GREAT BEER MAKES FOR GREAT TIMES
Did you know that in medieval Britain it was safer to drink beer than it was to drink water? Well, Remi knows! And he also knows what are the best craft beers of Romania!
Out of love for craft beer and his desire to tell stories, Remi, who has previously worked as a receptionist in our hostel, has recently launched together with a group of friends, a website called berspectiva.ro, where they evaluate local breweries and craft beers.
If you want to get an insight into the beer-world of Romania and Cluj in particular and if you are looking for a clearer beerspective, then keep on reading and don’t miss the best hints on drinking like a true local when in Cluj!
You can find Hophead in our hostel!
In the last couple of years, the concept of craft beer has flourished in Europe. People started to go locally and they began to value more the quality VS the quantity. It’s a new creative approach, a DIY culture of doing things in our own way, a culture that promotes a more responsible way of consuming and thinking in general.
It will be for blends variety, for flavors robustness, for ingredients choice or for the slow and old processing, but craft beer has a particular appeal that the beer we see on the supermarket shelves does not have. Craft beer tastes much better because the brewers spend their time focusing on the quality of their beer rather than on the marketing campaigns. They put their heart and soul as well as lots of amazing ingredients into every beer they brew.
“It all started out as an university project” says Remi, that has been studying Journalism for the past 3 years. “We had to create a web-page that will generate as much page views as possible, but that will also provide a qualitative content. We came up with the idea of a beer review page, because it is an easy topic to approach on both a local and also an international level, because it is catchy and interesting and because there are a lot of people out there that enjoy a cold beer on a daily basis. People are always interested in beer and we decided to tell the story of the brands and to review them in an interesting manner so that we could help the readers choose the option that suits them the best.”
Their website showcases objective information about the brands but also subjective opinions on the beers available in restaurants&bars of Cluj. It has 4 sections as following:
- BEERVIEWs that present the stories behind the craft beers and other interesting beer brands that are produced in Cluj and Romania in general
- alternative RESTAURANTS & BARS that offer this kind of beers
- the STORIES of the people working in the domain, such as professional beer-tasters (what a dream job!) and their recommendations & tips
- BEERFACTS
“I do love beer in general, but what attracted me the most when writing for the website were the stories behind and the concept of beer as a creative product of people. So far I learned a lot of things about the industry and how to be creative with your own products.” When asked what does he mean by being creative, he assuredly affirmed that “naming your beer, advertising (or not) your beer and choosing the ingredients that are going to give it the unique flavor are related to nothing else but creativity”.
credits to Laurentiu Banescu
REMI’S FAVORITE BEERS:
1717
Zăganu (blondă)
Hophead (Immigrant)
Bere à la Cluj (Faza Lunii, Gaura Neagră)
Nemțeana (blondă/arămie)
Give these beers a chance and try them out in one of Remi’s favorite places to have a drink at: in Shadow for the nice music, in Old School for the cool bar or in Insomnia for the reach social life.
Currently, he is working on a new project – a documentary about the day-to-day life of the HOPHEAD brewerie! With this and the BERSPECTIVA web-page he is calling us out. His CALL TO ACTION is “start consuming locally” – good things can and are produced locally, they don’t have to be big in order to be great – and “be curious: go out there and try new beers”.
Drinking locally is a more responsible & conscious choice. Knowing that your beer has a story and that it came from one of your neighbors makes drinking it that much more enjoyable!
Therefore, to conclude, I’ll just say: LIFE IS SHORT SO DRINK GOOD BEER!
by Eva Bunici for Transylvania Hostel