This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Shiner's Strawberry Blonder.
Its been many years since I have seen a Strawberry Blonde with kosher supervision as the last that I can recall was Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde and FX Matt stopped making that beer more than ten years ago.
I picked this up at Total Wine on Old Country Road in Westbury where they let you buy singles and facilitate it with six aisles of singles arranged by style and in alphabetical order, and an additional cooler filled with the more popular singles.
As this is the closest to a red white and blue beer for the Fourth of July and it would also make a decent Nine Days havdallah beer (see below) I saved the Shiner Strawberry Blonde for this week's Sunday Night Suds review.
This beer is not much more than the strawberry version of the Dewberry flavored Weisse N'Easy (reviewed here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2021/04/sunday-night-suds-shiner-weisse-neasy.html) . There is a strong strawberry scent and the flavor matches the aroma. Its not sickeningly sweet like a strawberry soda, but there is no beer flavor here. The claims that it is 4.3% abv, but that is lost on me as I don't taste any alcohol flavor.
Still, if you are looking for something light to have after dinner or instead of a piece of fruit as a snack, this would not be a bad choice.
And yes, if you are not into beer, this would be a good choice for havdallah this coming Shabbos.
The Shiner Strawberry Blonde is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit although there is no symbol on the the bottle. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this brew click here https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/143/182445/.
As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.
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Bonus section - Nine Days Havdallah Guide.
In years past, I would receive numerous email and cell phone messages prior to Shabbos Chazon (the Saturday within the summer nine days mourning period) with questions as to what would be a good choice to make havdalah on. As the Shabbos of the Nine Days falls at the beginning of the period, I have presented the annual Nine Days Havdallah guide in this post to allow people to a look at alternatives to wine.
By way of introduction, on Saturday nights after the evening prayer is said, Jews have a special set of blessings that are said by which we separate between the holy shabbos and the rest of the week. There is a custom to say this prayer on a cup of wine, however this custom needs modification when the Saturday falls during the nine days of mourning.
As noted by the Orthodox Union on their website:
Meat and wine are prohibited during the Nine Days, except on Shabbat. Meat and wine are associated both with joy AND with Temple service. Both reasons combine to explain this prohibition. Even though havdala is officially after Shabbat, one is permitted to drink wine. It is preferable to give the wine to a child who is old enough to understand brachot but not yet old enough to understand the concept of "mourning for Jerusalem". Alternately, some authorities recommend the use of a substitute beverage for havdala such as fruit juice, beer, etc. Other authorities insist on wine as usual.
Should your local Rabbi direct you to utilize non-wine in your havdalah, there are multiple options to use to fulfill the havdalah requirement. Indeed, my father in law will use diet soda (or as he says "diet pop"). I recall as a child seeing my father on one occasion use hard alcohol for havdalah (and then burn the decorative plate my sibling made when he tried to put out the candle).
To me, the simplest answer to the havdalah dilemma (and one that is widely recommended by rabbinic authorities) is to use beer, which in the time of the talmud was called chamra d'medina - the wine of the masses. This brings us to the reason I get more summer phone calls and email around this time every year - which beer would I recommend?
The number one problem with the question is that most people who ask me about it don't generally drink beer. It then becomes difficult to make a recommendation of a beer that they can use for havdalah that won't have them making faces in their attempt to drink the halachic minimum level for the blessing. A second problem is that since the havdalah cup is imbibed on its own (i.e. without the benefit of food) people who might be inclined to have a beer with a meal will still have problems finishing their cup when the beer is consumed on its own.
The easiest solution is not to have beer, but instead to make havdalah on what is commonly called alcopop. These are malt beverage drinks with some similarities to beer and a beer-like 5% alcohol content by volume, but do not have the beer taste. Some examples are the Boston Beer Company (aka Sam Adams) Twisted Teas or the Smirnoff Twisted V/Twisted Ice line. Please be aware that not every flavor of Smirnoff is certified Kosher. There are also a limited number of kosher "hard sodas" such as Henry's Hard Soda (a MillerCoors brand under the OU) and Coney Island (a Samuel Adams brand under the Star-K).
Another alternative is hard apple cider. Frequent readers of this blog may recall that for a time the Angry Orchard Hard Apple Cider was not certified kosher by the Star-K, but they have again been certified kosher. For a current list of Angry Orchard ciders as well as the Coney Island Hard Sodas under hashgacha, please click here https://api.star-k.org/api/Loc/LoadLoc/PEFQZ4N3 (this will open a link which allows for a download of the July 2021 LOC). Additionally, there has been an explosion of other kosher hard apple ciders, including Strongbow out of the UK, JK Scrumpy, Smith & Forge, Henry Hotspurs Hard Cider (a Trader Joe's brand) and Appleation.
There are also a number of fruit flavored beers which bridge the gap between alcopop and true beer. These include the Miller/Coors line of Redd's products, including Apple Ale, Blueberry Ale, Strawberry Ale, Cranberry Ale, Mango Ale and perhaps other (just look for the OU on the label). There are also quite a few mainstream mango beers like the Samuel Adams Rebel Juiced IPA (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2017/07/sunday-night-suds-rebel-juiced-ipa.html) and the Blue Moon Mango Wheat (reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2017/07/sunday-night-suds-blue-moon-mango-wheat.html). Also, Saranac has reintroduced their delicious Blueberry Blonde Ale after a few years hiatus (reviewed here https://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/04/sunday-night-suds-saranac-blueberry.html) and as discussed above, the new Mural/New Belgium can mix pack has three other options for fruit infused beer for Havdallah.
If you do like unflavored beer, or would like to drink something that is more manly than alcopop, the next step up would be an American wheat beer or some of the better Summer Ales. Many of these beers have been reviewed on the pages of this blog and you can search through prior Sunday Night Suds reviews to find one that might appeal to you. If you are a beer aficionado, you obviously won't need this post to tell you which ale or lager you should crack open for havdallah.
Again, I would stress that you consult your halachic authority before selecting a havdallah alternative. My Rav ZT'L previously advised me that beer would be the first choice, followed by malt beverages. I did not ask about how the non alcohol options fit into the list.
May the world have a tikkun from our three weeks/nine days observances and may tisha b'av soon be transformed to the holiday that the gemara tells it will be in the times of moshiach bimheira biyamenu.
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