Tag Archives: ale

BEERS 2013 Hot Entries

Last week on one of the stormiest days in recent years, Israel’s third annual Beer Expo, BEERS 2013 opened at the Nokia Arena.

BEERS 2013 was open from 2:00-5:00 PM to the trade, and from 5:00-11:00 PM to the general public with a modest entrance fee of 60 NIS ($16.00) for a tasting glass and coupons for 5 tastings. Coupons for an additional 5 tastings were 30 NIS ($8.00).

Craft breweries, while a new arrival in Israel, are growing in number and produce great beers. I want to share two beers, one by the oldest microbrewery in Israel and another by one of the youngest. What these two beers have in common is hot peppers. Both beers are brewed with hot peppers, a popular ingredient in Middle Eastern cuisine.

The first beer is Dancing Camel‘s Leche Del Diablo or “Devil’s Milk”. Dancing Camel is Israel’s oldest microbrewery founded by David Cohen, a transported American in Tel Aviv’s commercial Hamasger district. David Cohen left behind an accounting practice in New Jersey in to pursue a passion for brewing beer and to fulfill his long-time dream of living in Israel.

Dancing Camel’s Leche Del Diablo is based on a Belgin Helf-Wit wheat beer supercharged with chili peppers. I’m not a big fan of wheat beers, but I love spicy food. The Leche Del Diablo goes down smoothly and only after swallowing does the chili pepper slap you in the face. The hotness of this beer is not overwhelming though, and if you like spicy foods, you’ll enjoy this beer! 5% Alcohol.

Hadubim (The Bears) is a young brand founded by brothers Dagan and Rotem Bar-Ilan in 2011 when they opened HaAm (the People’s) Brewery in a modern facility in the Tel Aviv suburb of Even Yehudah. In addition to their line of five beers, they offer a “One a Month” special edition. Recently the Bar-Ilan brothers opened with a partner , the Beer Market in the Old Jaffa Port’s new food market. Beer Market sells only Israeli craft beers and has hosted events for launching new beers. The Beer Market rotates two different Israeli craft beers on tap and sells a full range in bottles.

Esh or “Fire” is the Dubbim‘s hot pepper beer. Esh with it’s fire fighters on the label, is a pale ale brewed from three varieties of American hops with a mild bitterness and a pronounced aroma of hops. During the fermentation shata peppers were added to the batch to achieve the hot spicy effect. The sweetness and bitterness of the pale ale is felt in the mouth and the spicy hotness of the shata peppers hits you in the throat. Hadubbim‘s Esh is the hotter of the two chili beers at BEERS 2013. 4.7% Alcohol.

Both beers are available in bottles at the Jaffa Port Beer Market.

Behind the Green Door-Negev Brewery

Negev Brewery

Hidden away in the sleepy industrial zone of the Southern city of Kiryat Gat I encountered this Green Door at the end of a dead end street that is otherwise deserted.

Entrance to Negev Brewery

I came here to see Inga at work. Inga is a forty-year old German, big and noisy as well as hard to please if everything isn’t just right.

Inga

Inga is a mechanical wonder, a fully mechanical beer-bottling machine that needs to be greased more than a battle tank in order to work. Inga needs hours of set-up before going to work and is a real pleasure to see when everything is right.

Gilad Dror

And once Inga is ready, bottling is beauty in motion!

Negev Brewery bottling line

Negev Brewery, one of Israel’s leading microbreweries, bought Inga used in Germany mostly because of the low cost, but also due to her allure. Negev Brewery opened it’s current facility in 2010, but its history begins in far away Alaska. In the early 2000’s Yochai Kudler was on his almost obligatory post-army trip in Alaska where when not working he was introduced to home-brewing beer. Yocahi’s next stop was Colorado where he worked for a while in a local brewery to see if this is really what he wanted to do.

Yochai Kudler

Yocahi returned home to Kibbutz Orim in the Negev Desert and continued brewing beer, at first on a rather small scale for friends before expanding and founding Negev Brewery in 2009. Wanting to expand and build a modern facility, Yochai found an empty building in the industrial zone of Kiryat Gat where he opened in 2010. In the summer of 2011 Norman Premium, an Israeli importer and distributor of premium beers purchased Negev Brewery.

Today Negev Brewery is run by CEO Sagiv Karlboim, Gilad Dror and Tomer Ronen. Gilad is responsible for brewing the beer, but all three pitch in with the physical work involved in making and packaging the beer.

Sagiv Karlboim

Negev Brewery is environmentally conscious with the waste water collected to irrigate the garden which is being developed to host tastings of their wonderful beers.

Negev Brewery produces three beers: Amber Ale, Porter Alon and Passion Fruit. Like most microbreweries Negev does not filter their beers or add preservatives. This means that the beer is best when fresh and don’t think that sediment in the bottom of your glass is anything but a positive indication of unfiltered beer.

Negev Amber Ale is a nice traditional amber ale with an amber to brown hue. The flavor is fruity with malt, overall nicely balanced and a great beer for a hot Israeli summer. 5% alcohol.

Negev Porter Alon is a classic English Porter beer aged with oak chips to give it a creamy texture and rich flavor, with hints of chocolate, coffee and vanilla. The Porter Alon has a nice dark color and is my favorite. The international web site ratebeer.com rates the Negev Porter Alon as the number one beer in Israel. 5% alcohol.

Negev Passion Fruit beer is brewed with a generous amount of fresh passion fruit from a nearby farm to produce a beer rich in tropical fruit flavors. This is a special beer and quite often a favorite. 4.9% alcohol.

Negev Brewery http://www.negevbrewery.co.il/