Brews for the Jews Wandering HE'BREW tour stops in Washington
by Eric Fingerhut
Staff Writer
Washington Jewish Week
Drinking He'brew should be the 614th mitzvah," said Rachel Keller, 22.
"It's right up there next to Zionism" in its importance to Judaism, quipped fellow District resident Ashley Klugman, also 22.
While they may be stretching things, Keller and Klugman were excited by the beverage billed as "the best Jewish beer in America," He'brew.
Like many of the some 40 young adults from the George Washington University Hillel's graduate student and young alumni group who gathered to sample the beer on Monday evening at the Brickskeller in Northwest Washington, they found it pretty tasty.
With a slogan like "The Chosen Beer" and a label that asks "Why is this beer different from all other beers?", Jake Rubin said, he would drink He'brew Beer simply "for the novelty."
But after trying it out, the 23-year-old District resident said that "it's a good enough beer that I could continue to drink it."
Vicki Citron, 23, of the District said He'brew "is going to replace Coors Light in my fridge," adding that buying the beer will allow her to "support [my] people."
Monday evening's event was part of He'brew founder and sole proprietor Jeremy Cowan's "40 Days and 40 Nights -- The Wandering He'brew Tour of America." Visiting 18 cities between Sukkot and Thanksgiving, the Northern California-based Cowan is celebrating the seventh anniversary of his Shmaltz Brewery and introducing the beer to young Jewish adults throughout the United States. He'brew has been sold locally since September.
Certified by Kosher Supervision of America, the beer comes in two types. Cowan described Genesis Ale ("Our First Creation") as "light brown, between a pale and amber ale ... [but] maltier than most American pales."
Then there is Messiah Bold ("It's the Beer You've Been Waiting For!"), which is darker and smoother than the ale and "easier to drink" for the average beer drinker.
Although Cowan has found on his travels that preferences split almost exactly down the middle for the two beers, a number of those at the Brickskeller, including this writer, gave the Messiah Bold's smoother taste the advantage.
The 34-year-old Cowan said he first came up with the idea for He'brew when he was attending high school south of San Francisco.
He thought then that "Jews need their own beer," noting that "when you have your own beer, you've really made it in this country."
It remained an inside joke among his friends for a while, but after spending five months in Israel a few years later, Cowan, who had once worked in a brewpub, returned with the intention of getting a job in the Jewish community.
In the midst of the 1990s microbrewery craze, that desire morphed into marketing a "Jewish beer" in the summer of 1996, using high-quality ingredients and brewers.
At first, Cowan sold He'brew in 22-ounce individual bottles, but he recently switched to 12-ounce sixpacks, a change that has helped increase sales 700 percent in the past six months.
He said no one summed up the importance of the change in packaging better than a Southern Californian stocking the shelves at a supermarket early in his tour, who told him that while the 22-ounce bottles were "cool," they were for "late night ... lonely guy drinking." The sixpacks, by contrast, are for "party time with your friends."
Even with the growth, though, He'brew is still a "one-man show," said Cowen -- until recently, he had to work side jobs to help pay the bills. He is now "barely profitable," but does his part for tzedakah by offering his beer at reduced cost for Jewish fund-raising events and allowing groups like those he met Monday night to keep the profits from sales of He'brew T-shirts.
Cowan seemed to have won over some customers in Washington this week.
As 24-year-old Ross Schulman of the District said, "The Jewish community needs more beer. ... I'm proud of it."