Shapiro's Barista Beer- WOW!

Way back when... could it only have been just over a year ago... in the days when summer nights were made for enjoyable beer festivals, I attended a beer festival in Jerusalem and complained about the latest Israeli craft beers. The big thing was "flavored beers," and the artificial flavoring plus beer just didn't work. I wrote Where's The Beer?" Jerusalem Beer Festival 2019. One of the worst was a "cherry beer" that tasted worse than a children's antibiotic.

That experience put me off of flavored beers, however...

When the beer maven, Doug Greener blogged about coffee-flavored beer... I began to crave it, coffee beer that is. One of the companies making coffee beer is my favorite, Shapiro, and  I just had to buy some. But how was I going to buy it? The country was in corona COVID lockdown! There was no way I could justify traveling by bus to Jerusalem for Barista Beer. And since it's a "limited edition," no guarantee I'd even find any.

What could I do? I bided my time.

Finally it became legal to travel to further than your closest stores to shop for food. I had also used up almost all of my jersey yarn for crocheting projects. 

Siyate d'Shmaya, Hand of Gd, beer and yarn stores are in the same neighborhood, so off I went to Jerusalem today.

At the very first liquor store I passed, there it was... calling me. How'd it know? I bought a six pack, three barista, two IPA and one stout. That's because I hadn't found an open yarn store, so I wasn't schlepping. An added bonus was that since I bought six they could safely pack them in a special carton. And Baruch Hashem, thank Gd the carton fit into my backpack. And then while rushing to catch the lightrail to my bus I found a store with the yarn that was selling by "orders" outside their door with immediate "delivery." So I had lots to schlepp, but I bought what I needed.

Now, no doubt you want to know how the Barista coffee beer tastes. 

Simply put, coffee and hops make a great shidduch, match. There's no artificial taste in Shapiro's Barista coffee beer. Shapiro uses a pale ale, not my favorite beer, but when it's paired with cold brew coffee, it's a hit. The coffee gives the pale ale more flavor and body. Drinking it I didn't feel like I was drinking a flavored beer. There's something more natural; the flavors blend nicely. 

I was so excited about the beer I drank it as soon as it cooled. Barista is great after a busy day, and I'll try some on Shabbat morning, too. Yes, it's definitely recommended.