Inspired by nature, the new Oriel beers surprise with different tastes. We call them beers, some of you made the resemblance with natural wines. What do they have in common? Yeasts and bacteria from nature.

But let’s start with the story of these two beers, because we are not just talking about a new Oriel range, but about two completely different beers.

Life before the pandemic seemed to be so far away, but look, it’s almost over and we’re back to normal.

In 2019 we went to Arrogant Sour Festival, in Italy. I tasted so many sour beers, but surprisingly, I still wanted to try more, there is such a great diversity and although most were extremely sour, their tastes were sublime. There was already another level of craft beer that we wanted to reach. So we decided to try brewing a sour beer. At the beginning of 2020, we bought a 500 litres oak barrel from a Romanian manufacturer. We didn’t want anything sophisticated, just a wooden barrel, in which we could ferment a beer with bacteria and wild yeast. Although we would have liked to try open fermentations with yeasts from nature, the area where we have the brewery is under construction and we cannot do that, so we reached our yeast supplier and we found a blend of bacteria and yeast that replicates the spontaneous fermentation of Belgian beers.

All good and beautiful, the barrel was delivered, we watered it, it swelled, there are certain procedures to follow when filling a barrel the first time, we brewed the beer, added yeast, a blend of two lactic acid bacteria (lactobacillus and pediococcus), yeast saccharomyces and brettanomyces and we waited for it to ferment. The first part of the fermentation went normally, the resulting carbon dioxide was removed through the valve, but after a while, the fermentation began to become more and more aggressive. Most likely, the barrel staves began to expand, so leaks appeared. Sometimes when moments like this occur, the only thing you can do is think quickly about a solution. The most rational solution was to transfer the beer from the wooden barrel to a stainless steel tank, but all our tanks were full of other beers.

Yes, you read it well, we released a new quadruple. You know we have a thing for Quadrupels, but it’s not just that, it’s like our special something. In a time when everyone is trying to impress with crazy experiments, we chose something like back to basics to remember our first time. When we first produced professionally at Oriel a barrel aged beer, we chose to brew a Quadrupel, an Oriel trademark, aged in Jack Daniel’s barrels. Hold your thoughts, we know that Jack Daniel is not bourbon, is Tennessee whiskey, but there is a resemblance between the bourbon and the Tennessee whiskey.

At that time, you, it’s always you, because as much as we want to say that we brew some beers because we like them, many times, we brew them because you are asking. The first edition had a huge success, we made a launching party, the ambassador of Belgium in Romania came, oh, such good times, and, as I was saying, the beer received a huge, great feedback.

Once upon a time… No, I will not start again with this. In a far away galaxy, two guys started to brew beer. That was ten years ago, but that tale you all know. It’s not about the beers we brewed and it’s not about the years that passed, it’s just about the present time. Because we are all here and now.

This year was difficult to everyone, the pandemic crisis affected us and at some point we were asking ourselves, who cares about our beer nowadays, is it important to continue? But after reconsidering our thoughts, we were like “hell yeah! We bring joy into people’s life” or at least, that’s what we like to think about, because drinking an Oriel beer is an experience. We brewed from the beginning different beers, classic, like you all said, but special. Special, precisely because we focus on playing and adapting to modern times and even though we brew Belgian styles, they are quite different, right?

Last year we were getting ready to party for our anniversary and who knew at that time that things will get here? It’s funny because you never expect something to happen, life just happens without any notification.

A peculiar year 2020 was, but let’s looks at the bright side. Nature had almost an entire year to reboot, we had four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and now winter. When was the last time you looked around you? And thinking about this aspect of nature, we came up with the idea of a new beer specially brewed for our 3^rd anniversary.

The surprise is that for the first time, we made an entirely different style, experimenting with everything, from malts, to yeasts and bacteria.

In a Far away galaxy is our reinterpretation of a historical English porter from the 18th century, a dark, funky and sour beer. Brewed with the finest ingredients with the Maris Otter as a base malt, a dash of smoked malt and other specialties, flakes, hops, this beer was sour kettled with Lactobaccilus Helveticus and fermented primary with WLP013. Second fermentation with Brettanomyces Claussenii lasted three months and after that, it continued the conditioning in the bottle. A complex bouquet is followed by layers of depth as the taste is changing over each sip. Roasted malts, tartness and earthy notes, funkness, dried grass, biscuits, praline, lemon, citrus, salt, mellow sweetness covered by smooth saltiness.

Some friendships and collaborations do last a long, long time. That’s the story between us and Sunstone Alehouse. If you don’t know our beginning, let’s recap it for you. We met Kirill many years ago, while we all still homebrewed. Now we are all pro, older and with the same courage to experiment with beers.
White Quadrupel comes as a sequel after Quadrupel IPA, that experimental beer that you all remember, not an ipa, nor a quadrupel. Well, the story repeats again, because this new beer comes close to another creative brew that both brewers come up with.
Oriel x Sunstone White Quadrupel is another experimental brew in which all the crazy ideas of the brewers joined for a beer to remember. Brewed out of a large variety of malts, flakes, hops, orange peel and a blend of yeasts, this quadrupel lighter in color, has preeminent aromas of figs, dates, praline and subtle hints of smoked malt. Taste is intense, bit sweet with vanilla, biscuits, chocolate notes, balanced and flavored with cold brew from DropShot Coffee Roasters. The cold brew was made from a single origin coffee, Ethiopia Sidamo, and brings delicate notes of blueberries, caramel and dark chocolate. A long aftertaste and the alcohol warmth linger on the palate leaving a mellow sweetness.

Exactly this time last year we were in Iasi, at Festivalul Girafelor, one month later we were in Cluj at Cluj Craft Beer Festival. Each time by coincidence we were neighbors with the guys from Bereta. But is there such thing as coincidence? Maybe yes, maybe no. Between pouring beers, we talked a lot about craft beers and shared ideas and in the end the idea of a collaboration was born. But it was difficult to choose one beer that could contain the essence of Oriel Beer and Bereta. After debating, the guys came up with the idea of brewing a barrel aged gose, well you heard well, they brewed a lot of gose beers in the past, we barrel aged a lot. Awesome and awesome, let’s see what happened next.

The recipe was simple, 50% barley malt, 50% barley wheat, wheat flakes, coriander seeds, Hallertau Blanc hop, black Himalayan salt and Lactobaccilus.