By Harley Zipori. Life is full of ups and downs, happy and sad times. The last few weeks were sad due to a death in the family which necessitated a trip to the US on very short notice.
As usual with these times, there was lots of contact with people and the circle of family and friends tightens around you in ways you hoped would be and are pleased when it happens that way. But life does go on and where there are people there is food and drink. As this happened to be in California, it is impossible to avoid the craft beers coming out of the microbreweries there.
Fortunately, my brother, who was my host for the week, is a lover of quality beer and his fridge was stocked with a selection of boutique and microbrewery beers that allowed me to get a feeling for how things are beer-wise in the western US, if only through a very tiny window.
I have not visited the US for a few years and don’t really read much about what is happening. I am not absolutely sure what percentage of the US beer market is from the sale of craft beers, but I read that it was 5%, which is what I remember from a few years ago. Not that is matters but it is sometimes nice to know how much is hype and how much is people actually buying beer. After all, people who buy a case or 2 of Bud each weekend aren’t really going to make the news.
All that being said, I have to admit that I was very impressed by the quality, variety and presence of microbrewery and craft beers I tasted. I am careful here to not exclusively use the term “microbrewery” when talking about quality beers in the US. Some of these beers are produced in large quantities and these breweries are not really described well by the term “micro”. However just because you make beer in large quantities doesn’t mean you have to use the same techniques as the mass produced beers. To make a low price beer you have to use some techniques which result in cost savings and improved uniformity of the final product. I will therefore stick to craft beer as a generic term for beers brewed with high quality ingredients and traditional techniques.
Before I give a brief rundown on beers I tasted and my overall impressions of them, three impressions stand out from my visit. First, I was amazed at the quantity of shelf space in supermarkets dedicated to craft beers. In one Safeway, it was fully half of the shelf space for all beer. Admittedly I was in an area that would be generally considered up-market, but to see 2 or more meters of refrigerated shelf space packed with craft and specialty beers is quite impressive. And there are a lot of different beers. Tens of different kinds of beers crowd the shelves making it difficult for someone unfamiliar with the names to make sense of it all.
Second, larger chains are selling craft beer under their store label. Now store brands have been a part of US retailing from since I was growing up but the thought of putting a store brand on a quality craft beer, which is essentially a label announcing that it is a low price alternative to a name brand, indicates how mainstream these beers have become.
And third, beer they is very cheap compared to Israel. Beers there are generally sold in 6-packs, the traditional packaging for American beers. I saw prices for craft beer six-packs as low as $6 and averaging about $7, without tax. Now convert that to Shekels and add VAT and you come out with a bit more than 5 NIS per bottle. The more expensive beers, at $8 or $9 a six-pack will come out to a bit more. You can do the math yourselves. I reserve the right not to comment on this. But as someone who buys ingredients for home brewing, even I would be hard-pressed to make beer that cheaply just based on the ingredients. Needless to say that the US grows barley and hops in commercial quantities whereas all ingredients in Israel have to be imported.
Craft beers are also available in restaurants but there you will pay about what we pay in Israel for a quality draft beer at a decent restaurant.
The beers I tasted were uniformly good. They were balanced and flavorful with tastes true to the style of the beer. I tried to stick to common styles like pale ales and wheat bears. These are the mainstays of craft brewing and provide a baseline for comparison. I also tried a couple IPA’s (India Pale Ales) and what was touted as a Bohemian Lager which is basically a classic Pilsner since Bohemia was a region of the Austro-Hungarian empire that includes what is today the Czech Republic, the home of Pilsner.
One beer I tried early on was a Pyramid Hefeweizen, a classic Bavarian wheat beer (see my previous blog on my trip to Germany from December). I discovered that in the US, Hefeweizen is served with a lemon wedge. I remember being told this by a friend once who was visiting Israel but I can’t quite wrap my mind around the thought of sucking a lemon wedge while sipping an aromatic wheat beer much less squeezing in my beer. This beer was clean and refreshing but I didn’t detect any of the aromatic and flavor overtones that a true German Hefeweizen has.
Another beer I managed to get my hands was a Fat Tire Amber Ale. The name “Fat Tire” comes from a bike trip through Belgium that one of the founders went on once and was impressed by the quality and variety of Belgian beers. In fact he was so much impressed that the brewery is called “New Belgium Brewing”.
All the other beers were store brands from major chains. To be honest, these beers were all quite nice. The Bavarian Wheat Beer from Trade Joe’s had a hint of the flavors and aromas of the German Hefeweizens that I like so much.
Now I know in previous blogs, I have discussed the daring of American microbrewers. I didn’t get a chance to experience any of that daring. To do that you have to visit the pubs specializing in craft beers or visit the brew-pubs where these beers are brewed. So I didn’t get a chance to taste anything exceptional. The beers I tasted are brewed to be acceptable to a small, but apparently mature craft beer market. I guess that’s the price of acceptability. Perhaps there is a lesson to learn here.
In my next blog we will explore some of the more unusual and special beers, even if I haven’t actually tasted any of them. Still stay tuned for what I assure you is an interesting tour through the world of unique beers.
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