Bere LĂPUȘNA

This page was last updated January 6th 2021. No further updates and maintenance will be performed on it.

DSC_0024 (2)Location: Ibăneşti Pădure, Mureş county
Open since: January 2007
Reopened in: 2011
Head brewer: Matei Dumitru
Output in 2019: 100 hectolitres

General information:

The story of Lăpuşna doesn’t follow the usual pattern you see with most craft breweries on the market, mainly run by young brewers and entrepreneurs. The beer comes from a region with a long brewing tradition (the nearby town of Reghin was the birth place of the now macro-owned Silva brewery). The head brewer himself is also not new to this industry, having dabbled in something similar back in 1991. Lăpuşna originally opened in January 2007, marking it as one of the oldest craft breweries in the country, yet it was forced to temporarily terminate its activity by the local Customs authority not long after.

However, Lăpuşna as we know it nowadays saw its beginnings in 2009, when Matei Dumitru, a maths teacher, decided to trade the prospect of becoming a school inspector for brewing. Along with his son, they used an unearthed beer recipe as old as 1675 and, after tweaking it to suit modern tastes and compliances, went to town with it. Their beers returned to the market in 2011, and the rest is history.

Everything about Lăpuşna is old school. From the beer itself, which is left to mature in the bottle for 70 days, to the fact that the brewery is set in their backyard, or the fact that it mainly brews traditional, bottom fermenting beers, in accordance to what the vast majority of Romanian drinkers are used to. Up until 2017, getting your hands on the beer itself was a bit of an adventure if you lived outside the neighboring counties, as deliveries were sent off into the rest of the Romania with the same minivans that got commuters from place to place.

By 2018, they have expanded in various shops and bars across the country, and they currently have one of the cheapest Romanian craft beers you can get on draft. You can easily pick one up from Statia RomBeer in Bucharest, or Eco Zen Boutique in Sibiu. Or, if you’re a bit old school yourself, you can just give the brewer a call directly.

Products:

  • Blondă – Blonde Lager – 4.6% ABV
  • Roşie – Amber Lager – 4.6% ABV
  • Neagră –  Special Dark Lager – 4.6% ABV
  • Arămie – Amber Lager – 4.6% ABV

For reviews check Universitatea de Bere, Ratebeer, BeerAdvocate or Untappd.

Contact details:

 

DSC_0118