by Harley Zipori Just before Pesach is a good time for a beer festival as it gives everyone a chance to clean out the stocks of beer. This time it’s at the “Zman Amiti” barman school: Where: Rehov Eilat 22, corner of Eliphelet (behind the pub Norma Jean) in south Tel Aviv on Date: Friday April 8 Time: 12 noon to 8 PM.
This time the emphasis seems to be on local brewers as is fitting the times when the local boutique beer scene is exploding. You will be able to taste beers from brewers such as Golda, Alexander, Laughing Buddha, Libiria, Salara, Ronen, Gal’s, Abir HaElah, Golan and more.
The price of admission is 30 NIS and includes a tasting glass. Don’t laugh, I have a collection of these and they come in very handy at home. Coupons for 6 tastings cost 30 NIs. That’s 5 shekel a tasting and the brewers get that 5 shekels to cover their costs. These are largely not commercial breweries so let show up and support the people who put their hearts and souls into bringing the best beer flavors to Am Yisrael!
Pre-Pesach Keg Party at the Dancing Camel
Speaking of pre-Pesach, here is another one for everyone. The Dancing Camel Brewery in Tel Aviv (see the blog entry below) is holding their annual “let’s get rid of the hametz” keg party before the first night of Passover.
In addition to the usual Dancing Camel beers you can get at the pub year round, there are a number of special and seasonal brews usually not available including the famous ice ales that have been concentrated both in flavor and alcohol.
75 NIS gets you in and all the beer you can drink.
Details on the website:
Tel Aviv AACI Happy Hour at the Dancing Camel
On Wed. March 30, the Tel Aviv AACI organized a Happy Hour purely for the purpose of socializing in an informal atmosphere. This was the second Happy Hour, the first being in February at Molly Blooms Irish Pub. This was at the Dancing Camel (http://dancingcamel.com/).
The Dancing Camel is not just a pub, it’s a brewery. In fact it’s the first licensed production microbrewery in Israel opened back in 2006. Full disclosure; it was my idea to have Happy Hour at the Dancing Camel. I figure if you are going to go out and have a beer, it may as well be a good one. Or two.
Since this is a blog about beer, I can dispense with the social chit-chat. You want an Anglo social blog, go start one yourself. I want to talk about beer. Specifically Dancing Camel beer.
The Dancing Camel was founded by David Cohen, an American oleh with a passion for beer and a mission to bring that passion to the State of Israel. Dancing Camel beers are good. Very good. Consistently good. You can find out more about most of the beers served at the pub at the website but here is a quick rundown of the main beers.
American Pale Ale – Light copper colored mild ale flavored with American hops. For the uninitiated, “pale” ale is darker than the typical lager beers like Carlsberg. This one also has a bit of silan (date honey) for flavor.
India Pale Ale (IPA) – A somewhat darker ale with a full beer flavor and lots of hops with a higher alcohol content and a bit more silan for rich flavor. The IPA style is based on the beers the British shipped around the Cape of Good Hope to their people in India so the beer is high in alcohol and highly hopped to withstand the long sea voyage. This IPA only had to stand up to the grueling voyage from the fermentation tank to the keg to the bar in the brewery but it still is faithful to the IPA tradition.
Midnight Stout – This is the Dancing Camel version of an Irish stout. We won’t mention the “G” word here. This stout has a distinct roasted flavor and is rich and smooth. It’s hard for me to go back to the other stouts once I tasted this one.
Hefe Wit – The Dancing Camel version of a Belgian Wheat beer. Its golden colored and a bit cloudy as a wheat bear should be (wheat has more proteins than barley). Why is it Belgian? It’s flavored with a bit of coriander and orange but not so much as you will recognize it. I started the evening with one of these and it was a good way to get in the happy hour spirit.
There were also two specialty beers which now seem to be fairly regular residents of the pub.
Gordon Beach Blond – This is a golden ale lightly hopped but with mint and rosemary to give it a unique and refreshing flavor.
LECHE DEL DIABLO – This one is in caps since it’s really something to shout about. This is the Dancing Camel chili beer which puts some zing in the glass. To be honest, it’s not overpowering in chili heat and goes down really smoothly. However you might want to warn your friend when you give them a taste if you want them to speak to you again.
I highly recommend a visit to the Dancing Camel pub for a taste of the beers and to sample the food. The pub is open from 8 PM Sunday through Thursday evening. It’s not open weekends as the brewery is kosher.
Say hello to David for me. Tell him Harley sent you. He’s the one with the red kerchief on his head.
I made aliyah 30 years ago from the US, forgoing the decadent pleasures of an affluent US for the relative austerity of our little slice of the Middle East in the 1980’s. Things of course are different today and while there may be a lag in some areas like beer, most things culinary and cultural are at standards that compete with anywhere in the world.During those 30 years I married and raised a family and have been working in the technology sector. I am also a practicing life coach and am acting recently on my longtime passion for good beer.
My interest in quality beer started in my university days and survived the bleak early years when Maccabee and Goldstar were the “quality” beers and they still made a beer called Nesher. During that period, which we can call the “beer tzena”, the only chance to actually have a decent brew occurred in visits to exotic foreign lands.
Over the past decade or so we have seen a growth in the beer market in Israel as local producers started brewing and marketing international brands and importers started importing beers primarily from Europe. So finally we could get a variety of truly world class beers to go with the overall improvement in the quality of food available in restaurants and supermarkets.
The past few years has seen the birth of an Israeli microbrewery industry similar to the one that developed in the US in the 1980’s that I so inconveniently managed to miss by being here. With all these changes and developments in the local beer scene, I just couldn’t keep quiet so now I am blogging on Israel Seen to share with English speaking residents, tourists and anyone interested, what is happening in the boutique beer community in Israel.
