June 27, 2017

Make your own beer maps with WishTrip

My earlier post on pubs and restaurants in Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda market (see here) included a link to the WishTrip app which played a video of the actual pub crawl.  (Here it is again:  https://wishtrip.com/web/trek/10250000010086)   Several readers have told me how much they appreciated this feature.  

Well, now as a public service to my readers (and as a way to thank the WishTrip people), I'd like to announce that everyone can use the app for their own use.    

WishTrip is a real time mapping app which enables users to visualize and share outdoor or urban travel activities using geolocation, digital images and text, as well as communicate with other users.

You can make your own WishTrip map, or discover, plan and share your trips live.  You can share on Facebook and Instagram, and write up recommendation for the next traveler.  And it's so easy that even old bloggers can understand it.

Get started with WishTrip right now by clicking on this link:

https://wishtrip.com/web/home




June 26, 2017

Shapiro's new "pop-up pub"

The accessible entrance to
the Shapira BaSira pub
in Jerusalem. 
The four Shapiro brothers -- Itzik, Daniel, Zvi and Avi -- and sister Tamar, have opened a pub in Jerusalem to showcase their beers.  It's called Shapira BaSira ("Shapiro in the Boat"), a play on words since it's at 1 Ben-Sira Street.  It's also a pup-up pub, meaning it's temporary, popping up only for the summer's beer-drinking months.  Around the time of the Jewish fall holidays (September-October), it will go into hibernation, being replaced by a coffee shop.  Will it pop up again next summer?  We can only hope.  

Shapira BaSira is open every day (except Friday night and Saturday during the day --  the Jewish Sabbath) from 4:00 p.m.  Until 9:00 p.m. there are Happy Hour rules, with the second beer being free.

All of the Shapiro beers are available on tap: Pale Ale, Oatmeal Stout, Wheat, Lager, Jack's Winter Ale and the just issued 2017 IPA with Simcoe hops (more on this new beer in a future post).  A glass of 400 cc's (14 ounces) costs 27 shekels (29 for the IPA), and 200 cc's (7 ounces) cost 15 shekels (17 for the IPA).  A flight of five 200 cc glasses costs 70 shekels.

The Shapira BaSira pub bar.  To the right is
the restaurant room with tables and chairs.
Kosher food is also served; not much but good for a pub.  For example: Sour pickle (5 shekels), vegetable plate (12), bagel with za'atar dip (14), chicken sandwich (30), sausage (24), "Ashkenazi fries" -- potato pancakes (22).

Itzik Shapiro told me that during the day (before the pub opens) the room is being used for special events, such as a brewing workshop for tourists and guides, brewing demonstrations, and tastings for groups.  For the latter, you have to book ahead of time for a minimum of seven participants.  For a fee of 50 shekels, you get explanations of all Shapiro beers and six tastings of 100 cc's.  Call 02-561-2622.

This Friday (June 30) at about one o'clock, there will be a brewing demonstration at the pub by Itay Marom of the HaShachen ("The Neighbor") Brewery from Netanya.

Shapiro Beer in Casks



I paid a visit to the very comfortable and cozy pub shortly after it opened.  Not coincidently, Benny Kriger of Benny's Cask Ale Pub in Kfar Saba was there tapping open three casks of Shapiro beer: Pale Ale, Stout, and the new 2017 IPA.

Tasting Shapiro beer straight from Benny's casks:
(from left) Benny Kriger, Zvi Shapiro,
the old blogger, and Itzik Shapiro.

(Photo: Mike Horton)
After he tapped the casks and gave us a chance to taste the same beer 1) from a cask and 2) from a regular keg, Benny was kind enough to sit with me and explain what casking is all about.  The first thing I noticed was Israeli-born Benny's surprising Scottish accent, the result of his frequent trips to Glasgow when he was younger to cheer on the Celtic soccer team!

"I go to breweries," he began, "and I put the beer right from the fermenter into my casks.  The first thing you notice is that the beers from my casks are less carbonated.  This is because no COgas is added.

"Second, they are served a little warmer, usually 10-14 degrees centigrade (50-57 Fahrenheit) instead of the usual 4-6 degrees centigrade (39-43 Fahrenheit).

Benny Kriger taps open his casks at the
Shapira BaSira pub in Jerusalem.

