L'Chaim! An Interview with He'Brew's Jeremy Cowan

by Angelo M. De Ieso II




Shmaltz Brewing Company founder and head brewer Jeremy Cowan has made artistic and choice brews for over ten years. Cowan’s outfit, also known as He’Brew, lives by the philosophy of being “dedicated to crafting quality beer and quality shtick for the Jewish Community and beyond.” I spoke with him at Portland’s Concordia Ale House to learn more about his deliciously kosher hand crafted brews.

When did you start He’Brew?

JC: I started the company in 1996 with 100 cases of 22-ounce bottles (that were) bottled and hand labeled and self-distributed out of the back of my grandmother’s Volvo.

What was your inspiration behind starting He’Brew?

JC: It was basically an inside joke with some friends from high school. We thought “man, everyone else in this country has their own beer. The Jews need their own beer.”

Where did you go to high school?

JC: Menlo Park, California. We thought to make a beer called He’Brew with the punchline being “Don’t pass out, pass over.”

As of late, what beer in your repertoire are you most proud of?

JC: Right now, I’d have to say that Bittersweet Lenny’s Rye IPA is our most holistically successful beer through the shtick, the concept, and the execution of the beer itself. It’s definitely our most ambitious, aggressive beer. It’s a very unusual one as well, which I am really excited about. The idea was to do a double IPA, but not just reinvent the wheel. Stone, Russian River, and Dogfish Head have really set the gold standard with a little bit lighter colored, a little bit lighter body but really more focusing on bitterness and citrus hops. I wanted to make something that tied in with the rye malts we’d be using and tied in to Lenny Bruce as a comedian who had a sweetness to his sensibility. That’s why I called it Bittersweet Lenny’s. He had such a bittersweet life and was such a strong icon and an important thinker. With the RIPA it worked out perfectly being able to use twenty percent rye malt, it’s ten percent alcohol, and it’s the only beer label in the country that has the word “schmuck” on it.


Your kosher beers perhaps illustrate who you are to who you aspire to be? And what are some of the brewers who have meant a lot to you or other beer-minded people who you have emulated?

JC: Well, when I started ten years ago, obviously brands like Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam already had rock star status in Northern California. North Coast and Anderson Valley, too. He’Brew was brewed at Anderson Valley for six and a half years. They made the beer for me. Now I am brewing with Mendocino Brewing Company. They are kind of the innovators of the entire micro brewing movement. But more recently I’ve really enjoyed beers from people like Three Floyds in the Midwest, Dogfish Head, South Hampton in the East Coast...gosh…Bear Republish has always been a favorite of mine. They are from California, a small brewer with big flavors and ambitious ingredients.

As a brewer and a Hebrew yourself, where does the use of pomegranate come into play with some of your beers?

JC: When I started the company I wanted to incorporate Jewish tradition and Jewish culture into the liquid in addition to the shtick. And pomegranates have an incredible history in world history and Jewish culture specifically. They are listed as a sacred species in the Torah. So we hand squeezed pomegranates on the floor of my apartment and added it to the beer when I first started brewing. It wasn’t reasonable to do it when we made the beer available for commercial distribution, but after ten years, I was able to find really spectacular pomegranate juice. Then we started adding it to a special beer called Genesis 10:10 that evolved into Origin. It is the first beer in my second decade of having He’Brew. (The pomegranate) has an incredible tradition in world culture and it is a delicious fruit. It is something special and incredibly expensive. It’s a little bit of a pain to get, but it is worth it.

From your upbringing, what is your take on Portland culture?

JC: Being from the West Coast and Northern California, Portland has always been a beer Utopia with cutting edge flavors and styles as well as the culture that’s going on around it. (Craft beer) has become an excepted part of the food and hospitality industry, where in other places like the Midwest and New York, it is seen as something special or unusual. Here (in Portland) it is just totally excepted and absolutely expected that people should have great beer. It’s a double-edged sword, because it means people (in Portland) are really jaded and it takes a lot more to shock people’s taste buds and impress them, but at the same time, there is a larger percentage of the community that appreciates high quality craft beer and would be open and understanding of where I am coming from with all the He’Brew stuff…to have really high quality ingredients and delicious flavors.

Final question: What can the beer geeks expect from He’Brew in the fall and winter months to come?

JC: That’s a fun time for Shmaltz Brewing Company in general. We have Jewbelation 11, which we are just finishing up now. It has eleven malts, eleven hops, and will be eleven percent (ABV). Our tagline this year is “In 2007 He’Brew goes to eleven!” In the spring we’re going to be doing a strong ale that’s infused with fig, which is another sacred species from the Torah. At nine percent, it will be a knock-off mockumentary on a doppelbock style.

Real final question: With Jewbelation, how high can you go?

JC: We’re going to go to 13. It will be called Jewbelation Bar Mitzvahs. We also just started a new line for the East Coast that might make it out here called Coney Island. It’s a tribute to the Coney Island side show—the last surviving freak show in America. It’s a tribute to New York’s sensibility and spirit. We just put out Coney Island Lager, a delicious amber style lager. It is a complex recipe for a much more approachable beer. And we will be doing a whole line of beers tied into the theme. That will be coming out over the next two years.


Check out He’Brew’s bitter sweet website with more on the historical significance of the Pomegranate and other fun and interesting things at www.shmaltz.com