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December 24, 2010
Always time for Jewbilation
Jeremy Cowan marks 13 years in the kosher beer business.
DAVID J. LITVAK
Beer is not generally associated with Jewish culture. But thanks to Jeremy Cowan, founder of Shmaltz Brewing Co. and the author of a new book about Jews and beer, the world has been introduced to specialty craft beers that feature a dancing rabbi on the label and shmaltzy names like He’Brew, Genesis Ale, Messiah Bold, Jewbilation and Rejewvenator.
This unusual award-winning brewery (it was recently named best American craft brewer by Beverage World magazine), which has featured slogans like “Don’t Pass Out, Passover” and “He’Brew: The Chosen Beer,” turns 13 this year. Cowan, a self-described “nice Jewish boy from Los Angeles,” established this trailblazing brewery in 1996 and, since that time, Shmaltz has become a pop-culture phenomenon, managing to sell more than eight million bottles of beer to date, with estimated sales of more than $2 million in this, the company’s bar mitzvah year.
In order to commemorate the company’s years in the business, Cowan wrote (along with longtime friend James Sullivan) a rollicking small business memoir, Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah: How it Took 13 Years, Extreme Jewish Brewing and Circus Sideshow Freaks to make Shmaltz Brewing Company an International Success. The book is chock full of inspiring, informative and hilarious anecdotes about the joys and challenges of brewing beer.
The Independent interviewed Cowan as he was driving to Washington, D.C., for a book signing at the Star and Shamrock, the world’s only Jewish/Irish bar.
Cowan notes that the idea for the brewery began as an “inside joke with a bunch of high school friends” and, several years later, in 1996, he experimented by producing his first batch of He’Brew beer for Chanukah.
“Thirteen years later, our beer is distributed all across the United States in 2,000 retail outlets, bars and restaurants, and we now have two brand lines with He’Brew beer and Coney Island,” Cowan said. One of the main goals of the company is “to ensure that the quality is as high as any craft beer in the country,” he added.
Increased national recognition for the quality of the company’s beer, a 1,000 percent increase in sales from 2003-2009 and the introduction of a popular new brand (Coney Island Craft Lagers) are all promising signs for the future, but Cowan didn’t establish the Shmaltz Brewing Co. just to brew a quality beer. He established the company to promote Jewish identity and to get people asking the “age-old question”: Why is this beer different than all other beers?
Everything Shmaltz does is different from other breweries, Cowan explained. He cited the ingredients (which include pomegranates), packaging and flavors that Shmaltz uses, the tie-ins to Jewish tradition, the marketing strategy and promotions, and events that are organized around the products to celebrate special beers, as examples of harnessing that Jewish identity.
“Creating Jewbilation, the first and only Jewish celebration beer, was an opportunity for me to dig deeper into Jewish history and to tie into world culture through ingredients, traditions and shtick – that is the part of the job that is very meaningful to me.”
In fact, Cowan, who is a fan of numerology and is a Stanford literature graduate, also enjoys researching the packaging and labels for Shmaltz beers, which are liberally sprinkled with information about Jewish holidays, references to Jewish pop-culture icons like Mel Brooks and Jerry Seinfeld (he even created a beer in honor of legendary Jewish comedian Lenny Bruce) and gematria (Jewish numerology). He often opens up a Chumash as a source of inspiration before writing labels and designing packaging and gets help from a co-worker to source the material.
“I go to the Torah as a beginning point and I keep looking and looking,” he said. Not only is the inclusion of Jewish references an integral part of Shmaltz’s marketing shtick but the core philosophy of the company is influenced by what’s known as the three pillars of Judaism (Torah, divine service and acts of loving kindness), which Cowan was introduced to on a trip he took when he was 25 with the Safed-based volunteer program Livnot U’Lehibanot. When he returned to the United States, he created his own version of the three pillars and it became his company’s motto: “Quality, Community and Shtick.”
“As I mention in the book, it is important to me to have these core ideas running through everything I have created and so we are a strong supporter of community events,” Cowan explained. “We have been the official beer sponsor of the New York Jewish Heritage Festival, Jewish film festivals, literary series, stand-up comedy, anything related to Purim, Chanukah ... events and anything where beer is a central element of the celebration.”
And building community and trying to be inclusive is the main reason Cowan decided to get kosher certification (hechsher) for his beers.
“It’s not necessary for a beer to have a hechsher, as long as certain main ingredients are used.” Despite this, he said, “I just wanted to make sure my customers and community were comfortable bringing it to events and [in]to their homes.”
Cowan’s inclusive philosophy ensures that Shmaltz’s kosher beer appeals to a broad section of Jews across the spectrum, “from college kids to Orthodox rabbis, to people who have nothing to do with formal Judaism,” he mused.
The recent Beverage World acknowledgment, as well as numerous other accolades and awards, is an indication that not only Jews but the business and beverage world is beginning to take notice of this unique brewery. This recognition, coupled with the marked growth of the company, shows that Shmaltz Brewing Co. has definitely come of age in its 13th year.
Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah is only available for purchase online at craftbeerbarmitzvah.com, but He’Brew beer can be bought at most local liquor stores.
David J. Litvak is a freelance writer and publicist living in Vancouver.
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