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| Best sellers from the Tempo Beer Industries in Netanya. |
Both of Israel's industrial brewers – Tempo Beer Industries in Netanya and Israel Beer Breweries Ltd. (IBBL) in Ashkelon – have reached out to embrace craft brewing. Although some may call it a "bear hug" rather than an embrace, it's a clear indication that big beer wants to become a part of the craft phenomenon.
Tempo,
brewers of the popular Goldstar, Maccabee and Heineken brands, has purchased a
controlling share in the Shapiro Brewery, a family-owned business in Beit
Shemesh. According to Itzik Shapiro,
president of the brewery and one of the four siblings who founded and manage
it, the acquisition "will let
us continue to do what we have until now, but we are now able to realize our
plans and our new projects sooner than we could have imagined."
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| Carlsberg and Tuborg from the Israel Beer Breweries Ltd. in Ashkelon. |
Elad Horesh, VP Marketing for IBBL, stated that the company opted to build its own craft brewery rather than acquire an existing one, because, "we have the brewmasters with the most knowledge, we have the most advanced laboratory equipment in the country, and also the operational experience. It was also important to let our brewmasters, who for years had dreamed of and played with different recipes, be the ones to make their dreams come true."
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| The first three Shikma beers: Amber Ale, Märzen Lager and IPA. (Photo: Firma Studio) |
Shikma has come out with three beer styles: IPA (India Pale Ale), Amber Ale and Märzen Lager. IBBL's Chief Technologist and Head Brewer Avichai Grinberg, said that these styles were chosen after "we had an internal taste competition, and these three recipes came up as the best."
Internationally, craft beer has been a growing phenomenon since the 1970s. People are still debating the terminology and the definition, but basically we're talking about beer from smaller breweries which can give more hands-on attention to the beers they brew, make a number of different style beers, and make them in smaller quantities.
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| David Cohen, founder and owner of the Dancing Camel Brewery in Tel Aviv, Israel's first craft brewery. |
The
origin of Israeli craft breweries goes back to 2006, when Brooklyn-born brewer
David Cohen fought bureaucrats, skeptics and neighbors to build the Dancing
Camel Brewery in Tel Aviv's Montifiore neighborhood.
Cohen
had made Aliya in 2003 after working as a volunteer in a New Jersey
brewery. He ditched any thoughts about
continuing to work as an accountant, and began making plans for opening up a
brewpub in Tel Aviv.
"The
Israeli bureaucrats involved in new businesses had no idea what I was talking
about," he revealed. "We had
to educate them about what we wanted every step of the way. Their attitudes varied from mild
entertainment to abrasive and adversarial."
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| The old blogger enjoys a hearty meal after touring the Malka Brewery at its new location in the Tefen Industrial Park. (Photo: Mike Horton) |
Cohen's
success broke the ice for other brewers in Israel to follow suit. In short order, micro-breweries were opening
in other places: Bazelet on the Golan Heights, Malka on Kibbutz Yechiam,
Shapiro and Mosco in Beit Shemesh, Negev in Kiryat Gat, Alexander in Emek
Hefer, Srigim in the community village of Srigim (Li'on), Herzl in Jerusalem,
and others.
Today, Israel can boast of about 25-30 craft brewers who are selling beer commercially – although around ten dominate this market with quantity and distribution.
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| Even with our hot, dry summers, Israeli per capita beer consumption is near the bottom of the list. |
Now
here's the other side of the coin: All of these wonderful craft breweries account
for under 10% of all beer sales in Israel.
The rest of the beer is coming from those two huge industrial breweries
mentioned above, and of course, from imports.
Another
fact holding back the growth of all beer sales in Israel – craft and mega – is
our embarrassingly low consumption rate.
The world champions, who as you may expect are the Central and East Europeans,
Irish and British, drink from 70 to 100 liters of beer a year per
capita! (The Czechs reach about
150!)
Near
the bottom of the list is Israel. Even
with our hot, dry summers, we drink no more than 20 liters of beer per
capita. Clearly there is room for
growth. Although there are some Israelis
who warn against the dangers of increased imbibing, Judaism has never spawned a
teetotaling culture.
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| Alexander Brewery CEO Ori Sagy (center) is joined by operations manager Eran Weisman (second from left), and brewer Elad Gassner (second from right) as they receive three awards at the European Beer Star Competition in Munich. |
More
and more, our meager drinking habits cannot be explained by inferior beer. In recent years, there is no doubt that
Israeli beers have improved in quality. Taste, of course, is personal and individual,
but enough high marks are given by professionals and consumers alike to make
the upward trend unmistakable. The
various "beer-ranking" websites also reflect this.
About
two years ago, Newsweek magazine named the Dancing Camel as one of the nine
breweries in the world worth traveling for!
Before the COVID struck, Oliver Wesseloh, the world champion beer
sommelier from Germany, visited five craft breweries in Israel in a project
designed to increase "beer tourism" from Germany and, indeed, all of
Europe. These are tourists who will
travel anywhere just to drink a glass of good beer. We still hope they get here – as soon as Europeans
feel the skies are friendly again.
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| If more Israeli craft brewers entered international competitions, Israeli beers might be winning more medals. |
Internationally, Israeli beers have not won much recognition, but this could be because Israeli brewers have been so hesitant to enter competitions. Ori Sagy, CEO of the Alexander Brewery in Emek Hefer, is one who has been bold enough to buck this timidity – with excellent results. His beers have won eight medals over the years in the prestigious European Beer Star contest. Most have been won by Alexander Black, a seasonal Porter-style beer readily available in Israel. It also took home the Gold a few years ago in the U.S.-based World Beer Cup.
Likewise,
Beertzinut Brewery on Kibbutz Ketura won three medals in last year's European
Beer Challenge, which is judged by professionals in the beverage and restaurant
industries.
Along
with a general improvement in quality, Israeli breweries now offer choices of
beer styles that once were available only as imports. There are easily 100 recognized beer styles
in the world, plus many which are hybrids or blur the lines between
styles. Most craft breweries, not only
in Israel, produce the most popular styles: a light lager, a Pale Ale, an IPA,
a Stout, a Wheat Beer, maybe a Belgian Ale or two.
One of the way-out beers brewed in Israel:
Opokhmel, a pickle brine beer from Birateinu,
made with cucumber, dill, garlic and salt.
(Photo: Mike Horton)
But
Israeli craft breweries are now producing styles much more esoteric. For example, have you ever heard of the
following: Pilsner, Helles, Märzen, Saison, Bock (all cold-fermented lagers),
Sour (or Wild) beers, Milkshake beers made with lactose, New England and Brown
IPAs, smoked lager, beer-wine hybrids, fruited wheat beers, and even
Kosher-for-Passover beers.
Not
only that. A few Israeli breweries are
taking the lead in producing some of the most way-out beers in the world. We're talking about beers made with halva,
Hot Chili Stout, Imperial Pastry Stout brewed with blueberries or oreos and
coffee or jelly donuts, beers made with rare lemons, pickle brine beer, kettle-soured
apricot beer, double bock lager aged in whisky barrels, Bloody Mary beer with
tomatoes, celery and tabasco sauce, and a Steinbier (involving glowing hot
stones dropped into the liquid) brewed with mushrooms.
If these lists get your taste buds quivering, you're a craft beer fan (even if you don't know it), and you couldn’t be living in Israel at a better time.
Making me thirsty...
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