I figured why beat around the bush. It took me too long to write this blog entry, time is short and if I can continue the spirit of blatant self promotion another week, then maybe, just maybe, I can convince at least one other person to show up to the Longshot Beer Festival.
Before I get into details of the festival, I did my Home Brew Evening at the Netanya AACI and will give some details at the end. It went well and I thank all those that showed up.
The Samual Adams Longhsot Festival is Wednesday and Thursday July 27th and 28th, 2011. That’s this week. It officially opens at 6 PM. I understand on Wednesday there will be the awards ceremony for the Longshot completion. This year there were 40 brewers entering a total of 100 beers. I entered two beers, an IPA and a Porter. I know there are some excellent home brewers out there so I don’t have any illusions for my chances of winning any of the awards. But you can be sure that next week I will report on the whole experience, win or lose.
I blogged about the competition itself back in May, and you can re-read the blog at https://israelseen.com/2011/05/
The festival is being organized by very serious company dealing in public relations and promotional events and it organized with the highest level of professionalism I can conceive of. There will be music both nights. You can see some more details at the Herzliya Municipality site: http://www.herzliya.muni.il/
Also in Hebrew, but full of information, is a blog called “Distilled Beer” written by Oren Avrashi (I hope I spelled that right!) who is in charge of special beer brands at Tempo, which of course, includes Samuel Adams as well as Paulaner and Murphy’s Irish Stout. Since he is an insider, his blog is full of details on the judging that are difficult to get out of people involved without a court order. Oren, I thank you for that.
Entrance to the festival is free. That’s right, unlike most festivals which have an entrance fee before you even begin to buy beer, this one allows you to look around for no charge, talk to the brewers and see if there is anything you want to taste. It’s also a great incentive to bring along that designated driver who may not even like beer because they can share in the festivities not pay a cent. Well an agora. You know what I meant, right? And besides, there is the Arena Mall next to the Marina and the usual host of restaurants and cafes and even a Murphy’s Irish Pub.
Beer is sold by means of coupons at the price of 3 coupons for 20 NIS. Each coupon is good for a 100 ml tasting and 3 will get you a third of a liter (what they call a “shlish” in the pubs here). And yes, they do compensate us for each coupon in a perfectly legal way but with taxes, VAT and whatever, it remains to be seen exactly how much we get.
Each of the 40 entrants has a table, cups a sign of some sort and ice to keep the brews cold. They did not charge us anything beyond the 40 NIS per beer signup fee for the contest.
I have to take a paragraph here to express my gratitude to two of the known personalities involved in this event. First the Tempo brewery and more specifically Sharon, who is responsible for organizing this from the Tempo side. I am truly grateful that they are putting all this effort, and no doubt money, into helping to cultivate and encourage the home brewers in Israel. There is a Hebrew word, “feergoon”, that expresses it better than any English word. And this with the full knowledge that one day, some of the home brewers will possibly be competing directly with Tempo and their quality beer brands. I can’t thank you enough. Second, I want to thank Gadi Dviri, from Beer-D. I’m not sure what his involvement is in a format sense, but if not for him, I would not have entered and his flow of information has helped keep me up on things since I don’t have the time or patience to regularly plow through the Hebrew blogosphere.
Back to the AACI evening briefly. I was happy with the event. We were blessed with the presence of Patrick Van Dam from the Alexander Brewer who contributed his immense knowledge of beer and brewing, as well as some Alexander beers for tasting. I myself brought 3 commercial beers for tasting and 3 of my home brewed beers. People showed remarkable attention and patience as I went through the beer brewing details but then the promise of drinking some cold beer on a hot July night does tend to keep people focused. Afterward I got some very positive feedback on the whole evening but after everyone drank all that beer, who knows exactly what part of the evening whey were referring to.
Anyway I hope to see people at the festival this week and stop by the Maof table and let me know you read the blog. As usual you can reach me at my Maor mail, maof.beer@gmail.com.
