The day is finally here! We had made it! Behind us are the arguments, the search for the right ingredients, the trial brews. And then the tastings, first “for the three of us,” then “internally,” for plant employees and finally for the general public. To be honest, we weren’t particularly worried at the tastings – we had defined the profile of the beer and we weren’t going to turn off the path, we were confident in what we were doing.

And on January 31, there was an official presentation of a new strong beer created at Carlsberg’s Ashkelon IBBL brewery – Tuborg Black. This is not the same Tuborg Black that used to be brewed in Russia. The name is the same, but the recipe is totally different.

How was it? In autumn, we were told that marketing experts are ready to launch another brand of Tuborg on the market, this time a stronger one with 7.7% alcohol. There were no special requirements: strength, darker color and rich flavor with hints of chocolate. This turned out to be the most difficult…

The fact is that basically all chocolate-flavored malts, even in minimal quantities, give the beer a black color. So we looked for a light chocolate malt, as they say “white chocolate”. Then we tried each one “to taste” – we made test brews. Everything was kept top secret until the last minute. Even in the laboratory, where the test brews were checked, they thought that these were my “concoctions” for another factory event. When the outline of the new beer became clear enough, it was necessary to adjust the recipe to industrial production. After all, it’s one thing to brew a small batch, as they say “by hand”, and another thing to produce hundreds of hectoliters of this beer. There are subtleties in both cases.

The new beer turned out beautiful, amber brown in color. The aroma is very rich, it has dark malts, a slight smokiness and notes of dark chocolate. The taste is very rich, malty with a slight bitterness (Israelis love sweetness), and almost no hop notes. Despite the 7.7% alcohol, the beer is very mild and easy to drink, although after few glasses you are start to feel alcohol. As they say, “exactly what the doctor ordered!”