Q. Our minhag is to drink beer at the seuda of the fruits on Tu Bishvat, since it contains barley which is one of the Seven Species that should be eaten on that day. Do you make a shehakol when you drink it, since you are supposed to drink wine at the beginning of the meal and the bracha on it would include all liquids and exempt them from a brocho. Can you make a bracha on apple sauce for shehakol then?
What is then the correct seder of the brachot on that meal?
A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that one should not recite a brocho on the beer if he already drank wine.
He also should not recite a shehakol on the apple sauce or similar, since it may be also include in the Haetz blessing recited before on the fruits.
The right seder of the brochos should be Hamotzi or Mezonos (for wheat products), Hagefen for the wine, Haetz on olives, followed by dates, grapes, figs and pomegranates. Then recite a Shehakol on a piece of fish or similar and include the beer.
The Rov emphasized that one should keep the minhagim and traditions of his family and community.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as advised by Horav Shlomo Miller and Horav Aharon Miller Shlit’a