Apricot Wheat Ale from Lodestone

One of Israel's youngest commercial breweries is Lodestone, owned by partners Jason Barnett and Malcha Miller, both American-born Israelis. Jason is the brewer; Malcha does the marketing, distribution and just about everything else. They contract brew their beers at the Oak & Ash (Good Stuff) Brewery in Beit Shemesh. 

As an aside, though an important one, Jason is devoting most of his time this year to getting certified as a Master Brewer (online) from the Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin. A free translation would be the Experimental and Educational Institute for Brewing. Jason's courses include Barley, Water, Hops, Chemistry, Brewery Arithmetic, Microbiology, Energy, Quality Analysis, and Supply Chain Logistics. Good luck to him. 

Apricots are a fine fruit to add to beers.

Which brings us to the third beer from Jason and Malcha: Apricot Wheat Ale. (Their first two beers are a Tropical IPA and a Peach Blonde.  You can read about them, and the start of Lodestone, here.)

I have written about three other Israeli apricot beers, all in the not too distant past: BeerBazaar Mishmesh (also a wheat ale), Beertzinut Apricot Fields (a Berliner Weiss), and Beerateinu Bukra fil Mishmish (kettle-soured).

The Lodestone Apricot Wheat is a very pale hay color, with just a touch of haze. Alcohol by volume is 5%. My drinking partner Moshe and I got aromas of grass, a touch of sour, wheat beer yeast, and very faint apricots. The taste is slightly sweet with sour fruit, though we couldn't really identify it as apricot. Still, it gives the beer a pleasant tartness and fruitiness, which only makes it more drinkable and refreshing. Moshe called it, "a great beer to come home to on a hot day." As the beer warmed up, the apricot taste got more noticeable -- a phenomenon we've experienced with quite a few other flavor-added beers. 

Malcha Miller and Jason Barnett deliver
Lodestone beer during the days of
our pandemic.  (May they soon be over!)

We await more interesting beers from Lodestone, especially as Jason Barnett brings his newly acquired knowledge to the brewing process.