The bi-national brew will be launched at Munich’s Jewish Museum to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Rein-heitsgebot, the world’s first beer purity law.

The collaboration is between Jerusalem’s Herzl Brewery and the Crew Republic micro-brewery in Unterschleissheim near Munich.

The beer will be on sale at the museum’s Beer is the Wine of this Land: Jewish Brewery Tales exhibition, which will run from April 13 to January 3, 2017.

Herzl is the only brewery inside Jerusalem. Its beers are only available in bars and restaurants in the city. The brewery, 10 kilometres from the old city and based in a former printer’s workshop, produces 7,000 bottles a month.

Maor Helfman, 32 , is the marketing side of Herzl: “We are really honoured to have been chosen to represent Israel in this historic project. We hardly knew we were being considered. Or that we had a chance.

Herzl is the only brewery inside Jerusalem, its beers only available in bars and restaurants in the city

“It’s a huge compliment to be recognised internationally. The judges visited many other craft breweries and tried different beers. To know that they enjoyed ours the most is a big feather in our cap.”

Maor and Itai both studied beer-making in Scotland, at Fraserborough’s Brew Dog Ale House.

Right: Herzl brewery.Right: Herzl brewery.

Helfman thought he was the first Israeli to learn brewing in Scotland before discovering Itai had been there before him. Returning to Jerusalem, he tracked him down to the Shanty Bar in the Nachlat Hashivah quarter of Jerusalem.

They discovered they attended the same high school, Rene Kasin, and that they both loved beer. And thus, Herzl was born, with its headquarters based in Talpiot .

The young Israeli brewers will join up with Bavarian brewers and start-up entrepreneurs, Mario Hanl and Timm Schnigula to handcraft the new collaborative beer.

Schnigula said: “It’s a great privilege. We are planning an amber-coloured , full-bodied, yet generously-hopped beer.”

There are now over 1,300 breweries in Germany producing around 500 beer brands.

The first German brewing licence was probably granted in 974 by Emperor Otto 11 to the church at Liege (now Belgium). The oldest, continuously-operating brewery in the world is the Weihenstephan Monastery in Freising, which dates back to 1040. It is now the Bavarian State Brewery.

The Munich Jewish Museum’s Beer is the Wine of this Land: Jewish Brewery Tales exhibition traces the role Jews have played in the beer industry starting with 4th century Babylonian Talmudic amoras (oral Torah spokespersons) in Surah and 6th-century beer-mad rabbis.

Itai Gutman and Maor Helfman of Herzl Beers.Itai Gutman and Maor Helfman of Herzl Beers.

When hung outside the brewery, the star sign signified that beer was for sale

The story continues with James Rothchild’s 1934 Rishon Le Zion brewery and the 1940 Palestine Brewery, which opened in 1949 to supply Australian troops.

Jewish hop traders supplied European brewmasters, using hexagrams on barrels. The hexagram or six-pointed star, is the oldest emblem for German brewers.

The Zoigl Star was used extensively in the communal breweries of Neuhaus bei Windischeschenbach, Mitterteich, Falkenberg and Eslarn, close to the border with the Plzenskykraj (Pilsen region) of the Czech Republic.

The interlinked triangles symbolise the three elements (fire, water and air) and the three ingredients (malt, hops and yeast) used in the brewing process. When hung outside the brewery, the star sign signified that beer was for sale.

In the US, several breweries were founded by Jewish families such as Unions-Bräurun by the Schülein family from Munich, which merged with Löwenbräuin in the 1920s.

Living in Brooklyn after 1933 following his forced emigration, its long-standing director Hermann Schülein managed the largest brewery on the East Coast which dominated the market with its brand, Rheingold.

At the height of its popularity, Rheingold was endorsed by John Wayne, Harpo Marx and Nat King Cole. A Rheingold delivery truck is seen in The Godfather.

Israel’s first brewery was opened by Edmond de Rothschild in 1934 at Rishon Le Zion and in 1940 the Palestine Brewery opened to supply Australian troops stationed in Israel. There is now a burgeoning beer culture in Israel. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv both hold beer festivals every August and the country has 40 microbreweries producing beers with names ranging from Genesis to Samson.

Bryan Meadan of the Meadan Brewing Co in Galilee has just produced Israel’s first gluten-free beer and the world’s first date ale. Scotsman David Shire and his Tunisian wife Myriam run the Lone Tree Brewery, 15 miles from Jerusalem in the Gush Etzion forest where, with American couple Susan and John Levin, they produce California Steam Ale, London Pale Ale and Belgian Piraat.

The Jewish beer-making tradition in America is kept alive by boutique breweries, including Jeremy Cowan’s Schmaltz Brewery in Clifton Park, New York. It produces Messiah Nut Brown Ale, Hop Manna IPA and the nine-hop, 10-malt Jewbilation.

On the forthcoming exhibitio museum director Bernhard Purin said: “My favourite items on display are Munich beer steins made around 1900. These were decorated by Jewish craftsmen called refinementer. Some steins are modelled on Munich’s main church, the Frauenkirche, the Zugspitze mountain and we even have a beer mug made out of an artillery shell.

“We chose the Herz brewery for the bi-national venture because it’s one of the most innovative young craft breweries in Israel. The name reminds us of the Zionist leader Theodore Herzl. But it is also a common, Israeli worker class Christian name.

“And, in Bavarian dialect, the meaning of the word is ‘sweetheart’.”

Herzl’s Gutman, who also studied at Berlin’s Academy of Brewing said: “The challenge lies in making a beer following the traditional method. And in bringing the taste of Israel and the taste of Bavaria into one bottle.”

www.juedisches-museum-muenchen.de

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