Jerusalem Brewing Co. revives craft beer scene with local community focus

Jerusalem Brewing Co. reopened craft beer’s foothold in Jerusalem from a familiar corner of Talpiot, taking over the same facility that once housed Herzl Beer and later Hatch Brewery. The new operation opened at the start of 2026, and by May it had already brewed four beers, with a fifth lager expected soon. In a city where beer culture has long been present but never easy to scale, the brewery’s pitch is bigger than a tap list: it is trying to turn curiosity into repeat demand.

Brothers Eitan Nidam, 38, and Oren Nidam, 45, run the brewery day to day after moving from Westchester, New York, with no prior background in beer culture or homebrewing. Eitan kept his digital-marketing job while Oren went full-time at the brewery, a split that fits a start-up trying to build both a product and an audience at the same time. The business is backed by a consortium of 10 family and friend investors, and the brothers said their main shareholders are women or soldiers, active-duty or reservists, which gives the launch a distinctly local social base.

The beer lineup leans into place-based branding and broadly accessible styles. Shel Zahav Golden Ale, Jerusalem Syndrome Stout, Holy Roller IPA and HaSadna Amber Ale form the core range, with the incoming lager expected to widen the appeal further. That mix suggests a brewery reading the market carefully: a golden ale and amber ale for approachable pint drinkers, a stout for the darker end of the spectrum, and an IPA for the crowd that still wants hop bite. In a market still defining itself, style choice is strategy.

Jerusalem Brewing Co. is also selling like a neighborhood startup that knows distribution begins at the barstool. The brothers have gone bar by bar and restaurant by restaurant to place the beers, while also chasing bars, restaurants, retail stores, catering companies and private events, including private-label beers for weddings, celebrations and company happy hours for hi-tech firms. It is an outreach model built on face time, not just packaging, and that matters in a city where a brewery has to create its own habit before it can count on one.

Jerusalem’s beer story has always had a small but notable footprint. Herzl Beer once produced around 7,000 bottles a month, and a 2015 snapshot described Israel as having about 80 beers from a few dozen breweries, compared with roughly 1,300 breweries and more than 5,000 brands in Germany. Jerusalem still has its annual Beer Festival in Independence Park and a deeper regional beer history than many casual drinkers realize, but Jerusalem Brewing Co. is trying to do something more immediate: make local craft beer part of the city’s everyday routine, one pint at a time.