The list even includes Burgundy, one of Beirut’s most popular wine-focused restaurants.įor owner and wine lover Ziad Mouawad, it was the exceptional and consistent quality of Elmir’s beers that granted them room in the fridge alongside some of the most esteemed wines in the world. The brewery now supplies numerous and diverse on-premise venues across the country. “Many youngsters, the generation between 20 and 35 years old that drinks craft beer, left the country, especially after the port explosion of 2020.” “But we were actually hit on another level,” Abinader is keen to point out. A later report claimed that nearly half of the country’s population had been pushed into poverty since Lebanon’s economic crisis started, nearly doubling the country’s poverty rate from 42% in 2019 to a staggering 82% in late 2021. The middle class, who are our potential craft beer consumers, reduced a lot because of the financial crisis.”Ī report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia showed how the middle class had indeed eroded significantly following the 2020 explosion at the Port of Beirut, with middle-income earners forming less than 40% of the population in 2020, compared to 57% a year earlier. Then, like all Lebanese businesses, we were hit quite badly by the social uprising and the financial crash. With candid honesty, Abinader admits that Lebanon’s ongoing challenges led his craft beer consumer base to shrink considerably. Also, payments are partly made through bank transfers, a dreaded solution in Lebanon’s current cash economy as, unless withdrawn immediately, revenues stuck in the bank devalue quickly. The retail channel is the most problematic as it tends to pay with a two-to-three-week delay, during which time exchange rates are likely to have widened. Once we get paid, we immediately buy dollars, on the same day,” says Abinader. Our clients pay us in Lebanese pounds, but always at the daily rate. Two years ago, we were one of the first and very few F&B suppliers to do so. dollars instead, ensuring they exchange whatever Lebanese pounds they might have received before close of business, every day. As a contingency measure, many price their goods and get paid in U.S. The Lebanese pound devaluates so quickly that businesses risk losing money overnight from their very own revenues. It’s different, not the IPA that you would taste elsewhere.”Īs for the supply end of the business, managing accounts and payments presents extra struggles largely unknown to brewers elsewhere. Elmir managed to create something that has the same quality standards of British and American beers, but is somehow made for the Lebanese palate. “Once they drink it, they keep going back to it, which never really happened with other Lebanese craft beers before. “When people visit my bar, they are always surprised to find a locally made IPA,” he says. The palate, however, is delicate-although with marked bitterness, balanced by just enough caramel from the malt.įor Imad Chalawit, who co-owns Jive Bar & Records in central Beirut, Elmir’s IPA is made to fit in with Lebanese culture. The IPA’s (5.5%) classic piney, spicy, orangey notes betray a certain West Coast inspiration. It has a fruit-forward nose of red grapes and plums that somehow reminds of a British Best Bitter, alongside delicate spicy notes from a sober use of US and UK hops. The Amber Ale (4.5%) is a nutty, savory, and caramelly session beer. With the right kit, the Elmir team managed to launch much of what eventually became its core range-an Amber Ale, an IPA, and a Wheat Beer-in November 2018. “That is when we bought an Italian brewhouse from TMCI EasyBräu.” We learned that one year later, when I contacted VLB Berlin and the German consultant told me that this was not ideal to get consistent beer,” says Abinader. The duo tapped food engineer, microbiologist, and fermentation expert Marc Bou Zeidan as the brewery’s third co-founder and kicked off the project with a humble 500-liter Braumeister kit in 2016. Once we were back in the taxi with our brew-which to be honest eventually turned out not very good-he said, ‘What do you think about opening a brewery in Lebanon?’ I was 21 at the time, I just said, ‘Yes, for sure!’ A year later we were planning everything and it was happening.” “I often traveled to the UK for work and Chris, who is my little cousin, was doing his research master at Imperial College London.”Ī trained brewer and chemist, co-founder Fadel manages the technical side of the operations: “Noël was there for a couple of days, so he suggested we went to a brewing masterclass at London Fields Brewery. “The first brew we ever made was in the UK, in London,” he says. From Barons to Barrels with Captain Pabst.Message in a Bottle with Brewery Ommegang.Beer is Labor with East Brother Beer Co.Let Go or Get Dragged by Jerard Fagerberg.Ferments at Low Temps by Stephanie Byce.
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