Thursday, April 21, 2016

Only in Israel: Kosher for Passover Beer


I have written about the gluten free beers made by Meadan Craft Brewing in the past, especially about their beer made from hummus. Now the brewery has taken the next step - brewing the first-ever kosher for Passover beer.

Meadan's Date Ale, a beer made from date syrup, is the world's first beer made from dates. And, it's not only gluten free, but also hametz free. Hametz is any food type, especially bread, that is leavened, and therefore forbidden during the week-long holiday of Passover.

During the Passover Seder, it is custom to drink four cups of wine. Changing that tradition to drinking four bottles of beer is doubtful, but at least everyone will have Date Ale to help wash down the matza served at the table.

Read also: Beer Made from Hummus

3 comments:

  1. Okay. Well, that answers my question about what could possibly be in it. I'm still a little horrified, and suddenly not quite sure I know what "beer" is. But very interesting. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually I think the Hebrew word doesn't per se mean "beer".

    Sheker was made from leavened bread and dates.

    Leavened bread is what makes it:
    * a beer
    and
    * not kosher for passover.

    Dates are another matter.

    If you can call beer without any dates sheker, which is regularly done, I suppose you can call fermented (but not leavened!) date juice sheker as well, each having half of the ingredients list of ancient sheker.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, a controversy whether this is beer or not! I say, bottles up!

      Delete