibiu – Eco Zen Boutique
• Arad – Joy’s cafe
• Online – Berero.ro, Craftbeer.ro

That’s all for the time being, stay tuned as our own website is almost finished, which will be packed full of all the information regarding the craft beer scene in Romania.