OEC Brewery Opens In Oxford

Ben Neidhart of Beverage United International, importer of vanishingly rare and obscenely delicious beers from Europe, Africa and Asia, has announced the finalization of his brand new brewery, OEC Brewing, which will open its doors alongside B.United's headquarters facility in Oxford.  A public grand opening party will take place on Saturday, June 7th, at noon.

B.United imports have appearednumerous times in Friday Froth, and I had a chance to tour the facility last year as part of their Nepenthia event. BU has consistently been years ahead of the curve in barrel aging beers in creative and exotic ways as part of the ongoing experiment they call Zymatore, and OEC, while a separate entity, will be able to benefit from the other facilities on site. 

The new brewery, called OEC, for Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores or "Order of Eccentric Boilers" (they know their Latin is less than perfect), gives the mad scientist Neidhart family a chance to bring creations wholly their own to the market, along with a tasting room which will feature six taps of OEC beers, B.United imports, and at least one of the ultra-rare Zymatore barrel aged special brews. 

The tasting room's taps will be set at differing temperatures, depending on what is optimal to serve each beer, and will also offer growler fills, alongside filling pints. The prospect of having an entire growler of Zymatore beer to myself is currently filling me with indecent, borderline unholy, lust. This is big news, people. 

The brew house itself will feature both direct fire and copper bottomed mash tuns, copper coolships for making lambics, and a copper Baudelot system for cooling. We already know they'll produce a porter and something heavily hopped among their first batches, but B.United has been quiet regarding the OEC beers themselves; it's a very good bet they will be heavily influenced by old world recipes, but I'd fully expect creative, new world interpretations. 

OEC Brewery grand opening: June 7, 2014, 12-7p.m., 7 Fow Hollow Rd., Oxford, CT; https://www.facebook.com/oecbrewing/