CREATION, 1996, C.E.: On the floor of a San Francisco Mission District loft, intimate friends squeeze luscious pomegranates by hand to brew the first 100 cases of the original HE’BREW beer. EVOLUTION: The culmination of the first decade of Shmaltz Brewing and a core offering for our second, ORIGIN renews this sacred covenant, sacrificing over 10,000 pomegranates for each precious hand-crafted batch. REVELATION, on-going: In Jewish tradition, pomegranates symbolize righteousness with seeds said to number 613, the total commandments in Torah. In Deut. 8:8, pomegranates, barley and wheat prove the bounty of the Land of Milk and Honey. The calyx atop the fruit inspired the original Jewish crown. One Persian hero of myth consumed a pomegranate and became invincible. Muhammad instructed: ’Eat the pomegranate, for it purges the system of envy and hatred.’ Newlywed Greeks eager for a family crush one under-heel for fertility. Buddha cured a child-devouring demoness of her evil habit by instructing her to eat a pomegranate. Whether for knowledge or temptation, for virtue or valor, for art or for love, revel in the sumptuous pleasure of ORIGIN. To life…L’Chaim!
