Beer in Romania facts for kids

Beer is a very popular drink in Romania. This article tells you about the main types of beer made and sold there. We will also look at the history of beer in Romanian lands, from old times to today. You will learn about the big factories and smaller, special breweries that make unique beers.

Beer in Romania: A Quick Look

Turda old beer factory in Turda, Cluj County, Transylvania.

Did you know that beer and a popular Romanian dish called mititei became famous together during the War of Independence in 1877? After that war, many beer pubs, called berării, opened across the Romanian Kingdom. These pubs became important places for people to meet friends and even do business.

Today, people in Romania drink a lot of beer. In 2007, on average, each person drank over 100 liters of beer in a year! That's a lot of beer.

In Romania, the law sees beer and wine as food items. This means they don't have the same strict rules as other alcoholic drinks. The Romanian word for beer is bere. It comes from the German word Bier. There was also an older word, "olovină," which came from a Nordic word related to "ale."

Popular Beer Brands

Many different kinds of beer are made and sold in Romania. Some of the most well-known Romanian beers include:

• Ursus: This name means "bear" in Latin.
• Timișoreana: It is named after the city of Timișoara.
• Stejar: This word means "oak" in Romanian.
• Bergenbier
• Ciuc: Named after Miercurea Ciuc.
• Silva: This name means "forest" in Latin.

Ursus and Silva also make a type of beer called a dark lager. This beer is darker in color than regular lager. Many of these brands are now owned by big companies like Asahi and Heineken.

You can also find many international beer brands brewed right there in Romania. These are very popular, but sometimes they cost more than local beers. Some examples are Heineken, Carlsberg, Stella Artois, Beck's, Tuborg, Holsten, Peroni, Staropramen, and Skol.

There are also many beers sold in large 2-liter plastic bottles, often called PET bottles. These are usually cheaper and include brands like Ciucaș, Golden Brau, Bürger, Neumarkt, Bucegi, Gambrinus, Azuga, Noroc, and Albacher.

Where Beer is Made: Breweries

The biggest companies that make beer in Romania are:

• Ursus Breweries: This company is owned by Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd.. They have three large breweries in Brașov, Buzău, and Timișoara.
• Heineken Romania: They have four breweries in Constanța, Craiova, Miercurea Ciuc, and Târgu Mureș.

Other important beer companies include:

• Bergenbier: Owned by Molson Coors, with factories in Blaj and Ploiești.
• Tuborg Romania: Part of the Carlsberg Group, they have a brewery in Pantelimon.

There are also other national companies like European Drinks in Sudrigiu, Romaqua Group near Alba Iulia, and Albrau in Onești. Albrau makes its own beers and special brands for supermarkets. Martens, a company from Belgium, owns a brewery in Galaţi and also makes its own beers.

Smaller companies that mainly serve their local areas include Bermas in Suceava and Imex in Satu Mare. The Imex brewery was taken over by Sam Mills in 2016 and now makes Samburger beer.

Romanian Craft Beer: Unique Tastes

Wicked Barrel & Bereta, The Black Pot, a craft beer collaboration.

Craft beer is made by smaller breweries that focus on unique flavors and traditional methods, rather than mass production. The craft beer scene in Romania has grown a lot!

In Timișoara, a small brewery called Clinica de Bere started making their main beer, Terapia, in 2011. In 2013, Alexandru Geamănu and Laurențiu Bănescu opened Fabrica de Bere Bună (which means "Factory of Good Beer") in Măneciu-Ungureni. Their main beer is called Zăganu.

Also in 2014, a brewer working with Sapientia University started the Csíki Sör Manufaktúrát in Sânsimion. In 2017, they had to change their name because Heineken already had "Ciuc" registered as a brand. "Igazi Csíki Sör" means "Real Ciuc beer."

In 2013, Leonard Mihoc started his brewery Nemțeana in Roman. In 2015, brothers Alin and Răzvan Matache opened a small brewery in Bucharest. They started making different types of ales. Their main brand is Ground Zero Beer.

The Hop Hooligans brewery, founded in 2016 in Jilava, quickly became popular. They are known for working with other breweries and making many new beers. They have even gained international attention and attended many craft beer festivals in Europe.

In February 2017, a group called Wicked Barrel started making beer. Their first beer, made with Bereta and called The Black Pot, quickly became the top-rated beer in Romania on RateBeer.com. In 2018, Wicked Barrel was even named the 2nd Best New Brewery in the World at the RateBeer Best Awards!

The craft beer industry has grown very fast since 2015. There are now around 50 craft breweries in Romania. To help people learn more, there are online resources like Universitatea de Bere, which shares beer reviews, and Beerologique, a database that tracks all the craft breweries in Romania.

Images for kids

• 

  Ciucaș brewery in Brașov

• 

  Ursus brewery in Cluj-Napoca

• 

  The old beer factory in Timișoara

• 

  Local Romanian beer pub in 1970.

• 

  Non-alcoholic Golden Brau

• 

  Ursus beer

• 

  Ursus beer

• 

  Csíki hand made beer, brewed in Transylvania.