Shmaltz Brewing Announces Return of Holiday Seasonals

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Clifton Park, NY — Shmaltz Brewing Company is proud to announce the return of its limited-release holiday seasonals, Hanukkah, Chanukah: Pass The Beer Dark Ale and Jewbelation 19® Anniversary Ale. October 2015 also marks the arrival of its latest holiday package, SHTICK IN A BOX New Variety 12-Pack. Candles won’t be the only thing getting lit this holiday season!

No matter how you spell the festival of lights, Hanukkah, Chanukah: Pass The Beer is the only winter warmer that celebrates all the miracles of the 8 crazy nights. 8 is a miraculous number in Jewish life. Its cultural/religious significance runs the gamut with several holidays spanning 8 days (Chanukah, Passover, Sukkot), and a bris (circumcision) taking place on the newborn’s 8th day. Mel Brooks stole a cap gun from Woolworths at age 8, and “The Producers” won 8 Outer Critic Circle Awards (for more deep shtick, see the 4-pack label listed below). The official Chosen Beer of this holiday season, Hanukkah, Chanukah: Pass The Beer® is a Dark Ale brewed with 8 malts, 8 hops, and heats up at 8% ABV. As latkes are frying and the battle royale of dreidels are spinning, Shmaltz offers some much needed light to the impending winter darkness with its latest fermented creation straight from the tanks at the Upstate New York brewery.

“Back in 1996, Chanukah inspired the first batch of He’brew’s Genesis Ale, hand bottled and personally delivered by friends and family to just a few stores from the back of my grandmother’s Volvo,” says Jeremy Cowan, founder of Shmaltz Brewing Company. “19 crazy years, 35 states and 5,000 retailers later, we have our very own brewery and the freedom to brew any style of beer when we want, how we want. We are thrilled to brew our interpretation of a winter warmer, a true He’brew Celebration Beer and a holiday tradition to pair with comfort food and gelt for my favorite drinking season of the year.”

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Hanukkah, Chanukah: Pass The Beer® will be available in 12oz, 4-pack in October 2015, in time to toast the 8 crazy nights of Chanukah and warm your palate throughout the cool, crisp winter season. Hanukkah, Chanukah: Pass The Beer will also be available in Shmaltz Brewing Company’s latest craft beer package SHTICK IN A BOX, a holiday variety 12-pack fully packed with delicious He’brew beers and wrapped in Shmaltz’s signature shtick. SHTICK IN A BOX will ship from the brewery October 1, 2015, to more than 35 markets through Shmaltz’s extensive distribution network.

Jewbelation 19 Anniversary Ale: Over the last decade, Shmaltz Brewing has boldly elevated its Anniversary brew Jewbelation with increased amounts of malts, hops, and ABV. Shmaltz debuted Miraculous Jewbelation as their first Anniversary Ale with 8 malts, 8 hops, 8% ABV and continued through 2014’s Jewbelation Reborn (17 malts, 17 hops, 17% ABV). This year, Shmaltz has a new take on the Jewbelation series with Jewbelation 19 (brewed with 10 malts, 9 hops, and a smooth 11.9% ABV), which is now legal in all 50 states including Ohio.

“Jewbelation 19 pours dark crimson with ruby highlights, a creamy coffee head and greets the nose with a blast of dark chocolate and dark dried fruits,” said Richie Saunders, lead brewer at Shmaltz. “Rich, complex roasted malts, bakers chocolate, notes of caramel, dark fruit and hops fill the palate while the robust heat lingers through to the finish.” Jewbelation 19 blurs the boundaries of Porter, Stout, Old Ale and Barleywines, and continues Shmaltz’s long history of brewing big, robust beers that redefine traditional beer categories.

Pick up a bottle of Jewbelation 19® Anniversary Ale to pair with a decadent dessert or share with friends for a hearty winter meal. Its rich malt base also makes it an ideal beer to stash away in the beer cellar since the ale will gain complexity and flavor as it ages and blends over time. Jewbelation 19® Anniversary Ale will be available in 22 oz. bottles and draught in the 35 states where He’brew Beer® is sold starting October 2015.

