The trajectory of many small craft brewers is the same. They start independent, develop a following, and grow in influence and production capability. Eventually, they might open a bar or restaurant and one day might get swallowed by a larger corporation. Suddenly, your dad is buying it from Stop & Shop.
Not so with Oxford, Conn.'s OEC. (This stands for Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores, a winkingly imprecise Latin phrase that sort of means "The Order of the Eccentric Boilers.") It was conceived in early 2013 as an extension of the importer and distributor B. United, which represents such brands as Belgium’s De Dolle Brouwers, Germany’s G. Schneider & Sohn, and Japan’s Kiuchi Brewery.
As such, OEC began life better connected and resourced than just about any other craft brewery in North America, with access to an international portfolio of nearly 70 producers of artisanal beer, cider, mead, and more across 17 countries. Head-brewer/owner Ben Neidhart and his two assistant brewers have taken full advantage of the tools at their disposal.
“The design process for us is fairly chaotic and unstructured. It mostly comes down to inspiration,” says Neidhart. “Sometimes we will start with a style and decide how we would like to put our on tweak on it. Other times we’ll just start out tasting barrels and come up with a blend on the spot.” OEC focuses on bridging Old World brewing practices and antique recipe research with a New World sensibility of experimentation. More often than not, their beers have sour-leaning flavor profiles, with a depth that comes from having been matured mostly in oak.
(Historically speaking, all beer existed somewhere on the sour spectrum before the properties of ambient yeast were fully understand and then domesticated.)
OEC releases some of the same recipes and blends at least once a year, like its saison-style Tempus, which is "actually three different recipes that are barrel-aged for different amounts of time and then blended,” Neidhart explained. “So while Tempus is a single product line, every blend will be slightly different.” Despite this blend-to-blend uniqueness, it is always quenchingly tart, with a stone fruit quality.
Perhaps most exciting are the other projects run by Neidhart and his team. They use each as a way to push the limits of their craft.
Learn more below about their seven experimental projects, available mostly at the brewery, with kegs sporadically shipped to the 44 states in B. United’s distribution zone.
Artista Zynergia
In this project, OEC collaborates with other breweries in the B. United portfolio. “It is always a blend of products produced both locally and abroad—rather than just one recipe—that we collaborate on,” says Neidhart. For Morpheus & Phantasus, Belgian micro-brewery Picobrouwerij Alvinne sent a small tank of a sour beer stateside. The Connecticut team decided to round it out by blending it with four aromatic OEC beers aged in barrels that had previously held pinot noir and Ransom Spirits Gin.
Experimentalis
“Experimentalis is a special series we do that must utilize fresh fruit, which must be grown on the OEC Brewing property—our greenhouses and orchards—and then aged in oak barrels,” explained Neidhart. “There is not one base beer for this project, and there are no other limitations.” These are easily the most sought-after releases from OEC. A noteworthily delicious example of this experimentation has been Experimentalis With Meyer Lemons, which opens up citrusy sweet/tart and finishes botanically dry, thanks to time spent maturing in a former gin barrel.