News Shmaltz Brewing to End 25 Years of Brewing with Farewell Tour

The end of an era as “the biggest, the smallest, most award-winning, and still the only Jewish beer company in America,” Shmaltz Brewing Company announces its farewell from the brewing scene after 25 years in business.

Owner/founder Jeremy Cowan began in 1996 by hand-delivering 100 cases of its “HE’BREW – The Chosen Beer” out of his grandmother’s Volvo. From those early years of self-distributing to growing to 45 wholesalers nationally, Shmaltz served as an unusual example and vocal advocate for contract brewing before opening its own 50-barrel production brewery in Upstate New York. Shmaltz expanded production to over 30,000 barrels by then contracting for other national and regional beer brands in addition to brewing their own Shmaltz portfolio.

Shmaltz will celebrate its farewell season with the first and final release of Bittersweet Lenny’s RIPA and a fitting tribute, Exodus 2021 Barleywine Ale.

Jeremy is taking his company out with a bang with a nationwide “Farewell to Shmaltz Tour, a.k.a. the Class of ’96 Celebration a.k.a. Let My People Brew a.k.a. The No Shmucks Tour,” which kicked off at the Craft Brewers Conference 2021 in Denver earlier this month.

The tour continues September 24 in downtown Troy, NY before continuing on to NYC, San Francisco, Philly, DC and Tampa. See the dates and details here.

All said, the tour is a farewell but not a goodbye. Cowan will focus on Alphabet City Brewing Company, the 518 Craft Tasting Room in Upstate NY, and expanding consulting projects.

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