From the 22 oz. label of Jewbelation 19®

THE 19TH ANNIVERSARY GIFT IS BRONZE. Not exactly silver or gold, but at least it’s on the medal stand! And the Bronze Age was a giant leap forward from the Stone Age — the invention of writing, metal alloys, and year-round agriculture. Evolution! 19 letters spell “He’brew The Chosen Beer”. The Hebrew lunar calendar syncs with the solar cycle every 19 years. In 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. Yeay! Congress also passed the Volstead Act which led to Prohibition. Boo! The Vietnam War lasted 19.5 years. The anti-war synth hit “19” reached #1 in the UK (’85). August 19 is the UN’s World Humanitarian Day. Though I really hate the song, I got my 1st girlfriend in 5th grade because of “Hey 19” by Steely Dan. Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” (which I still love) was named the 19th greatest hard rock song by VH1. At age 19, Lenny Bruce got an honorable discharge from the Navy for posing as a transvestite, Barbra Streisand debuted on Broadway, and Rodney Dangerfield first changed his name to Jack Roy, performing in the Catskills, near our new brewery. Groucho Marx, who once danced the Charleston on the crushed remains of Hitler’s bunker, died the 19th of August (’77). His quip, “Humor is reason gone mad,” inspired the unofficial slogan of the Bronze Age, “He who smelt it, dealt it.” L’Chaim to the power of 19!

MALTS: 2-Row, Kiln Amber, Red X, Munich, Caramel Pils, Crystal 45, Chocolate, Vienna, Roasted Wheat Malt, Flaked Oats HOPS: Chinook, Citra, Centennial, Fuggle, Simcoe, Cascade, Calypso, Amarillo, Palisade

From the 4-pack label of Hanukkah, Chanukah: Pass The Beer® 

8 is a miraculous number in Jewish life. Chanukah, Passover, and Sukkot span 8 days. 8 humans survived the deluge on Noah’s ark. Maimonides delineated 8 levels of tzedakah, (charity). A bris (circumcision) comes on day 8. King Solomon completed the First Temple in the 8th month of the 8th year… “Seinfeld” ran 8 years. Dylan has 8 Grammys; Babs, 8 Golden Globes. Einstein couldn’t write until age 8. Freud, the eldest of 8 children, took 8 years to complete his medical degree. Mel Brooks stole a cap gun from Woolworths at age 8, and “The Producers,” won 8 Outer Critic Circle Awards. Winona Ryder had 8 prescription medications in her purse when arrested for shoplifting. This holiday season we celebrate all the dedicated souls with the chutzpah to rise up and to risk lighting those final precious drops of sacred oil. To the courageous and the curious, the clowns and the creators. To all the Tribe of Shmaltz. To Life! L’Chaim!

About Shmaltz Brewing Company

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Ranked in 2013 as one of the “Top 100 Brewers in the World” by RateBeer.com, Shmaltz won 9 Gold and 5 Silver Medals in the World Beer Championships in 2012. A recipient of the “Distinguished Business Award” by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Shmaltz was also included in the “Top 50 Fastest Growing Bay Area Companies” by San Francisco Business Times. 

Founder and owner Jeremy Cowan established the company in San Francisco in 1996 with the first 100 cases of He’brew Beer® hand bottled and delivered throughout the Bay Area in his Grandmother’s Volvo. He’brew® now sells across 35 states, through 40 wholesalers and nearly 5,000 retailers. In 2007, Shmaltz released a new line of craft brewed lagers under the Coney Island® banner. The Coney Island brand was recently acquired by Alchemy and Science, a craft beer incubator, owned by Boston Beer (Sam Adams). 

After 17 years of being an outspoken cheerleader for contract brewing, Shmaltz recently broke with tradition and opened its own New York State production brewery in Clifton Park, NY, 10 minutes north of Albany’s capital district. Shmaltz’s new home boasts a 50-barrel brewhouse with 20,000 barrels of annual capacity. The new brewery packages 12 and 22 ounce bottles and kegs of their diverse core and seasonal favorites, and hosts fans and beer tourists in their new tasting room for tours, barrel-aged previews, and special releases.

In 2010/11, Cowan published his 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. A free sampling of Chapter One and suggested beer pairings, can be viewed at www.craftbeerbarmitzvah.com. In 2012, Cowan spearheaded the creation of the non-profit New York City Brewers Guild (which manages NYC Beer Week) and served as its Founding President.

Cowan also has presented at the 2013 Craft Brewers Conference, as well as previous Great American Beer Festivals, BevNet’s Brewbound conference, Beer Advocate’s Extreme Beer Festival, the Atlanta and the St. Louis Jewish Book Fairs, and the San Francisco and New York Jewish Museums.

Shmaltz Brewing beers have appeared in such distinguished media outlets as The New York Times, CNN Headline News, Beer Advocate Magazine, NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” USA Today, Fox Business News, Men’s Health, San Francisco Chronicle, The Jerusalem Report, New York Jewish Week, and Washington Post.