The Holy Land and its blossoming beer industry! CHEERS!
I presume that everyone is aware that Israel is well known for its sweltering hot weather, desert plains and bikini-clad beaches. Now, it’s time to bring on the BEER! Israel’s domestic beer-brewing industry has blossomed into quite the “in-thing” over the last several years. Like the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Romans, ancient Israelites were far more drawn to wine than they were to beer. After the exile of the Jews to Babylonia in the sixth century BC, they began embracing beer and several rabbis became established brewers.
In my opinion there is no better way to beat that sizzling Middle Eastern heat than a refreshing icy “cold one” and now that we all can quench that raging thirst with a really great Israeli beer, life is very good!
Established Israeli breweries in like “Goldstar” and Maccabee are now in direct competition with smaller, boutique breweries. The number of Israeli microbreweries grows month by month. All Israeli brews are also battling for position with many imported brands. Ours are certainly of equally high quality while they cost less and are much more readily available all over Israel. I would define this as a definite win-win situation.
The popularity of beer in Israel is somewhat of a surprise and has really only recently become popular with Israelis. I don’t see it slowing down either, with quite the beer festival scene taking off all over the country. The biggest currently is the Israel Beer Festival in January and the Jerusalem Beer Festival at the end of the summer.
As a fellow from Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin once said, “Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy”. Amen
