Shmaltz Brewing Company
Shmaltz Brewing Company is an American Craft brewing company located in Clifton Park, New York, US, and produces "HE'BREW" Beers and formerly Coney Island Beer before its acquisition by Boston Beer Company in 2013. 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. He'brew now sells across 37 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 company's name refers to shmaltz, a type of cooking fat that is frequently associated with Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine; all He'Brew Beers are certified kosher.
He'Brew Beer
He'Brew Beer began as a Chanukah experiment in 1996 when founder and proprietor Jeremy Cowan and friends squeezed pomegranates to produce juice for the first HE'BREW beer. Early distribution for this beer was done by Cowan himself out of the trunk of his grandmother's car in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1997, Anderson Valley Brewing Company began brewing He'Brew and its distribution expanded to small craft beer wholesalers in California, Chicago and New York. In 2003, Shmaltz began packaging selling Genesis Ale and Messiah Nut Brown Ale in six-packs and moved production to Mendocino Brewing Company's facility in Saratoga Springs, NY.Marketing
He'Brew Beers generally have names alluding to Jewish history and culture. Each label of He'Brew Beer lists facts and quotations related to the beer's inspiration and its ingredients. He'Brew's marketing incorporates Jewish religious references into the beers' names and slogans. Genesis Ale was the first He'Brew creation, and the company described its "Messiah Nut Brown Ale" as "the beer you've been waiting for", a reference to Jewish beliefs regarding the Messiah. The Hop Manna IPA refers to manna, a Biblical food eaten by the Israelites during the exodus from Egypt.Series
In 2006 He'Brew debuted Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A., a rye double IPA dedicated to the late Jewish comedian Lenny Bruce. The barrel-aged version of Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A., R.I.P.A. on Rye, took home the Silver Medal in the Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer category at the 2010 Great American Beer Festival.Shmaltz offers the "Rejewvenator" and "Jewbelation" series as limited seasonal releases; the Beverage Testing Institute awarded both Rejewvenator 2009 and Rejewvenator 2010 a gold medal at their 2010 and 2011 World Beer Championships, respectively.
''Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah''
In September 2010 owner Jeremy Cowan published a small business memoir, Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah, that chronicles Cowan's upbringing in the Northern California suburbs and describes how HE'BREW Beer evolved from an inside joke with high school friends to a nationally distributed craft beer brand under Shmaltz Brewing Company. The book was launched at Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado, and a second edition was released in December 2010. "Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah" was written with help from friend and journalist James Sullivan and is published by Malt Shop Publishing.Coney Island Craft Lagers
Summer 2008 marked the official launch of Shmaltz's Coney Island Craft Lagers line. This brand was released in partnership with the arts organization Coney Island USA, a 5013 Non-Profit, and a portion of the proceeds from Coney Island Craft Lagers directly benefited Coney Island USA. The line includes the flagship Coney Island Lager, which was first released in June 2007, and five experimental lagers: Sword Swallower, Albino Python, Mermaid Pilsner, Human Blockhead, and Freaktoberfest. In 2010 the brand was awarded "Best Craft Brewer" and "Best in Show" at industry publication Beverage World Magazine's BevStar Awards for product quality, brand marketing, and overall creativity in "pushing the limits of lager."Coney Island Brewing Company
In May 2010 Shmaltz launched its first brewing location in Brooklyn, New York. At per batch, Coney Island Brewing Company was officially the smallest commercial brewery by volume in the world. In August 2011, Coney Island Brewing Company registered as a fully licensed brewery with the state of New York, and within its brewery, staff began bottling its nano-batches of beer for sale to the public, including a Pumpernickel Bagel Porter and a Cotton Candy Wit Ale.Marketing
The artwork for Coney Island Lagers was the creation of Shmaltz's art director Matt Polacheck and Brooklyn-based tattoo artist Dave C. Wallin, whose original illustrations spotlight Heather Holliday and the MC of the sideshow, Donny Vomit. The logo for the brand and for Coney Island Lager is based on the iconic "Tillie" face that graced the entrance of George Tilyou's Steeplechase Park in Coney Island.Boston Beer Co. Acquires Coney Island
On August 26, 2013, a subsidiary of Boston Beer Company bought the Coney Island brand from Shmaltz Brewing Company, as well as some brewery equipment and other assets related to the Coney Island brand for $2.9 million. In connection with the acquisition, A&S entered into a two-year brewing services agreement with Shmaltz for Shmaltz to brew all of the Coney Island Beers.Shmaltz Brewery
After the sale of the Coney Island Brewing, Cowan used the proceeds and bank loans to finance the construction of a $3.25 million, brewery in Clifton Park, New York, with an annual capacity of. The new brewery packages 12 and 22 ounce bottles and kegs and offers on-site tours and tastings. In 2018, the facility was sold to SingleCut Beersmiths.Shmaltz opened up a tasting room in a basement space in the former Newberry Music Hall in Saratoga Springs, New York. Shmaltz still owns "Shmaltz Shop" and "518 Craft", a bottle shop and bar in downtown Troy, New York.