He'Brew ale is more than just novelty!
by Jim Lundstrom
Gannett News Service
Published in the Courier News on October 22, 2003
Jeremy Cowan is about to embark on what he calls the "wandering Jew tour."
"It's going to take me 40 days and 40 nights," he says. "I have 18 beer distributors to visit. The numerology is pretty perfect. Eighteen is the number of the sign of life in Jewish tradition."
Cowan, the mastermind behind the Shmaltz Brewing Co., is stumping the country to stir up interest among distributors, retailers, the Jewish community and beer drinkers in general in his two varieties of He'Brew, or what he calls "The Chosen Beer."
When the San Francisco resident first started the business in 1996, he produced 100 cases of hand-bottled, hand-labeled beer.
"Now we're making 1,500 cases of each style at a time," he says.
Genesis Ale was the first product. It's an amber-colored, West Coast-style pale ale that comes on with a big hop swagger and finishes in a soft, malty sweetness.
A couple years ago Cowan came up with Messiah Stout, "The beer you've been waiting for."
Until recently, the Anderson Valley Brewing Co., makers of the award-winning Boonville line of beers, produced Cowan's beers.
You could only buy the beers in single 22-ounce bottles, which featured a Chagall-like painting of a giant green-faced Hasid waving beer bottles over a city.
Just in the past few months Cowan has built distribution up from 11 distributors to 18, which made him decide to redesign the packaging and sell the beer in six-packs.
"It's been a long time coming," he said.
But he also decided to do away with Messiah Stout, at least for the time being.
"Even though I love the stout, I wanted to change the style for the six-packs because it's just so hard to sell a stout. So I changed to a beer style I love, which is a dark nut brown ale with a fair amount of hops."
So now it's Messiah Bold.
He also switched production facilities.
"I switched to Mendocino Brewing Co.," he says. "The neat thing is they're just having their 20th anniversary this year. They've got a brewery on the West Coast and the East Coast. They've got a slightly more sophisticated set up. Running my business now is much, much better."
So who is buying He'Brew?
"It's a weird thing," Cowan says. "I started with the idea of making a pretty ambitious, far-out product that probably would not appeal to the mainstream Jewish community. My target was Jews who might not necessarily be affiliated with the Jewish community and maybe didn't go to temple, but wanted to find a way to be Jewish or explore their culture or identity, but with something that would be a little wilder, kind of a Seinfeld/Beastie Boys kind of vibe. I wanted it to be a totally in-your-face Jewish product."
So he was surprised when the organized Jewish community jumped on the bandwagon.
"It turns out there's just a real thirst for interesting, fun, funky and real high-quality Jewish products," he says. "Whatever that means as far as Jewish beer. Luckily I don't have to define it in doing it because there's nobody else doing it."
Although there is a great deal of shtick to the beers' presentation, Cowan is serious about what goes in the bottle.
"I am working with the best microbrewers and using the highest quality ingredients we can get," he says.
And in accordance with Jewish tradition, a portion of the proceeds is donated to charity.
Now he's looking to his cross-country trip to meet the people who handle his beer and the people he hopes will drink it.
"We'll have some parties and try to get the Jewish community excited, and anyone else who loves great beer," he says.