Harley Zipori – Beers in the City
Hot Town Summer In The City
Back Of My Neck Getting Dirt And Gritty
Been Down, Isn’T It A Pity
Doesn’T Seem To Be A Shadow In The City
All Around People Looking Half Dead
Walking On The Sidewalk Hotter Than A Match Head
Lovin’ Spoonful, 1966
Well to be sure, this ain’t the summer of love.
On the other hand, if John Sebastian and the Lovin’ Spoonful wrote that in the mid 1960’s, I guess we can’t blame everything on global warming.
So why do they plan beer festivals in August? I can see it maybe in Jerusalem. Jerusalem isn’t quite as hot and certainly not humid but still! Hasn’t anyone heard of fall?
I remember a time when there were festivals during Sukkot. I really appreciated those craft beer events that Shahar Hertz organized at Kibbutz Maabarot. That’s where I first met Jeremy Welfeld just after he started brewing Jem’s Beer and gave me a taste of every one of them without even taking a coupon. I also met Denny Neilson who started me on the path of brewing my own beer at home. It was there I met Leonid who went on to found the Libira brewpub who shared his love of American microbrewed beers.
Ah, those were the days.
So I decided that I was not going to miss the Beers Festival at the HaTahanah in Tel Aviv. This has been an annual event for the past few years. It started out in the winter in the then called Nokia Stadium (now named after an insurance company I believe). It was indoors. Even then it was well organized and a must event for both established brewers and ambitious newcomers.
But really, why outdoors in August? Right on the beach. Maximum humidity. No relief. They are even willing to give up on a potential million Israelis that are travelling abroad during August. Are they worried about overcrowding?
Enough ranting. There are two reasons I consider this beer festival a must. One, of course is the beer. It is still an excellent way for anybody in the business (or anyone wishing to be in the business) to get their beers out there to the public. Also there is the music. There were two stages with live bands. One had the Blues Rebels. Dov Hammer, Andy Watts and the boys are still one of the best bands of their genre I can remember seeing. OK so I missed the Blind Faith tour back in the day and never saw Clapton play, but these boys know how to play rock and roll and the blues like it should be played. No compromises.
Oh yeah, there was beer too. Did I already mention that?
Of course the scale has gone up since those halcyon days of Maabarot. So many small brewers popped up and then disappeared. Or morphed into other brands. David Cohen has been brewing for a whole decade and is still one of the dominant forces in the still budding craft brew industry. But to be honest, I didn’t stop by the Dancing Camel booth since I visit the brewery enough to know their beers intimately.
Not to mention the big brewers and importers. There, I mentioned them.
As usual, I searched out the smaller booths with names I had never seen before. First I found Joya Souriano and New England IPA. Brewed by Adam Souriano who loves to share his brewing experience on YouTube (in Hebrew). Adam brews a really nice, balanced IPA. Not too bitter, but extremely aromatic. He uses more hops varieties than I can count and looks for hops that complement each other. Quite the opposite of the single hop beers I have been experimenting with at home.
Then there was the Mt. Tavor Brewery. Located in the shadow of Mt. Tavor in the Lower Galilee. These guys like the Belgian styles and I tasted a carefully made Belgian Trippel. They also brew other beers including a pale ale and an aromatic wheat beer.
Another notable mention is Nazareth Beer. Brewed by Basel Massad and Amir Elouti in Nazareth. Yes, that Nazareth, the home of Jesus of … well you get it by now. The one I tasted was quite good and I wish them the best of luck.
I have to admit that after a couple hours at a festival like this things get a bit fuzzy. I don’t always take pictures or otherwise document my tasting. I spent a lot of time listening to the Blues Rebels in between tastings.
I did manage to taste a craft beer from Holland, Jopen beer. They have a variety of interesting takes on traditional Dutch beers including a Rye Pale Ale.
Denny Neilson’s Busters Brewery was represented with his hard ciders and a hard lemonade. I tasted a nice dark ale they had as their only beer. Denny and his family have always brewed pleasing drinkable beers and this was no exception.
As the evening wore on, the heat didn’t let up. There were more people crowding in and at some point I just had enough.
Maybe next year they can try to take a page out of Jacob’s Ladder organizers Menachem and Yehudit Vinograd’s book and move the festival date from August to some more bearable season.
Please follow my Maof Beer Facebook Page for the latest updates and use it to post information of information to other craft beer lovers.
