Once, many years ago, our brewery director told me: “If you have a dream, you should fight for it and it will definitely come true! I remembered these words when I met Ze’ev Rabinovich, then a beginner brewer. “I want to brew my favorite beer – IPA!” he told me, and it was said with such passion that I knew it would happen!

A few years passed, Zeev trained as a brewer, learned how to brew beer on his homemade 100-liter system, and began preparing for the next stage.

A fortuitous chance helped: The pioneer of Israeli craft brewing, David Cohen, decided to retire and sold his Dancing Camel brewery. Thus, a new brewery appeared on the map of Israeli craft – White Rabbit. Ze’ev Rabinovich, the founder and owner of the new brewery, contacted Avi Shalev and Rotem Nardi-Butell, and all three together established the White Rabbit.

The brewery left the brewing order – it works according to the traditional English scheme: the wort in the mashing tank is heated by adding hot water, not by steam or heating elements. We had to add fermentation tanks and go ahead and brew an IPA! The main staff remains brewer Mike Azran, who worked with David and joined Avi Shalev, a man who needs no introduction to Israeli beer lovers.

While the recipes were being developed, the brewery kept a relatively low profile. Therefore, their presence in Tel Aviv at the exhibition in February had a bombshell effect! Three top-quality IPAs and White Rabbit’s home draft dispensers were on display. All was presented in an elegant booth design, that translated the brand values and strategy, led by Nardi-Butell. It wasn’t a surprise to me – I immediately went over to say hello and enjoy the aromatic new beers.  During the event, people constantly came up to me and asked, “Have you tried White Rabbit? – You should definitely try it!” No comments necessary!

In the beginning, White Rabbit chose a difficult type of distribution. It is called Cold Way – the beer is cold from the moment of bottling until it reaches the customer at a temperature of 4⁰C – 7⁰C. The beer is not filtered or pasteurized, and the low temperature allows it to remain in its original taste.

In addition to bottles, the brewery also fills beer into special kegs designed for home draft dispensers, which also maintain the appropriate temperature.

At the moment, the brewery produces 3 types of IPA. The most delicate of them is Day Dream. This beer is actually like a dream. Imagine for a second: It’s a hot summer day, you can’t hide from the sun, and suddenly you find a blessed shadow. And not just any shade, but a cool place where you can take a nap for an hour – a place for an afternoon nap, a siesta. Of course, you will not fail to take advantage of it. And you dream a wonderful dream: you are sitting on the bank of a merrily flowing brook in the shade of a large tree, in front of you a tray with freshly washed cold fruit – oranges and red grapefruit already cut into slices, peaches and a bunch of grapes. You enjoy these fruits, their magical taste and aroma and gradually stop understanding where reality ends and dream begins and vice versa. And all this is thanks to a bottle of Day Dream.

The next beer is a new West Coast IPA. It’s a bit stronger, with 7% alcohol, and has a brighter flavor and aroma. It has a seemingly unexpected name: “Ten feet fall”. With the first sip of this beer, it’s as if you suddenly fall from a height and find yourself in another, parallel reality. You are surrounded by the smells of exotic fruits: lychee, mango, passiflora. And it’s not only aromas – you feel the same in the taste, only they add a delicate bitterness and a pleasant sweetness. The beer has a very good body and a well-balanced bitterness. You don’t want to leave this magical world; you want to stay in it forever…

The third beer – Feed your head (I never found a Russian translation, maybe it was based on the song of the same name?) also contains 7% alcohol, but it is a different kind of beer. This is also a new- fashion variety, which is called New England IPA. Unlike the previous clear golden colored beer, this is paler and completely opaque, which is in keeping with the style. It doesn’t conjure up fancy images for me – it’s a solid beer, completely in keeping with the style. Full soft body, delicate, moderately sweet creamy flavors, aromas of mango, peaches, melon and guava. Against this sweetish background is a moderate but distinct bitterness. Everything about this beer, the sweetness, creaminess, bitterness, aroma and fruit flavors are inextricably linked and perceived as one. A wonderful beer in its own style.

Those who are familiar with me personally know that I don’t drink beer from the bottle. With White Rabbit, however, something unusual happened to me. I filled my tasting glass out of habit and suddenly caught a strange sensation: I didn’t want to let go of the bottle! And the label was to blame for this: in addition to its clear, classic beauty, it had an unusual slightly rough surface. I wanted not to let it out of my hands and just enjoy the unusual sensations.

In conclusion, I would like to wish White Rabbit perseverance. He had a great start and now the main thing is to stay on this way and continue brewing a wonderful IPA!

P.S. The name for the brewery was taken from the song of the same name by the rock band Jefferson Airplane. The names of the beer brands Ten feet fall and Feed your head names are also taken from the lyrics of this song about Alice in Wonderland.