(Photo: Mike Horton)

"What this does is increase the strength of the beer's flavors.  Now, in order for this to work well, the beer has to be good in the first place.  We tried casking Goldstar, for example, and it came out horrible."

We tasted the casked versions and the kegged versions of Shapiro's IPA, Pale Ale and Stout -- and I can definitely attest that the flavor profiles are much  more intense from the cask.  I can understand why beer enthusiasts travel from all over to Kfar Saba to drink at Benny's.

By now the casks in Shapira BaSira are empty, but the kegs are still full of wonderful Shapiro beer.  If you're in Jerusalem, stop in and have a good time -- while it's still the "pop-up season."

June 21, 2017

Winners of the LongShot and Golden Beer competitions

Last week the winners were announced of two prestigious brewing competitions in Israel:
The Samuel Adams LongShot competition for home-brewers and the
Golden Beer 2017 for commercial craft brewers.

13th Annual Samuel Adams LongShot

Sergei Lekach (center) is awarded
Best in Show at the
Samuel Adams LongShot competition.
The Samuel Adams LongShot contest is the oldest in Israel for home-brewers and it has given impetus to several of them to take their brewing to the next level -- whatever that may be.  It's sponsored by Samuel Adams Beer in Boston and Tempo Beer Industries in Israel, and is under the professional direction of the Beer-D center in Tel Aviv.

I'll just list the winners here because 1) they haven't been announced in English yet, and 2) I haven't tasted any of them. 



Best in Show
Coffee Oatmeal Stout -- Sergei Lekach

Pale Ale
First:  American Pale Ale -- Yair Livne, Yair's Beer
Second:  Sweet Blond -- Sagi Schonewald, Opi's Brewery 
Third:  Oceanside -- EzRa

Dark Ale
First:  Coffee Oatmeal Stout -- Sergei Lekach
Second:  Red Red -- Amir Shalev
Third:  Dab-Lin -- Emanuel Zeidman and Avi Riji

Lager
First:  Czech Pilsner -- Boaz Lanner
Second:  Black Bavaria -- Emanuel (Mano) Peled
Third:  Smoked Lager -- Nachum Haver

Freestyle
First:  Beet Beer -- Nachum Haver
Second:  Ad Hoc -- Nimrod Rotem
Third:  My First Berliner Weisse -- Motti Tzukerman


Golden Beer 2017

From the eldest to the youngest: The first Golden Beer competition awarded 26 prizes to 97 beers that took part.  (That's better than a one-in-four chance of winning something.)  These had to be commercial beers, that is, produced by brewers with a legal production license.  The organizer was the Ben Ami Studio, the same agency which produces the annual BEERS Exhibit in Tel Aviv.  

Cynics would say that the organizers were getting in on the wave of beer competitions which seem to be springing up all over the place.  I'm not (much of) a cynic, but I naturally recoil from calling the winners, as the competition's PR did, "the best beers in Israel."  A little humility is in order, as is a little space for beer lovers to decide for themselves.

That being said, the winners are still to be congratulated for being judged by a jury of their peers and succeeding.    

Here, then, are the winners of the Golden Beer 2017 competition:

Light Lager
First:  Pils -- Jem's
Second:  Pils -- Sheeta
Second:  Pils -- Buster's

Amber / Dark Lager
First:  Double Bock -- Bazelet (Golan Brewery)
Second: Dark Lager --Jem's

Pale Ale
First:  Patriot -- Dancing Camel
Second:  Pale Ale -- Shapiro
Third:  Pale Ale -- Mosco

IPA
First: Gorgeous New England -- Joya
Second:  IPA -- Sheeta
Third:  Pressure Drop -- HaShachen

Wheat
First:  Wheat -- Mosco
Second:  Wheat -- Shapiro
Third:  Wheat -- Sheeta

Belgian Style
First:  Red Belgian Ale -- Barzel
Second:  Belgian Tripel -- Emek Ha'ela

Porter / Stout
First:  Dark Beer -- Malka
Second:  Midnight Stout -- Dancing Camel
Third:  Oatmeal Stout -- Shapiro
Third:  Porter Alon -- Negev
Third: Stout -- Jem's

Flavored Beer
First:  Smoked Beer -- Mosco
Second:  Gordon Beach Blond -- Dancing Camel
Third: Jack's Winter Ale -- Shapiro
Third:  Olde Papa -- Dancing Camel

Gluten-Free
First:  Sweet Cider -- Buster's

Sheeta goes commercial with 3 new beers

A familiar scene: Neta and Jean Torgovitsky
presenting their beers at a local beer festival.
People who have been attending local beer festivals in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for the past seven years or so probably have met Jean and Neta Torgovitsky.  This home-brewing couple from Beersheva have been pouring their excellent beers under the Sheeta ("Acacia Tree") label.

