Home brew: The Yehuda Regional Council’s beer festival

Good things are happening in Israeli breweries, which offer a variety of styles and textures. Go and taste!

The air at noon on Saturday was blazing hot, as expected. The trip ended in an unpaved, shady plaza surrounded by tasting stalls and, in its center, a wooden table surrounded by crowds of people. The heat created a real need for a cold beer, and one glance at the list of companies showing their wares was enough to make me choose my first glass. The Bavarian wheat beer that Ohad Ayalon brews in the yard of his home on Moshav Serigim under the name Elah Valley Brewery did not disappoint this time, either: a dark beer with the aromas of banana and clove and a texture that, despite its richness, is refreshing and not heavy. Ofer Ronen, who stood at the next stall over, gave me the exciting news: he and Ohad have joined forces to establish a joint brewery on Moshav Serigim, and a beer house will be built next door. They will brew two lines: Ohad will concentrate on classic European varieties, while Ofer will brew the wilder American kinds, including the “Ugly Indian,” a unique, bitter-bodied beer that was a bit much for me in the heat of the Elah Valley.

The beer festivals are an opportunity to get to know new brewers, including Motti Navot of the Pappo Brewery on Moshav Zalfon. Motti brews seven kinds of beer, of which I tasted four: Alma, a wheat beer with typical aromas, light-bodied – perhaps too light-bodied – and a roasted aftertaste uncharacteristic of the particular style; Tamara, a light amber ale, balanced and pleasant-tasting; Golda, a Scottish IPA with rich aromas of black roasted kernels and a long artichoke-flavored aftertaste; and Elisheva, a beer that takes the characteristic bitterness to a moderate, friendlier place.

Long-time acquaintances Nir de Cohen and Lior Yitzhaki of the Beerbar brewery surprised us. They exhibited pale beer with ginger and honey added, which would make an excellent accompaniment to sushi and Asian foods. Alongside them, I met Dotan Ben-Yehuda for the first time. Back from a stay in Ireland, Ben-Yehuda began to brew on Moshav Agur, under the name Yuda, two classic kinds of beer: a light pale ale ideal for these hot days, and a dark, rich stout with roasted, ripe tastes. I also met Leon Solomon of the Shimshon Brewery on Kibbutz Tzora. Leon, who came here from South Africa forty-five years ago, was a home brewer twenty years ago, and went back to his vats in order to brew particularly excellent wheat beer: a fragrant Belgian ale and a pleasant, surprisingly light and delicate stout. Although the brewery operates for only eight months of the year, Leon and his partners know exactly what they are doing.

Although the Shapira brewery calls its beer “Yerushalmi” [Jerusalemite – IH], it is located in the industrial zone of Beit Shemesh. During the process of obtaining the necessary permits, the brewery’s personnel taught the local authorities a thing or two about brewing beer and led them to give up a few unreasonable demands, thus paving the way for additional breweries. While Shapira’s pale ale was a bit aggressive for its style, its stout, brewed with oats, was particularly delicate and pleasant.

I was excited by the Imperial IPA, which was refined and rich with citrus aromas, at the stall of Gal’s brewery from Aviezer. I tasted a smoked porter named after the late Tal Shavit, the pioneer of automotive journalism who was killed in a motorcycle accident last March. The profits from this smoked porter are donated to a memorial fund established by his family. I also enjoyed The Lost Monster, a spicy beer with chili, coriander seeds and paradise seeds which, despite its intimidating name, is a light, refreshing summer beer. I ended my visit at the stall of Aram and Bat Sheva Dekel of the Abeer Haela Brewery with the particularly sharp taste of Crispy, a wheat beer spiced with chili and honey, a barley wine with twelve percent alcohol and a taste reminiscent of brandy and port.

Despite the heat, the first rural beer festival of the Yehuda Regional Council succeeded in bringing together quite a few people who came to taste, participate in workshops and learn something about beer. It was the Council's first big step on the way to establishing Israel’s premiere beer region.

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