OEC Brewing

By EastCoastBrewReviewer - November 13, 2016

The Stats

Location: Oxford, CT

History: The full name of this brewery is Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores which translates to "The Order of the Eccentric Boilers." This brewery prides itself on taking influences of lost brewing tradition from across Europe and combining them with modern techniques. OEC strictly brews sour beers. They opened their doors in June 2014.

Food Service: Light snacks. Soft, warm pretzels and bags of potato chips are available. On bottle release or festival days food trucks are on-site. Otherwise is BYOF. It's also important to note that in Spring 2016, they opened a bakery on premise. On select days, the bakery is open and baking breads with herbs and wort from their own greenhouse.

Website: oecbrewing.com

The Scenario

First off, this brewery is in the middle of no where. The road that it's on can't be found on GPS yet. That's the level of "off the beaten path" we were at. However, the grounds of OEC are beautiful. Walking up the driveway we found the garden where they grow their herbs, the greenhouse, the brewery and the bakery. All of the buildings are at the top of a hill overlooking the fall foliage along a state park trail and a brook.

Stepping into the brewery, we were met with long wooden trails on two levels. We passed the coolship room and made our way up the stairs and over to the bar. The place was absolutely packed on a late Saturday afternoon, however we cozied up to the bar and happened to be lucky to sit down right where another couple had just gotten up. Our very expensive flight ($18.50) consisted of all 7 of their sour ales ranging from light to dark. For the large amount of people in the place, we sipped our beers without any bother from the other beer patrons.

Both the atmosphere and the beer names and descriptions are reminiscent of Harry Potter. I think that if Harry Potter were to take a class called "brewology" it would definitely take place here. The descriptions of both the beers and the brewing process for them were riddled with scientific words that neither of us could decipher. As you know, the specific jargon of yeast strains or bacterias used in fermentation are not anything we care about.

The Ratings

Albus (White Ale)

D: 4/5 - Delicious! A classic tasting sour beer.
K: 3/5 - A typical tasting sour!

Exilis (Berliner Weisse)

D: 3.5/5 - Hard to tell the difference between this one and Albus. I added the raspberry syrup as suggested but I didn't taste much of a difference.
K: 3.5/5 - Tasted like Albus but we added the raspberry syrup.

Nepenthes (Rye Saison)

D: 3/5 - Much more of a mild sour flavor.
K: 4/5 - This one isn't as sour so I can really get behind that.

Arista Zynergia: Morpheus & Iris (Lambic Style Ale)

D: 3/5 - I taste the grape aspects of this one as it is aged with grape skins and matured in wine barrels.
K: 3/5 - At this point, all I taste is sour things but it's pretty good.

Arista Zynergia: Artamas (Blend #2) (Blended Saison)

D: 2/5 - Too smokey for me.
K: 3.5/5 - Definitely unique and smokey, I like it.

Narcissus (Non-traditional Lambic blend)

D: 1/5 - Very funky flavor. I didn't love it.
K: 1.5/5 - Real funky, not great.

Phantasma Sour (Blend #3)

D: 1/5 - Blehhhhhh
K: 2/5 - Really not great. If you can imagine a sour porter (yeah, I don't think I could either before tasting this) that's what it's like.

Final Thoughts

D: 4/5 - As a lover of sour beers, I really enjoyed this place. I enjoyed the atmosphere and inside and outside of this brewery. The agricultural feel of the space was very cool and you can tell the passion the creative minds behind this brewery have. The sour beers were good although I think 7 tastings in the flight was a lot. Once we got to the last few which were more potent than the previous, it was hard to push through. I'd definitely be open to going back and would especially like to go when the bakery is open!

K: 3.5/5 - A really fun and unique brewery, OEC offers something different than any other brewery we have frequented. I do enjoy a sour beer every now and then and they definitely have some tasty ones. That being said, I started to feel sick after our last taste. I think the variety of sour beers one after the other was far too much for my tastebuds/stomach to handle. If you go for a flight, good luck finishing it on your own. I was very happy I had someone to split it with. It was definitely a fun experience to taste just how different sour beers can be from one another.