By Harley Zipori. Its spring and the beer festival season has started. It kicked off with the mini-festival in Givat Yishayahu in the Elah Valley in March (see my first blog) and this last Friday, April 8, there was a somewhat larger festival in Tel Aviv organized by Beermaster.co.il, the veteran website and beer event organizers.
This time it was at Zman Amiti, a bartender school in south Tel Aviv. Funny thing about bartender schools, they seem to have a lot of bars. They even have bar-stools. I counted 5 full size working bars but only 4 were in use for the festival.
As is typical at these festivals there is music, this time a power rock trio, a couple beer related games and of course, “beerchendise”, paraphernalia related to beer like coasters, glasses and funny hats.
There were also 12 different brewers presenting their beer. Some were veterans of many festivals and others, rather new to the festival circuit, if not the beer scene in Israel. Here is the list in no particular order:
1. Alexander
2. Libiria
3. Abir (Tempo)
4. Golan
5. Golda
6. Abir Haelah
7. Gal’s
8. Haluzt
9. Givatayim
10. Laughing Buddha
11. Ronen’s
12. Gopher’s
If i forgot anyone, blame the beer.
I managed to taste at least 2 beers from each brewer except for Abir brewed by Tempo (the Macabbi and Heineken brewers) which was presenting only an upscale Pilsner. For those who are already getting judgemental they were very small tastes and no, I did not drive home.
Here are some of my personal highlights. If the details of the beers don’t interest you, no need to read further.
Alexander is a rather new brewery in the Emek Hefer industrial park near Hadera. They are a fully licensed production brewery and are now managing to get their beers in pubs and restaurants. I’ve seen the Alexander beer advertised on those lit up advertising signs on Arlozoroff so they appear to be quite serious. As I walked to the bus station after I left the festival, I saw 3 people drinking Alexander beer at a kiosk on Levinsky so they must be doing something right. The brewery was represented by Patrick van Dam, the Dutch brewmaster. Other than being a genuinely nice guy and extremely knowledgeable about beer, he had the opportunity recently to taste beer I made and liked it so he will have a place in my good books forever. Patrick claims to have been brewing beer since he was 14 in Holland but since the legal drinking age there is 18, he obviously did not taste any of the beers he brewed for the first 4 years he was a brewer.
Ofer Ronen of Ronen’s brewery was offering a new IPA (India Pale Ale) that was clearly in the American, rather than the British spirit of IPA’s with a fruity essence reminiscent of pineapple and lychee. It’s still in the experimental stage but I can’t wait to get hold of some more.
Gopher’s beer was one I had never tasted and Sasha, the brewmaster was quite willing to share his knowledge and enthusiasm. He served pale ale that used American hops to give it a wonderful floral and fruity flavor. That boy could go far.
If this festival is any indication, there will be a lot of great beers to taste this summer. Everyone takes a break for Pesach but after that, we should start seeing festivals in Tel Aviv, Kibbutz Maabarot and Jerusalem. Keep following my blog to find out more.
I know its last minute warning but on Thursday, April 14, the Dancing Camel Brewery in Tel Aviv is having their pre-Pesach bash to get rid of all the beer. One price gets you all the beer you can drink. For more info see their website.
To Contact Harley email him at: maof.beer@gmail.com
