Harley Zipori blogs on everything to do with Beer in Israel and beyond. My intention in starting this blog was to be as neutral an observer as possible. I do not want to force my opinions on anyone and certainly don’t want to act as a crass commercial promoter of certain businesses. So I was, and still am, determined not to play favorites.
That being said, I have to be honest and say that I write about what I experience and know about. So as I get out there and meet people, go to restaurants, visit breweries and buy and taste beer, that’s what gets written about. I have no systematic method of covering all possibilities. Hey, it’s still just for fun.
So when I do write about something and it comes out sounding a bit pandering or promotional, well that’s OK. I will not come out and criticize anyone for trying to make their contribution to the boutique beer culture in this Israel. I will leave the judging and criticism to others. If you want to find out how beers rate, well you can find just that at ratebeer.com.
Still sometimes a business stands out in the growing beer cacophony and deserves a bit of promotion, if only to encourage and perhaps reward them for doing so. This past week I had the pleasure of visiting Porter and Sons (Rechov Ha’arbaa, Tel Aviv) for the first time. I have just not had the opportunity to go there despite its reputation but, as they say, patience is a virtue and I finally made it.
Porter and Sons is a restaurant that is centered around beer with perhaps (I am not one to judge) one of the largest, most comprehensive beer menus in the country. More important, they have a relatively large and wide selection of local boutique beer both on tap and in bottles. They even call it “boutique” beer (yeah!!!) even if they do have a bit of trouble spelling it correctly.
I am not going to give the complete list here since you can see it on their own website in English. If I cherry picked a few examples then I could be accused of playing favorites (heaven forbid!). However I do want to commend them on selling both the well known brands, as well as some of the smaller, recent start-up brewers. This is perhaps the most important contribution that Porter and Sons is making to the local brewing scene. It shows you don’t necessarily have to have a big brewery or a lot of money and PR clout to get your beer out to the public. I’m not sure what you have to have to get a beer on the menu at Porter and Sons, but I do know that some of the lesser known beers there are truly excellent and deserving of being on the menu. I also know of excellent beers that are not on the menu so there is still more work for all of us boutique beer fans to do to get the message out to local businesses.
Well I hope that wasn’t too flagrantly commercial. However I do want to encourage everyone to visit Porter and Sons and to send a message when you are there that there are people out there interested and willing to purchase Israeli boutique beer in restaurants. And don’t just visit once. With this beer menu, you can go a number of times before you exhaust even the local boutique beer selection. They imported beer selection is also extremely impressive, and naturally much larger than the local selection, and its not to be ignored by anyone who is a beer lover. In fact I would even go as far to say, the reading the Porter and Sons beer menu is a lesson in beer styles (Doppelbock anyone?).
I hear from Steve, my gracious host on Israel Seen, that my blog is getting lots of hits and generating positive feedback. I certainly appreciate everyone who reads this. I would love to hear from you myself at my beer email I set up, maof.beer@gmail.com with any comments, suggestions, ideas and information you think I might be interested in. Forget that last part and send me anything that you are interested in.
So here is a challenge for all you readers located in Israel. I would like to plan a beer evening at Porter and Sons sometime in December. It will be an evening to sit around with other people who appreciate beer and talk about local boutique beer, taste as many varieties as we can and show some support for this budding industry. The restaurant is not kosher but since most of the local beers have a “hechsher”, observant beer lovers can stick to the beer and still enjoy the ambiance. Besides, beer is made with water (is Brita kosher?), malt, hops and yeast. I know that I give my home brewed beer to observant friends and they have no problem with it. Given the level of cleanliness and sanitization required for making beer, it’s not a surprise. (Hey, is bleach kosher?)
Drop me an email and let me know if you would be interested in such an evening. I will need to know which days of the week may be best and which dates are really not good for those interested. I’m leaning toward a Thursday evening, about 7 PM but let’s see how it goes after I have some feedback.
I have another blog planned later this week. In 2 weeks I will be in Germany for work and will try to taste as many German beers as possible and take notes so I can write a nice long informative blog after.
Lechayim!