I've had a chance to meet them a few times and was impressed by their mastery of a range of different beer styles.  Their fellow brewers have been no less enthusiastic.

So it was with great expectations that I greeted the announcement six months ago that Jean and Neta had opened up their own commercial-size brewery in Arad.  "We thought we were doing something right," Jean explains.  "Our beers were winning prizes and getting very good reviews, so we decided to take the step into full-time commercial brewing."

Jean mixes beer into the cement
while he works on the new
Sheeta Brewery in Arad
before its opening.
This is an old Belgian tradition
which is believed to strengthen
the construction! 
They chose Arad because they were able to get facilities in the Industrial Park and also within the Artists' Quarter.  "It's a beautiful place to be in," adds Jean.  "We just had a graffiti festival where street artists drew beautiful pictures on our outside walls.  Later this month, we plan to open a beer garden in our courtyard."

The first three commercial Sheeta beers can be found in beer specialty stores and many liquor stores carrying Israeli craft beers, in addition to pubs in Tel Aviv, Beersheva and Arad.  They also brewed up a batch of Pilsner which won second place in the Light Lager category in the recently announced Golden Beer 2017 competition, but this has been sold out.

(In the same contest, their new IPA won second place in the IPA category, and the Weissbier took third prize in the Wheat Beer category.  I'll write more about the Golden Beer competition in a future post.)  

The Sheeta Weissbier is a 4.8% alcohol German wheat beer.  It pours out a very cloudy dark-pale color with a creamy white head.  The aroma is very typical for wheat beers, with notes of clove and banana, but you also get some yeast bread and refreshing new-cut grass.  The taste is very strong on citrus fruits, peach and banana candy, with a long finish of bitter lemon.

This is a wonderfully refreshing beer for the summer, even if you are not, like me, a big fan of wheat beers.  It goes well with most light foods such as salads, vegetable dishes, hummus, mild cheeses and fruit desserts.

The three Sheeta beers:
Oak Aged Dry Stout, IPA, and Weissbier.
The Sheeta India Pale Ale (IPA) avoids the extreme hoppy flavors and bitterness which have become the hallmarks of this style.  This makes it the perfect beer for those who are just beginning to try IPAs.  The light copper color is a little hazy, with a creamy off-white head.  The aroma is subdued; no aggression from the hops, but grapefruit and caramel.  The taste is only mildly bitter with some banana and caramel, with citrus, tropical fruits and yeast in the background.  With a light body and a very refreshing and dry finish, you want to take another gulp, and another.  And with the alcoholic content at 5.8%, you can let yourself have a second bottle and still get up from the chair.

Pair this IPA with stronger and spicy foods like chilies and curries.  Also excellent with pizza. 

Continuing with moderation and balance is the Sheeta Oak Aged Dry Stout.  The color is almost black, with a miniscule tan head.  Dark chocolate, coffee and roasted malts are the immediate aromas, and they do go very well together.  The taste is medium sweet, with more cocoa, coffee and roasted malt.  The beer is really a dry stout in the Irish tradition (4.3% alcohol), with a medium body, very little carbonation and a very dry, astringent finish.  As the name says, this beer is aged with oak chips, but it's beyond my pay scale to fathom how this affects the beer.

Dry stout is perfect for balancing the sweetness of grilled vegetables like onions and mushrooms, and for cheddar cheese and rich desserts.

The debut of Sheeta beers on the Israeli market demonstrates again that the public's thirst for craft beers hasn't been quenched.  If you brew it right, they will drink.

June 13, 2017

Jerusalem Craft Beer Fair -- Part Two: The Home-Brewers

[See Part One: The Commercial Brewers here.]

