Israeli Beer: Goldstar, the Kosher Lager
The average Israeli drinks fourteen liters of beer a year - a Czech gets through that in five or six weeks. And Israelis pay some of the highest prices in the world for it, because the state taxes alcohol heavily. Even so, there is one beer the whole country agrees on: Goldstar (Hebrew: גולדסטאר) is an amber lager with 4.9% alcohol and the best-selling beer in Israel - the can calls it a dark lager, and in Israeli bars it is simply the default.
The Star That Isn't David's
The name means golden star, and the six-pointed star on the label makes it easy to jump to the conclusion that it's the Star of David. But brewing has a heraldry of its own: the six-pointed Bierstern was the emblem of medieval German brewers and marked clean, honestly brewed beer - and that is where Goldstar borrowed it from. So the most Israeli beer of them all carries a piece of German guild history on its label, and since 2005 it has had a piece of the Netherlands in it too: Heineken owns forty percent of its brewer, Tempo, based in Netanya. The beer is certified kosher, just don't expect to be drinking it at Passover - a grain beer has no place at the festival of unleavened bread.
A Pilsner Recipe for British Soldiers
The country's first industrial brewery was built in 1934 by the Rothschild family in Rishon LeZion, next to springs famous for the quality of their water, and it brewed Pilsner-style beer - its main customers were the British soldiers stationed under the Mandate, thirsty for European lager. According to Hebrew sources, Goldstar was first brewed in 1940; sources disagree on exactly when it became the country's number one. What is certain is that after three breweries merged in 1973, the resulting company controlled roughly nine tenths of the Israeli market - and Goldstar has been the market leader ever since. Its perennial rival Maccabee, once the more prestigious name, has had to settle for second place.
A Dark Lager That Isn't Dark
Read the words dark lager on the can with Middle Eastern eyes: in a Czech pub it would be called semi-dark at best. Goldstar is an amber lager brewed in the Munich style - malty, round, with only a hint of bitterness. If you want a genuinely dark beer, reach for the Black Roast version; there is also an unfiltered one and Goldstar 10. Watch out for that ten: back home a ten means a lighter beer to wash lunch down with, measured by the Czech scale of original gravity, but here it means ten percent alcohol. Israeli microbreweries have been multiplying since the mid-2000s, yet the first beer you reach for in a store is still Goldstar. People drink it cold, with hummus, grilled meat or a soccer match on TV. And if you take one tip away, take this one: buy it in a store - in a restaurant the same beer costs a lot more, and a half-liter in a Tel Aviv bar is among the priciest in the world, because the excise tax is merciless.
A Can from a Jerusalem Supermarket
I didn't buy my Goldstar in a bar, but in a supermarket in Jerusalem: a half-liter can for 13 ILS (3.60 EUR). In a restaurant the same beer easily climbs past 20 ILS (6 EUR), the kind of arithmetic that teaches a Czech visitor moderation in a hurry. The classic and the unfiltered version both went down easily: a soft malty base, a faint caramel finish and a bitterness that shows up only out of politeness - you won't get the bite of a Czech twelve-degree lager. I had one can of each and left it at that. In Israel, fourteen liters a head a year suddenly stopped looking like a small number and started looking like a budgeting decision.
