By Harley Zipori. Why is it that so many of Israel’s serious craft brewers live and work in rural environments typified by kibbutzim, moshavim and small villages?
There are a number of boutique breweries in picturesque settings making for pleasant outings with lovely views of nature.
When we think of wine, we automatically think of country wineries on quaint hillsides. This makes sense since wineries should be fairly close to where grapes grow, which is often on quaint hillsides.
However the ingredients of beer are easily transportable and storable so the location of a brewery is not a factor in the freshness or quality of the beer. Perhaps it has something to do with the availability of low cost brewing space in former farming villages. More than one brewer I know got his start in an abandoned chicken coop.
Or maybe it’s the kind of people that would be attracted to that kind of living.
Two such brewers are Ofer Ronen and Ohad Eilon. Both had successful high-tech careers that involved travel, allowing them to experience at close hand other cultures and to develop the taste and appreciation for good beer. Both live in the Israeli countryside by choice and both are passionate about the brewing of quality beer.
Most brewers I’ve met have a story of how he or she first fell in love with good beer. These stories can be particularly interesting when the brewer is from a country without a history of quality beer like the Israel or the U.S (well the U.S. before the microbrewery revolution of the 80’s). Hearing the brewer tell his story as he stands in the brewery he built and explaining what he is trying to accomplish is always a special moment and adds a very human element to an otherwise technical explanation of how a brewery works.
This last Friday I had the pleasure of visiting the new brewery set up by Ofer and Ohad, the Srigim Brewery in the village of Srigim-Li’On near the Elah Valley, not far from Bet Shemesh. Ofer and Ohad have been brewing separately for a number of years and only recently decided to join forces and open a commercial brewery and visitor center in the small commercial center near the entrance to the village. The visitor center has a large picture window and a lovely view, a large bar with taps for all the beers brewed and the possibility of buying bottles on the spot.
When I stopped in to visit, Ofer was boiling up a batch of beer in the large brew kettle and had arranged a tour of the brewery for some visitors right as I showed up so I tagged along as Ofer told his story of his love for beer, his early attempts at brewing and setting up the brewery.
The brewery is compact and looks very professional and quite efficient. The equipment allows brewing 500 liter batches and fermenting a number of batches simultaneously. They are apparently selling the output as I didn’t see a huge stock of beer waiting to be shipped and since they do the final fermentation in the bottles, they can’t ship the beer for 2 weeks after bottling.
This is very good news. It shows that there is a demand for their beer and hopefully an economically successful future.
Most breweries are the vision of a single brewer and I am really impressed with the way Ofer and Ohad have handled the situation of two experienced brewers coming together to form a commercial microbrewery.
Each of them has always had their own style and emphasis in the beers they are brewing. Ohad is fascinated with the classic European beers. Ofer spent several years in California after the craft brewing movement started and fell in love with American craft beers. Ohad bottled his beers under the Emek HaElah label. Ofer bottled his under the Ronen label. As partners, they decided to maintain the beers they brewed separately and to produce and market two lines of beers under the original labels.
Together, they now produce 7 beer styles. Each clearly made with the loving care and passion of a master brewer and covering a full range that can satisfy even the most jaded of beer aficionados.
Since the brewery website is in Hebrew only, I will give a brief overview of the different beers from the website.
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Elah Valley | Bavarian Wheat | Classic German style wheat beer (Weissbier). |
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Elah Valley | English Blonde | An English Style blonde ale. |
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Elah Valley | Irish Red | Amber Ale in the style the Irish like. |
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Elah Valley | Belgium Tripel | A Belgian Trappist style ale high in alcohol (9.2%) and flavor |
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Ronen | Wicked Dark Ale | A dark ale with flavors of coffee and chocolate from the roasted malt and noticeable bitterness with a touch of smokiness |
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Ronen | Cheeky Wheat Beer | This is a darker version to the classic German wheat beer with a rich floral aroma and a complex mix of subtle fruit and spice flavors |
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Ronen | Ugly Indian | Ofer Ronen’s take on American India Pale Ales (IPA’s). This is a beer with a distinct presence with a rich malt base and tropical and citrus fruit flavors from American hops. |
Unfortunately Ohad was not at the brewery when I visited. I will have to go back and hear his story. I personally love the classic beer styles as much as the more adventurous ones. In fact, the more I get into beer, the more I appreciate the classics. I only had small tastes of all the beers but from what I did taste, these guys have nailed these beer styles pretty well.