The next morning there were eight home-brewers who had come to serve their beers.  These and many more had entered their beers in the first Beerateinu home-brewers competition and they were hoping to bring home a prize.

To our fortune, two of the brewers there won first prizes, including Best-in-Show, so I was able to taste some winning beers.

Winners should go first, so I'll begin with those who won in each category.

Best-in-Show and
American & Strong Ales

Yoav Tal with his three awards, including
Best-in-Show for his Pale Ale. 

(Photo: Mike Horton)
Yoav Tal from Ein Karem near Jerusalem, won for his Pale Ale, which he calls Zahav Parvayim ("Fine Gold" in Hebrew).  Yoav has been home-brewing for about three years and has dedicated the last year to experimenting with pale ales, which are his favorite.  He prefers these to some of the ultra-hoppy IPAs, whose taste he compares to "eating hop pellets."  Zahav Parvayim is the result of this work, and he's delighted that his efforts earned him Best-in-Show.  Yoav has a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from Hebrew University and is doing research in that area.  Don't ask me to tell you what it is.    

Zahav Parvayim pours a light gold color and packs a delicious punch of hop aromas.  The flavor, however, is lighter on the hops and stronger with malt, offering fruits (possibly raisins), citrus and caramel.  It has a crisp and bitter finish, perfect for this pale ale.  Yoav estimates the alcoholic volume to be 6% to 6.5%.  Even though this is a winning recipe, Yoav says he will continue to experiment and tweak it to achieve even better results.          

By the way, Yoav also submitted a Saison-style beer which won second prize in the Classic European category.  It was brewed with carrot and fennel, which sounds interesting, but I must admit that I found the taste to be more like a classic wheat ale than a saison.

Stouts
British Ales

Daniel Strauss of Jerusalem took first place in both of these categories, with his Oatmeal Stout and his Irish Red (I'm not sure how the Irish would like being included in the British Ales category!).  He has only been home-brewing for about six months.

Daniel Strauss, winner of two first prizes,
introduces the old blogger to his beers.

(Photo: Mike Horton)
Daniel told me that his Oatmeal Stout was based on a basic recipe he received from Shmuel Naky, co-owner of Beerateinu, with the addition of "some old malt extract that I found lying around my place.  That makes it kind of hard to repeat."

Since I didn't have a chance to taste the original winner, it means I probably never will.  Daniel says, however, that he is trying to replicate it as close as possible to the original in order to brew it regularly.  About his Irish Red, I may still get a chance to taste it, since he does brew it on a regular basis because "it's in demand by family and friends."

No one is more surprised than Daniel that his only two entries in this competition won first prizes.  "For me," he says, "the main thing was getting together with other people who love to brew beer, drinking some good beers with them, and getting some very helpful feedback from the judges."

The two other first prize winners who were not there were Yisrael Atlow (Safhal Brewery) whose Lager won in the Classic European category, and Aleksey Radionov whose Pinocchio (a blend of Imperial stout and Saison styles) took home the gold in the Freestyle category.

Among the other brewers on display were:

Bashir Assad's three beers on display.
(Photo: Mike Horton)
Bashir Assad (yes, that's his name!) of Jerusalem, calls his home-brewery Hops & Stones.  He was serving his English Bitter Ale, Ginger Ale, and an amazing Arabic Coffee Stout, brewed with cardamon and Arabic coffee. He shoulda been a contender.

Dor Chen of Jerusalem, who had a surprising smoky beer made with Lapsang Souchong tea and molasses.  It was a stroke of genius, I thought, as the naturally smoky tea added just enough acidity and smoky flavor to the beer.  Another "shoulda-been," as far as I'm concerned.

Yedidya Revach (right) and girlfriend Shai
with the award for their Smoked Stout.

(Photo: Mike Horton)
Yedidya Revach and his girlfriend Shai, calling themselves the Yedid ("Friend") Brewery.  Yedidya is from Mitzpe Netofa in the Lower Galilee, and has been home-brewing for 5 1/2 years.  They were serving a gluten-free beer, where the gluten was chemically removed from the barley, a Smoked Stout (which won second prize in the Freestyle category) and a Smoked Light Stout.

