With Hanukkah Microbrews, A Taste of Jewish History : The Salt : NPR
During the holidays, many beer manufacturers roll out seasonal brews. But there’s a relative newcomer for the festival of lights: Hanukkah beer.
Lompoc Brewing, in Portland, Ore., is one small, craft brewery that has added it to its winter lineup.
“We had a Jewish gentleman here … and he wanted to make a Hanukkah brew,” says David Fleming, the head brewer. “So we thought it was a great idea. We already had six Christmas beers going anyhow, so why couldn’t we have a seventh one for Hanukkah?”
Lompoc ended up with a chocolate rye porter called 8 Malty Nights. It has become one of its more popular winter beers. And Lompoc is not alone - a few others, like Schmaltz Brewing Company, are also bringing Jewish beers to market.
But this isn’t the first time Jews have gone into the beer business.
“The story … begins really far back, at the Babylonian exile,” says Marni Davis, the author of Jews and Booze and an assistant professor of history at Georgia State University. She says that even though beer is never mentioned in the Hebrew bible, it is kosher. And Jews have brewed it from Persia to Europe, and into America.
Davis has found lots of examples of central European Jews founding breweries. One of the biggest was New York’s Rheingold Brewery, founded by Samuel Leibmann.