We are surrounded by stereotypes. Some of them were created by life, others by ourselves. We live our lives without noticing them and only think about them when they suddenly collapse or simply disappear, but first things first.

We live in a hot eastern country, and in the East everything sweet was originally popular, over the years even the expression “Oriental sweets” has appeared intuitively understandable to everyone. That’s why beer here is a bit different from European beer, as a rule it is not so strong (try to drink a hard Double Bock in forty-degree heat and wind from the Sahara!). This is the first stereotype.

When we created the first version of the popular Tuborg Red beer, we took as a basis the famous Christmas beer Tuborg Julebryg, which is very popular not only in Denmark but also far beyond its borders. Our new Tuborg was very tasty, but for some reason it did not become popular… Only when we considerably reduced the bitterness did it suddenly become very popular. It turns out that bitter beer is not popular in Israel – that’s the second stereotype. I deal with this all the time when developing new brands of beer – I literally slap myself on the wrist saying: “Rafi, don’t add too much hops! Beer will be very bitter!”

To all of the above, wheat beer is perfect. It is usually unfiltered, not very strong and not at all bitter. Weihenstephaner, Paulaner, and 1664 Blanc enjoy well-deserved and stable popularity in Israel.

The Shikma brewery decided to take advantage of this and break all those stereotypes by creating a brand – new beer, based on a popular wheat Bavarian beer. It’s not yet in the popular beer catalogs, but the beer itself has already been created. IPA is very popular in Israel now, not so much as a variety itself, but as an opportunity to discover unusual tastes and aromas – it is especially popular among young people who are open to new things. All these new sensations are created by an interesting combination of new flavorful hops.

That’s why we decided to combine classic wheat beer and… modern American hops used mainly in IPAs. The result is a classic German beer with increased bitterness and aromatics. At the very first sip you can feel clear phenolic notes, characteristic of Bavarian wheat beer. On their background, bright aromas of cloves and bananas make themselves known. The first wave is followed by the second one: citrus fruits appear in both taste and aroma, they are different, but grapefruit performs the solo. Its bright bitterness is the last chord in this riot of tastes and aromas.

We decided to keep the classic 5.4% alcohol for wheat beer, and replaced the malt with Israeli malt, developed and grown especially for the Shikma brewery. The name came without question: “Bitter Wheat”, a beer that broke stereotypes! The first pilot batch was brewed about a year ago and sold out instantly. Now the new beer has already occupied its place in the Shikma beer portfolio and from tomorrow it will be available in specialized alcoholic beverage stores.