Sarel Rich from Moshav Ora near Jerusalem has a home meadery he calls Sar-Ale.  He makes several kinds of mead (honey-based liquors) and was serving two: One included kumquats and the other in which he he used hops for the first time.  An interesting innovation,

Comrades Dimitry and Sergei (maybe that's why
they're dressed in red!) and Josh Golbert
pouring their home-brews.

(Photo: Mike Horton)
The Comrades Brewery (Dimitry and Sergei of Jerusalem) were next, with their Gold Ale which won second prize in the British Ales category.  It was not very hoppy and on the sweetish side.

Last up was the team of Josh Golbert (originally from LA, now from Armon Hanatziv in Jerusalem) and Arnon Turner (from Kfar Bin Nun in the Ayalon Valley).  They were offering a Pale Ale, a Milk Stout, an Abbey Wheat with apple cider, and a Belgian Blond Ale.

By choosing to exhibit at the Fair, these home-brewers have taken a brave step which opens themselves up to criticism, while bringing their beers to the public.  We wish them all success -- and congratulations to the winners.    

June 4, 2017

Two more June festivals

Here we go again!  Beer festivals are continuing to pop up all over the country.  They're not even waiting for the summer.  Here are two more for this month.


The Israel Beer Festival
June 6-7

In just another few days, another beer festival will open at the Train Station (Hatachana) in the Neveh Tzedek neighborhood of Tel Aviv.  Despite its rather overarching name, this is the first attempt at a beer festival by the event production team of Arnon Sofer and Sagi Epstein of Gold Productions.  

I asked Arnon why he thought Tel Aviv needed another beer festival just a few months before the huge annual BEERS Exhibit opens in the same location.

"They have beers from Israel and from all over the world," Arnon explained.  "We will only have Israeli craft beers on display.  We will give Israeli beers the respect that is due to them."

Okay, fair enough.  But I wonder if that is a big enough difference to get the crowds that they need to be successful.  We'll know in a few days.

The Israeli Beer Festival will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, June 7 and 8, opening at 7:00 p.m. each night.  Tickets cost 70 shekels at the box office, which includes five beer tastings.  If you order the tickets ahead of time online, the price drops to 53 shekels (order at https://www.baligam.co.il/search or www.tixwise.co.il/israbeer-fest).  If you have a digital Tel Aviv Residents card, the price is only 47 shekels.  Any questions about tickets, etc., can be directed to Arnon at 052-620-7297.    

The Israel Beer Festival is under the patronage of Bazelet Beer (Golan Brewery).  As of now, the following breweries will be displaying:

Shapiro
Negev
Mosco
Srigim (Ronen and Emek Ha'ela)   
The Dictator
Meadan
HeChalutz
HeChatzer (Back Yard Beer)
Arava
Jem's
Lela
Barzel
    
More information at: https://www.facebook.com/beerfestisrael/

Hod HaSharon Beer Park Festival
June 28-29

The first beer festival in Hod HaSharon will be held Wednesday and Thursday, June 28 and 29, at the Four Seasons Park.  The festival opens each day at 6:00 p.m.and entrance is free.  The organizers, BarDan Productions, promise over 40 kinds of beer from Israel and abroad, booths for street food and other items for sale, and live music.  It is being billed as a festival for students, families, and all those to whom beer gives a smile!

If you like beer and live in or around Hod HaSharon, this festival is meant for you.  

More information at: https://www.facebook.com/drinkbeersavewater2/  


I'll end with a few suggestions about beer festivals: Don't try to attend every festival that pops up.  There will be a lot of them this season; a lot more than last summer.  Have fun, but pace yourself.  Make arrangements with friends for getting together and getting home safely with a designated driver or public transportation.  Here are some links to articles which give you advice on how to get the most enjoyment out of beer festivals. 
  


June 1, 2017

20 hours at the Jerusalem Craft Beer Fair -- Part 1: The Commercial Brewers

Whew!  If it wasn't for the beer, it would be overkill.  I spent 20 hours at the Jerusalem Craft Beer Fair at the First Station  -- well, pausing only to go home to get some sleep.  Beginning at 6:00 p.m., I made the rounds of the commercial micro-brewers, tasting seven of their new beers.  Then, the following morning. I was back to sample the wares of home-brewers who had entered the Beerateinu home-brewing competition, staying until around 2:00 p.m.  Like I said, 20 hours.

