Alexander Hita Yisra'elit - This Drinking Life

Alexander Hita Yisra’elit

www.alexander-beer.co.il/

Brewed by Alexander Brewery
Style: Weissbier – Hefeweizen
Alexander, Israel

Alexander Beer is an Israeli craft brewery, founded in August, 2008 in Emek Hefer, near the Alexander River stream in Central Israel. They aim to brew the best Israeli craft beers, using only top European malt and hops (too hot to grow hops in Israel) and Israeli water from the famous Sea of Galilee.

After his discharge from Israel’s air force in 2007 following a 30-year career as a pilot, Ori Sagi 54, decided to become a brewmaster. Putting his hobbyist’s love for brewing and his business degree to use, he launched Alexander Beer with the support of investors. The name of the brewery of course is named after the Alexander River that runs close to the operation, while the logo of the turtles, well they are a plenty in that said river! Today, Alexander Beer produces about six different kinds of beer, bottles and kegs combined, as well as special edition beers a few times a year.

A while ago they made the papers for selling a limited edition ‘Gaza Border Beer’ where profits went to support Israeli farmers living in border communities, whose fields suffered from clashes with Palestinians. Some of the ingredients for the beer were made from wheat that survived torched fields targeted by incendiary devices (kites and balloons) launched from Gaza. So definitely not a hipsters beer of choice then. As for me, not a shit I give…….its beer and I drink. And plenty others are on the same page as the beers were an overwhelming success, selling out quick fast and, to date, over $60,000 from the beer sales has been contributed to the Gaza border farmers. Of course the positive PR with this act no doubt helped the company too…..

Review: 33cl bottle of Alexander Hita Yisra’elit: 5.0% vol.

Coming in an interesting bottle, with some Hebrew that looks unpronounceable to me, its not immediately clear what’s the name of this beer, but I picked it as I wanted to try a beer from Israel, a new nation on the list for me.

I do see the word Alexander, which I guessed at the time was the name of the brewery, and there is also the point that this is an “Israeli boutique brewery”, and that this beer is “a non conventional wheat beer”, which sounds dead exciting.

There is a nice logo of a flying turtle, which is a bit strange, but looks cool! And wheat fields with pretty flowers on show at the front, all very nice and colourful.

On pour got a very nice frothy white head, very good, and a yellowish golden colour. A decent appearance. Head maintained very well and stuck around, standing tall in this good looking brew. Looks the business. Some lacing present.

Yes got the usual Hefeweizen aroma, wheaty for sure, the cloves, the spices, the fruits, the malts, all present. Typical of the style but a very, very nice beer on the nose.

The taste is not bad, get a full mouthful of the wheat, Israeli wheat at that, very nice. Like a typical Hefeweizen, fruity and spicy, wheaty, coriander, cloves, all nicely balanced, nothing out of joint.

The wheaty taste dies down a bit the more you get into the beer, but its fine to drink. I think perhaps a regular Hefeweizen drinker might be a tad disappointed but for me its fine.

I would class it as safe, not daring, doesn’t want to disappoint. All the typical Hefeweizen tastes here but nothing strong enough to make an impression.

All in the front, hits you right from the start, and it isn’t bad, but overall its just too light, especially for the style. But for me it was overall ok, pleasant enough and I might try again.