For those who remember my blog after my trip to Germany last November, I was raving about the wheat beers. These are very tricky beers as the main thing that makes the German Weissbier special is the type of yeast used for brewing. Ohad must be using one of these German yeast strains since his Bavarian Wheat has that authentic flavor. It’s light and refreshing and as good a weissbier as I’ve tasted here in Israel, including the German imports.
The English Blonde is golden ale as opposed to the slightly amber pale ales or “bitters” the English traditionally drink in their pubs. Please no blonde jokes. This “blonde” you have to take seriously. It had a distinct hops character and I look forward to having more than a small taste in the near future.
A number of Israeli boutique breweries are making either golden ales or Czech style Pilsners. Pilsners are the most common style of beer in the world a. Here in Israel, Pilsners are represented by Maccabee, Tuborg Green, Carlsberg and Heineken. Goldstar is a darker, less bitter, lager beer and not a Pilsner.
I can understand local brewers wanting to brew a beer that looks like the beer people are used to drinking. Even the light amber color of pale ale can turn some people off. However that doesn’t mean that you have to brew a me-too golden beer without any real character. The range of these locally made golden beers, be they Pilsners or golden ales, is a tribute to the creativity and craft of the Israeli brewers. I highly recommend giving any of these beers a try next time you encounter one.
In Ofer Ronen’s personal story, he tells of discovering Pete’s Wicked Ale when he was on an extended stay in Silicon Valley (the California one, not Herzliya). This is one of the classic beers of the craft brewing movement in the U.S. and is produced by Pete’s Brewery, one of the early microbreweries. Now my very first home brewed beer was a simpler version of Pete’s so it’s a style near to my heart. Dark ale is lighter than a stout and without the burnt barley bitterness of an Irish stout like Guinness. The American style of dark ales, typified by Pete’s Wicked Ale, is a highly hopped beer where the hops bitterness is offset by the rich malt flavor and the distinct qualities of the dark malts used in the brewing that give the beer overtones of coffee and chocolate.
From what I read and hear, one of the characteristics of Pete’s Wicked is what is called “dry hopping”. This is a bit of a misnomer since we all know that beer is wet but the term dry hopping refers to adding hops to the beer after the primary fermentation is over and letting it sit a while. This step does not make increase bitterness but rather imparts the more delicate flavors and aromas in the hops that would evaporate away if boiled, as is done with hopes during the earlier stages of brewing.
I do not know whether Ronen’s Wicked Dark Ale has a dry hopping stage. I do not ask brewers about recipes. If I was visiting for myself and looking for home brewing tips, I might do this but as a blogger, I do not want to compromise the uniqueness of the local brewers by writing about how they make their particular beers, beyond what they themselves say on their websites or during the tours.
I am a big fan of Ronen’s Ugly Indian IPA and have been since I first tasted it at the Zman Amiti beer festival last year. This is a nicely balanced pale ale with noticeable flavors of passion fruit (passiflora), lychee and grapefruit. I myself have brewed beers that have these flavors so I know that they are obtainable from American hop varieties. There is no need to add any extra flavor to beer. The Ugly Indian IPA has the depth of flavor both from the malt and the hops to balance the bitterness inherent in a traditional IPA. It is well worth trying if you ever see it.
One thing I didn’t have time to check while at the brewery is where Ohad and Ofer are selling their beer. This is an oversight which I intend to remedy. I hope in the next blog that I will report on the availability of their beers.
I have been thinking about doing in-depth looks at different boutique breweries in Israel and it is about time I seriously started to do this. I have described my visits to breweries before but more from a my point of view rather than telling the story of the brewer and the beers. I hope to continue to do this in the future so keep tuned in.
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