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| Ephraim Greenblatt, CEO of the Hatch Brewery in Jerusalem, proudly displays his three new beers at the TLV Craft Beerfest. |
A few months ago, the old blogger was present at the Hatch Brewery in Jerusalem when they unveiled three of their own beers, plus a fourth bearing the "Brewed by the Beard" label of Hatch Brewmaster Shmuel ("Schmulz") Naky. (Read about that event and those beers here.)
As proof that Schmulz is certainly keeping busy, Hatch unveiled three more new beers at the recent Craft Beerfest in Tel Aviv. I was able to bring these home with me and enjoy them with fellow IBAV Tasters Oded, Bat Sheva and Manny.
The first we had is called After the Storm, a Cold IPA at 6.4% ABV. In a post six months ago, I explained what Cold IPA is all about, and you can go back and read that here. Basically, it's brewing with lager yeast, yet fermenting it at the higher temperatures associated with ales. The yeast are more active and eat more sugars. When dry-hopped, the resulting IPA should be hop-forward with bold flavors, light bitterness, and a clean, light body.
The label of After the Storm uses a photo by Idan Goor (as did the first three beers). It was taken in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and shows a cenote, a natural cave resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. It is believed the cenotes were formed when a meteorite hit the Yucatan 66 million years ago!
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| Idan Goor's photo of a cenote cave in Mexico was used on the label of After the Storm Cold IPA from the Hatch Brewery in Jerusalem. |
The beer is a clear, golden orange color, with aromas of citrus fruit and flowers. Lots of flowers. A pleasant change from all the citrusy and tropical IPAs. However, the first sip convinces you that the hops give more to the aromas than to the flavors. Oded said that the taste was bitter, with mild flavors of citrus and tropical fruits, some apricot, and perhaps melon in the aftertaste. Bat Sheva tasted grapes.
Manny said that however you define the fruit flavors, they more than balance out the bitterness. "This is a great summer drink," he added. Bat Sheva also appreciated the beer's balance and avoidance of extremes. "It suits its name, 'After the Storm,'" she said.
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| The original Hotel California. |
Next up was another IPA, this time a West Coast style -- Hotel California. West Coast IPAs are the hoppiest, bitterest and most alcoholic in the IPA family. (Hotel California is a hearty 7.3% ABV.) The aromas and flavors tend to be citrus and pine.
Even though it looked different from After the Storm (a dark amber), it had similar aromas, according to the Tasters. Bat Sheva said that she was expecting the aromas to be more aggressive, as suits the style, "but they weren't."
The flavors, however, were very different: Bitter grapefruit, opined Bat Sheva; grapefruit, tropical fruits and oak, said the rest of us. (Which was surprising since it was not matured with wood!) Oded and Bat Sheva both tasted the alcohol, although very mild. Manny, probably hungry at the time, thought that this beer would pair very well with a variety of foods. |
| The original No Man's Land. |
The third new beer from Hatch is a Peach Sour Bragot named No Man's Land. Bragots are hybrids combining beer and mead, with fermentation coming from both grain and honey. No Man's Land has an ABV of 6%, and is brewed with additives, of course, of honey and peaches. After reading the description, the Tasters couldn't wait to get some in their glasses.
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| The three new beers from the Hatch Brewery unveiled at the TLV Craft Beerfest: After the Storm Cold IPA, Hotel California West Coast IPA, and No Man's Land Peach Sour Bragot. |
It pours out a cloudy orange color with a creamy head. We got aromas of peach and some yogurt. That was not strange since the lactobacillus bacteria probably used to sour this beer is also used to produce yogurt.
But when we took a sip, everybody reacted, "Oh, how sweet!" The peach taste was there, with a little sourness, but it was mostly sweet. Bat Sheva thought it tasted more like juice than beer, and Manny concurred, calling it "an alcoholic soft drink, but not beer."
Oded and Bat Sheva both thought that No Man's Land would be much better if it were drier. The honey, they said, should have been given more time to ferment (attenuate). This means that the yeast would have more time to convert the sugars into alcohol, making the bragot less sweet.
We can say that it's often unpredictable trying new Hatch beers. We may not always be satisfied, but we're never bored.