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The first Israeli beer news portal in Israel. Founded in 2008. All about beer, accessible and professional.

Beer News
06/07/2024
585

After the festival…

Beer festival 2024

The day before yesterday, another two-day Hoppy Tel Aviv beer festival came to an end. This time it was held at the old railway station. Beer festivals in our country don’t happen much lately, not to say “not at all”… That’s why beer lovers from all over the country gathered there.

Our company paid for the tickets and booked for us a taxi to festival and back. We arrived at the very beginning. At the entrance we were met by the famous beer sommelier Ofer Havkin, and he took us to show us the favorites of the festival. Unfortunately, there weren’t that many of them….

Ofer Havkin

It should be noted that this festival took place only thanks to the incredible efforts of its organizer, Kobi Kremer. After the 7th of October, many breweries broke contracts with us, even returned containers of beer waiting to be loaded on the pier… Nevertheless, the festival took place!

At the whole festival I didn’t find a one (!) beer with classic pure flavors, although Ofer say that yesterday there was a real Pilsner, but I didn’t find it… There were a lot of different smoothies, including some not bad ones. The Mango Smoothie – rich mango juice with signs of fermentation in the last sips. About these new kinds of beer and the trends in modern brewing, I talked with Dudu Rabinowitz, the owner of Protary. Taking advantage of our long-standing acquaintance, he simply asked me straight to my forehead, not letting me dodge the answer: Do you think that this mango-flavored smoothie is beer too? – No, of course not! –

Forced to confess I… liked the Gose flavor… cucumber. But this historic kind of beer itself has an extraordinary freshness, and the slight brackishness makes it more drinkable. Put some effort to make a good Gose and you’ll be best in our market! Cucumbers or tomato juice why we need these additions? Enjoy from real beer with clean flavor!

A few Barley Wine, but also with different flavors that hide all the richness of this beer. All its malt flavors stay in the background and is hardly felt at all… It was the same with imperial stouts with flavorings. I’m not talking about the beer (?) flavored with my favorite mamaliga. I just want to ask: why? What for?

Of course, it wasn’t a failed festival – people liked the beer, and that’s the main thing! And I found “my” beer – a session IPA from the Czech brewery Thrills called “Oh My!” It was not a beer, but a heavenly elixir! Very delicate, with a slight pleasant bitterness and unusually gentle sourness. Such a beer is perfect for our heat!

You may ask: why do I need to go to festivals that I’m not interested in? – Well, first of all, beer is not only my job, it’s my whole life! Secondly – I meet my friends at these festivals. We work in different places, sometimes we are even competitors, but we are all united by our love for this magical drink!

Beer friends

 

I must have been very grouchy in this post (my wife often tells me about this). In fact, the festival was not so bad, and for that, special thanks to the organizers!

P.S. After the festival, we took a taxi home through old Jaffa. All the sidewalks were filled with young people having fun, it was impossible to get to the cafes and bars….  As if there is no war and our young boys do not die almost daily and our citizens stay in Hamas’ underground tunnels long months. God alone knows what these animals do with them …

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