The Fair and the brewing competition were both organized by the dynamic and knowledgeable co-owners of Beerateinu, Shmuel Naky and Leon Shvartz.

The Commercial Brewers

For the evening sessions, Shmuel and Leon asked the exhibiting brewers to bring something "new" for the Fair.  A great idea.  Otherwise, returning attendees merely get to taste the same beers they had at the previous Fair.  (Of course, for new visitors, particularly those being introduced to craft beer for the first time, this is not a problem.)

Joined by photographer Mike Horton and Esteemed Judge Bob Faber, I began my promenade.

The first smiling face we encountered was Yotam Baras, serving his Dictator beers.  In addition to his core beers (English Bitter, Pale Ale, Irish Red and Porter), Yotam was offering Experience 01, an "experimental" bottled beer that blended the Belgian Double and IPA styles.  What can I say?  It was certainly a successful experiment, in fact, the best new beer I tasted that evening.  It was complex and rich, malty, sweet and bitter -- in suitable proportions.

Made with Chinook, Amarillo and Willamette hops, the 6.5% ABV beer poured a very dark brown and had an aroma of caramel and some fruit, possibly cherries.  The taste was on the sweet side, spicy and alcoholic -- definitely more Double than IPA.  Though there was no taste of hops or yeast that I could detect, there was a gentle chocolate malt that I found yummy.  The finish was bitter and dry.

Bottom line: a new and different beer that is definitely worth trying, and as I said, is available in bottles at most beer specialty stores.

One stand away was another experimental beer on tap, from the Fass Brewhouse on the Golan Heights, served by Hagai Fass, one of the brother-partners.  This beer was named Shaike, a 3.8% ABV light lager in the Pilsner style.  It was indeed light and refreshing, with a neutral taste that would go well with many foods, or with none.

Hagai told me that he and his brother Orr have been brewing beers that they themselves like -- something you hear from many other brewers.  Shaike, on the other hand, Hagai said, "may not be to our taste, but it's a beer that other people love."  And, I suppose, light lagers will never go out of style, but in my opinion, it's the stronger and more complex tasting beers that are firing the craft beer renaissance in Israel and elsewhere.

Next door was the booth of the Glen Whisky Bar, a Jerusalem establishment owned by Leon Shvartz, who is also the Beerateinu guy.  His partner in Beerateinu, Shmuel Naky, is quite a beer conoisseur and a talented brewer in his own right.  Shmuel was offering anew beer he just made, on sale at the Glen Whisky Bar, called Glengili.  It was a dunkelweizen, a dark wheat beer, made with caramel malt and 60% wheat malt.  Shmuel never ceases to amaze me.  Glengili is a rich, complex beer with bready aroma and a taste that reminded me of chocolate French toast -- even though I never had chocolate French toast!  

The new Barzel Ruby Wheat.
Yair Alon of Barzel Beer (contract brewed at the Mosco Brewery on Moshav Zanuach) greeted us next.  You can find Barzel now in plenty of beer and liquor stores.  The original beer is a Belgian-style strong ale which is constantly being tweaked by Yair and his co-brewers, Ori Granot and Idan Talyas, and, it seems to me, just keeps getting better.

The current version is a 6% ABV Belgian Red Ale, reflected in its dark red amber color with almost no head.  The aroma is a promising fruity and yeasty, and indeed the taste is creamy sweet with spices and cooked fruit, reminding me almost of those winter holiday ales with pumpkin pie spices.  The finish, however, turns bitter and lasts long, with a very smooth texture and thick body.  I call this a delicious beer, though my drinking partner Moshe thought that it "tried to do too much in one beer."

The new beer being unveiled this night by Barzel, however, was a Ruby Wheat, which is now available where Barzel is sold.  As its name says, Ruby Wheat has a hint of a reddish hue, a result of red caramel malt.  Yair said that the malt also adds sweetness to the beer, but I was hard pressed to find that.  What I tasted was a classic German wheat beer, 5.5% ABV -- with a little color added to its cheeks.

It pours a very cloudy burnt orange color, and has a fresh wheat beer aroma -- cloves and banana -- but also some caramel and grass.  You get more caramel and yeast in the taste, along with some berry and sharp spice.  Moshe thought there were some notes of oatmeal in there as well.  The finish is mid-bitter, very dry and refreshing.  Since I am not a fan of wheat beers to begin with, I was not very impressed with this beer.  The Barzel original is much more to my taste!

