New Year wrap-up of new beers

The rapid growth of Israeli micro-breweries and mini-breweries means that new beers are being generated all the time.

By DOUG GREENER
Pushkin beer (photo credit: Courtesy)
Pushkin beer
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The New Year is always a good time for summing up past events and, for us beer lovers, a fine excuse for reporting on some of the new Israeli craft beers that have appeared in recent months.
A word of clarification: The rapid growth of Israeli micro-breweries and mini-breweries means that new beers are being generated all the time. I can’t keep up. Many of them, perhaps most, come from the smallest of these breweries. They may be experimental, or distributed very locally or for one-time events, but are not available to the wider public. I’ve no doubt that I would enjoy writing about them, but for you, the readers, there would only be frustration, as you would never get to taste them.
So I have chosen to write only about beers that can be found in beer specialty shops and general liquor stores throughout the country. They come from breweries that have made a decision to go fully commercial and invest in marketing and distribution.
From Kibbutz Revadim has come Dror Orpaz, a newcomer who moved from home-brewer to commercial brewer faster than anyone else I know.
“I’m a typical entrepreneurial type,” Orpaz told me. “I’ve been starting new media businesses all my life. Some succeeded, other failed. For the past 13 years, I’ve been doing search engine optimization for digital marketers.”
After only several months of home-brewing, Orpaz came up with a recipe for a spiced wheat beer that he thought was “fantastic,” as did everyone else who drank it, including his mother-inlaw, who never liked beer.
Following this positive feedback, Orpaz decided that brewing would be his new business, and he started making his beer at the Mosco Brewery on Moshav Zanoah. “After just three tweaks, we had commercial quantities of the same beer we brewed at home.”
He decided to name his beer Socrates, “because he was a natural troublemaker, just like me.”
Socrates is a spiced wheat beer, but it doesn’t taste like other wheats. Orpaz refuses to reveal what spices are used in the brewing.
It pours a cloudy copper color, darker than the average pale wheat ales. The aroma I got was spice and green apples.
Along with the taste of cloves, which characterizes many wheat beers, there were also the pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger), Indian spice, and malt. Alcohol by volume is 5%. My drinking companion termed it “a winter holiday ale in a wheat beer.”
For all those who enjoy wheat beers, this is a variation you should certainly try. But what it has to do with old Socrates, I have no idea.
ANOTHER INTERESTING new beer comes from the talented brewing team of Omer Basha and Dvir Flom, their first commercial venture, brewed at the Srigim Brewery facilities at Srigim (Li’on).
It’s a saison, not a beer commonly produced in Israel. The only other versions that I know of made in Israel are Galil Brewery’s Saison, Alexander M, and to some extent, Malka Blonde.
Saison, also known as farmhouse ale, is a style of beer that began in northern France and Belgium when farmers brewed their beers in the winter months for drinking in the spring and summer.
The farmers traditionally used whatever malts, herbs and spices were available at the time, a fact that made their beers vary greatly in strength, flavor and bitterness from one year to the next.
Today, saison ales can be tart, fruity, herbal or spicy, but all tend to end with a very refreshing dry, bitter finish.
The Basha-Flom saison is named Pushkin. Omer Basha tried explaining to me why they chose that name. Something about a story by that famous Russian writer involving a whale, which is on the label. Not being up on my Russian literature, I just didn’t get it. I would have called the beer “Scarborough Fair” or “Mrs. Robinson.”
Why? Because it’s a highly spiced saison, made with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Pushkin pours the palest of amber color with a finger-width of foam. The aroma is hoppy and spicy, with lemon, resin, and rosemary detectable. The taste remains full of spices, predominantly thyme and rosemary, but also black pepper, grapefruit and a hint of brown sugar. In the hops-malt equation, the malts definitely win, with hops in the background. Alcohol content is a hearty 6.7%. Enjoy this beer with notvery- strong cheeses, salads and veggie curries.
COLLABORATION BEERS brewed by two breweries are becoming increasingly popular, even in Israel. We’ve already had two Israeli breweries, Herzl in Jerusalem and Dancing Camel in Tel Aviv, collaborate with German breweries to make new beers.
Now, Alexander Brewery in Emek Hefer has joined with Mikkeller Brewery in Copenhagen to brew a dark and sweet beer called Milk & Honey. Mikkeller is actually a “gypsy brewery” that makes its very innovative beers in different breweries around the world.
Founder and owner Mikkel Borg Bjergso visited the Alexander Brewery a few months ago and worked with owner Ori Sagy.
“We wanted to bring together our two distinct approaches to making beer,” says Sagy. “In order to introduce Mikkel to our local colors and flavors, I took him on a tour of the Mahaneh Yehuda market in Jerusalem. Then the idea hit us – a beer from the land of milk and honey!” Milk & Honey is a “milk stout” style beer, made with added lactose (milk sugar), honey and grated orange peel.
Alcohol content is a strong 8.4%. Since lactose is not fermentable by beer yeast – which means the yeast cannot digest it – it stays sweet in the beer and adds body, creaminess, and indeed calories.
In fact, beginning 100 years ago, milk stouts were believed to be beneficial to nursing mothers because of their nutritious ingredients.
Milk & Honey pours out a dark ruby brown with a thin, tan head. The aroma is divine: burnt caramel, chocolate and coffee. The taste is very sweet of malt, caramel, chocolate, vanilla, and some orange which gives a little bitterness to the finish.
Milk & Honey may be too sweet to have alongside food, but it would make a lovely “dessert beer,” perhaps with a strong cup of coffee, or something to enjoy just by itself.
Another thing: The label says that this beer is “dairy” due to the lactose.
However, there are some rabbis who maintain that the production of lactose removes it so far from its milk origins that it is no longer considered dairy. So you might want to get your local rabbi’s opinion before having this beer with or after a meat meal, if that is a concern.
ANOTHER INTERESTING beer for this season is Berry Ale from Jem’s Beer Factory in Petah Tikva. This is a specialty beer made with natural wild berry syrup and a little bit of Belgian candy sugar.
Jem’s owner Jeremy Welfeld told me that its glowing red color is enhanced by beets.
The aroma you get is non-distinct fruits and alcohol. Even though the alcoholic content on the label says 7.5%, Welfeld says it’s closer to 8%. This is a strong beer, and the alcohol always makes itself felt. The first taste is sweet from the malt and the fruit, perhaps peach and raspberry, but then you feel the bitterness and the alcohol again.
Final verdict: An easy drinking beer for people looking for something different, but I think it would be even better if it were less alcoholic. 
The writer has a web log on Israeli craft beers at www.IsraelBrewsAndViews.blogspot.co.il, and is the owner of MediawiSe, an agency for advertising and marketing in Jerusalem.


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