German microbrewery finds niche market in kosher beer - Haaretz

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Last update - 14:01 14/08/2007

German microbrewery finds niche market in kosher beer

By The Associated Press

A microbrewery in eastern Germany has found success with a new niche product: officially certified kosher beer.

The first 30,000 bottles of Simcha pilsner - a name that means joy in Hebrew - have sold out since being put on the market at the end of April, said Wilfried Gotter, a spokesman for the new product.

Brewed under the strict Bavarian purity laws with only water, hops, grain, and yeast, almost all German beer is technically kosher - fit for consumption according to Jewish law.

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But Simcha goes one step further, having Berlin Orthodox Rabbi Yitshak Ehrenberg oversee the brewing and bottling process and give it official kosher certification.

For very religious Jews the availability of kosher beer is tremendously important, Gotter said. The certification takes it to the next level.

The Jewish organization Saxonian Friends of Israel and SCHALOM, a Jewish restaurant in Chemnitz, came up with the idea of producing a certified kosher beer and approached the brewer at the Brauerei Hartmannsdorf in Saxony for help.

With samples of popular kosher beer from elsewhere to work from, the brewmaster there came up with about a dozen brews before the group finally decided on what became Simcha, Gotter said.

The first batch sold out mainly to German Jewish organizations, restaurants, stores and private buyers but Gotter said the beer was also sold to buyers in Israel, the U.S., Belgium, and other European countries. The second batch should be ready by the end of August, he said.

Berlin kosher grocery store owner Ore Plaezl said that, with the advent of Simcha, he has stopped stocking imported Israeli beers Maccabee and Goldstar because they are too expensive. His customers liked the Saxony brew so much that they bought out his first delivery.

"It was well received," Plaezl said.

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1.	I don`t keep kosher, but ...	14:33	\|	D	14/08/07

2.	what s new?	15:46	\|	John	14/08/07

3.	Kosher beer	15:49	\|	leon	14/08/07

4.	Bizzare!	17:31	\|	Michael	14/08/07

5.	Mmm, beer made by the sons and daughters of nazis	17:31	\|	Adam	14/08/07

6.	#3, leon	17:38	\|	b	14/08/07

7.	kosher beer	17:50	\|	scanadu	14/08/07

8.	What`s un-Kosher About Beer in the First Place?	17:55	\|	mike	14/08/07

9.	to adam	17:57	\|	b	14/08/07

10.	Leon, about that purity law....	18:07	\|	Neal	14/08/07

11.	Kosher Beer? Try these...all are kosher	18:17	\|	Neal	14/08/07

12.	"German microbrewery finds niche market in kosher beer... "	18:20	\|	bat yam	14/08/07

13.	Kosher Beer	18:26	\|	Matthew Clark	14/08/07

14.	As I and my haverim like to say at simchas...	18:33	\|	Akiva Patysh	14/08/07

15.	Mike in NYC	19:21	\|	Margie in Tel Aviv	14/08/07

16.	#9	19:37	\|	Adam	14/08/07

17.	#8 to mike	19:44	\|	Michael	14/08/07

18.	Neal	19:52	\|	Adam	14/08/07

19.	Adam of Houston, TX	20:16	\|	Akiva Patysh	14/08/07

20.	Akiva	21:12	\|	Adam	14/08/07

21.	Adam	21:28	\|	Aaron Cohen	14/08/07

22.	# 10 Neal	21:43	\|	Axel	14/08/07

23.	# 16 adam	21:55	\|	Axel	14/08/07

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