Harley Zipori blogs on everything to do with Beer in Israel and beyond. I never thought blogging would be such hard work. Coming up with a new idea and a couple hundred words every week or two. One or two mails in response to each blog. A webmaster who sends a polite mail asking how things are if I haven’t posted for a month. The ceaseless pressure of knowing that up to 3000 people view my blog, read a paragraph and move on.
Before I move on to my main topic, I would like to invite my dedicated readers (dedicated meaning those reading past the first paragraph) to join my Maof Beer mailing list. I will inundate you with the mail at the rate of one every week or two or whenever I post my blog. I will announce my new blog and give you updates, in English, on events and news in the Israeli craft brewing world. So send a mail to [email protected] to let me know you want the mailing. All mail addresses are confidential although if someone offered me a well paying job as the brewmaster of a microbrewery in exchange for my mailing list, I would think long and hard about that one about that.
Now I bet you thought that the title, Tough Jobs, refers to my introductory paragraph. You would be forgiven for assuming that such a deep and meaningful title would refer to my little rant but today I have bigger fish to fry (or steam if you are watching your diet). The “job” of doing my blog is not the “Jobs” I’m referring to. I had another “Jobs” in mind.
The media blitz surrounding the death of Steve Jobs got me thinking. Jobs was my contemporary. Only a year younger than me we both grew up on the peninsula in the San Francisco bay area. I am not a fan of Apple computers or products but one cannot deny the impact Jobs had both technology and the way we use it. But I then again those two things were basically the same for Jobs.
I see Steve Jobs as an iconic American hero. He lived by his own rules. Ignored the crowd. He was the equivalent of an old time pioneer, crossing the mountains and deserts in a covered wagon to seek out new and greener pastures, fighting off rampaging Indians (i.e. Microsoft), power hungry trial bosses (you figure that one out) and creating a new reality in a distant land (well at least the Internet cloud). It’s the same American spirit that drove most of the high tech boom.
However this American spirit is not limited to high tech. I believe that the American microbrewery revolution is driven by the same spirit of exploration, adventure, individualism and pushing boundaries that typifies Steve Jobs career. Not just from the side of the brewers who established the first breweries in the 80’s. There also is that spirit on the side of the consumers of the craft beer and the willingness to try something new and actually pay for the privilege. The craft brewers in the U.S. obviously fill the need of a certain segment of the American population. After all microbreweries are a business and if people hadn’t been buying this specialty beer, then there would never have been the explosion of breweries there was in the last 2 decades. They produced beer for a market that nobody knew existed because Americans weren’t used to tasting bold beers with flavor and compassion for the art.
Just look at some of the beers that are on the market today:
Brick & Mortar Porter from the Kettlehouse Brewery
Loose Cannon – American Hop3 Ale from the Heavy Seas Brewery
Ramble on Rose Rye from the Free State Brewery
Ax Handle Pale Ale from the Barton Springs Brewery
There is a certain degree of creativity and irreverence here. Today, perhaps, there is an expectation of this but in the early days of the revolution, the brewers must have just been shooting from the hip. Making beer that pleased them and naming it whatever they felt like. They would attract like minded people so try their beer and share in the pioneering spirit and the sense of not being in the mainstream of American culture. And that is how the revolution happened. Well it’s a good theory anyway.
Israel of 2011 is certainly not the USA of the 80’s. Still, there is a certain spirit moving through Israel recently which expressed itself in the tent encampments on Rothschild Boulevard this past summer. There is a feeling that the status quo needs to be shattered, that a new order must be established, one where the consumer is at the center. Where quality counts and brand loyalty is just another way of those that rule Israel keep getting our money.
The question I ask myself over and over is how can that spirit be translated into a push for the budding craft beer industry? How can the brewers and those that market the boutique beers tap into the energy and excitement of these times? How can they become part of the “revolution” by embodying some part of it, not just catching a “tramp” on it like some politicians who will remain unnamed (in this blog at least).
So where is the Steve Jobs of the Israeli boutique beer world? Who is going to be the one to make the beer to the most exacting standards, without any compromise and without taking into account the common wisdom of what Israeli beer drinkers like to drink and just make beers that he or she knows that the modern, thoughtful and ever so discerning Israeli really wants to buy and drink at the pub, the nightclub, the restaurant or even at home.
I surely don’t expect anyone to come up with the answer right away. But it’s only meant as food for thought. So next time you actually put out some money for a local craft beer, try to get a sense of what works for you. Let me know if you want to share. And if you don’t pay for an Israeli Boutique Beer, then maybe its time you did. If I am the one that convinced you to do it, then I will feel that I have accomplished something with my words.
