Last beer before Passover

Sort of like "the last exit before Brooklyn," I have to get off the beer train before we cross into forbidden territory. 

To celebrate the end of eating leavened grain for seven days, Trudy and I ate a veggie hot dog dinner last night, with mustardy buns and beans and pickles and potato chips.  All great stuff for we two American-born and -bred Israelis.

I eased it down with sips of Sparrow Brewery's new Zythos Wheat IPA.  I haven't seen any Sparrow beer in Jerusalem.  I bought a bottle when I visited Beer & Beyond in Tel Aviv a few weeks ago.      

It was an excellent choice.  Using wheat in an IPA is not very common, and in this case it adds a little of the sweetness and crispness of a wheat beer to the IPA hoppiness.  And these are not just any hops.  As the name says, these are Zythos hops, a special blend of West Coast U.S. hops which was formulated to enhance the aroma and flavor of IPAs.  Wow, does it ever!   

I got strong notes of citrus, particularly red grapefruit (how delicious was that!), and a little bit of pine and spice.  It ends with the bitterness you expect from a good IPA.  In short, a thoroughly enjoyable ale which would go well by itself on a hot day, or with any strong, spicy dish -- or even American-style hot dogs and beans.

This is a new brew from Sparrow -- I think just two months old -- and I would like to find out more about their other beers and the brewery itself.  I will make this my mission after Pesach some time.  The owner of Sparrow Brewery is Dror Sapir from Moshav Magshimim and the beer is brewed at Mivshelet Ha'am in Even Yehuda.

Sparrow's Zythos Wheat IPA was a good last beer to have before Passover.  Now it's a week of apple cider, arak and slivovitz.  Not especially bad -- but not beer.  Maybe by next year, we will have a Kosher for Passover beer.  Stay tuned.

With Passover and Easter upon us, I want to wish a very happy holiday to all my readers.  

!חג כשר ושמח