Hophead -- the new
American IPA from
HeChatzer Brewery
(Back Yard Beer).
Next in line was HeChatzer Brewery (Back Yard Beer), manned by Yochai Maytal, one of the three partners.  HeChatzer currently markets only one other beer on a regular basis: Kruso, an American pale ale brewed with mango at the Srigim Brewery.

Their new beer tonight was Hophead, a 6.8% American IPA, now on sale in beer stores.  It's a "limited edition" -- they only made one batch, so when the bottles run out, that's it.  The HeChatzer brewers started making IPA as a home-brew years ago.  It even won first place in the IPA category of the B'tsisa competition in 2013, before I began writing this blog.  But Yochai assured me that this early version was very different from today's Hophead.

In Yochai's opinion, Hophead avoids the extreme bitterness that is so popular in IPAs today.  "It's much more for first-timers whom we don't want to frighten away," he says.  "People who haven't tried IPA yet."

Unfortunately, that was not my tasting experience.        

Hophead pours out the color and clarity of ginger ale.  You're hit immediately by the powerful citrus and pine aromas from the hops (Citra and Cascade), nuanced with grapefruit and grassy notes.  There's also juicy citrus fruits and mango in the taste, but these have to compete too hard with the bitterness.  This seems a pity, because you can definitely sense that these could be very enjoyable flavors -- if they could just get out from under the bitter blanket.  The dry and bitter finish, however, is refreshing and appreciated.  

Yochai gave me one more "scoop" -- HeChatzer is bringing out Israel's first commercial gose (say it goes-uh) beer in July.  This is a German-style sour beer, tart and fruity and just right for a refreshing summer drink.  While growing in popularity around the globe, gose has yet to be found in Israel.  It may take a while to develop a taste for sour beer, but the same was true for the bitterness of IPAs.  We are waiting with great hopes!

Roi Krispin from the Rechavya Brewery
was serving HaDubim beers, filling in
for brothers Rotem and Dagan Bar Ilan.
(Photo: Mike Horton)
From HaDubim (The Bears) Brewery of brothers Rotem and Dagan Bar Ilan, comes an experimental American pale ale, apparently for this Fair only, called Experiment 123 (makes sense to me).  This was a tasty APA, strong as it should be, but with a very noticeable malt sweetness and a whiff of jasmine flowers.  I would like to see it bottled, but for the meantime, HaDubim are only marketing their two core beers: Phoenix IPA and The Doctor, an American pale ale.  




Omer Basha and Dvir Flom introducing
La Bacon wicked tasting lager.
(Photo: Mike Horton)

Omer Basha and Dvir Flom from the Basha-Flom Brewery were there with a new smoked lager called La Bacon -- and, damn, that's exactly what I remember bacon tastes like.  Well, what you really taste is the smokiness, not the meat itself, and this comes from the 96% smoked malt which is used in the brewing process.  La Bacon is then lagered for one-and-a-half months.  The result is a smooth, flavorful beer that takes your beer appreciation in a new direction, something that Basha-Flom does with surprising regularity.    

I understand there are several craft beers made over there in the U.S. with real bacon, but Basha-Flom have captured the taste without killing any pigs.  La Bacon will not be bottled, so don't look for it in stores.  I just wanted you to know about it.

Alona and David Zibell offering their
Golan Heights whisky and arak.
(Photo: Mike Horton)
The last stand at the Fair wasn't beer at all, but whisky from the Golan Heights Distillery in Katzrin.  "Why not?," said owner David Zibell.  "Beer drinkers also like distilled spirits."  David and his wife Alona were serving two whiskies and two araks -- a Gold Label Arak made with star anise (from Egypt or Turkey) and aged for six months, and a Green Arak, made only with anise seeds.  Both are excellent.

The Single Cask Whisky, a Scotch-type, will be available in September of this year.  They are also making an American-style Bourbon Whisky which is 60% corn, 30% rye and 10% barley in the grain mash.  This is still being aged until 2018, when it might be most opportune to try an Israeli-made Bourbon.

 Still to come -- Part Two: The home-brewers and competition winners at the Jerusalem Craft Beer Fair.  Stay with us.