Middle Eastern brewers look to expand their market as the region starts to get a taste for better beers. Beer and barley have a long history in the Middle East, but drinking culture is not popular as it was in the era before Islam. But in Lebanon and Jordan, microbreweries have experienced spikes in popularity and notoreity and look to move into Europe and the rest of the Middle East.

BY: The Economist

MAZEN HAJJAR likes to say that barley was first domesticated—in the Middle East, mind you—for the purpose of brewing beer, not baking bread. Bread is now the region’s daily staple; beer barely registers. But the founder of 961, a Lebanese microbrewery, thinks there is a fertile market in the Fertile Crescent. “There is too much light fizzy tasteless stuff,” he says.

In Lebanon the trend is growing. Colonel Brewery in Batroun, a Christian seaside town, serves its beers in its garden and sells more to 70 Lebanese bars. Beirut Beer is another brand made by a winemaking family. Schtrunz is the latest to join, made by a family with Czech roots. But Lebanon is not the rest of the region. Is there room elsewhere?

Most Arabs are Muslim and most Muslims agree that the Koran bans alcohol. But not all of them shun it, and Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine have sizeable Christian populations. Brewers say there is room to grow. Beer is still underappreciated in a region where wine, arak and whisky hold sway.

In other Muslim countries, craft brews could replace bad beer. Egypt’s Stella and Sakara could use some competition, as could Morocco’s four tasteless local brands. If alcohol were allowed into Iran or Saudi Arabia, craft beers could displace secretly-produced (and often horrible) home-brews.

The biggest obstacles to wannabe brewers are the same ones that face any company trying to operate in the Middle East: red tape, lousy infrastructure and sluggish economies. When 961 started to look for export markets, sending a sample abroad with DHL required special government permission. Electricity is unreliable. Carakale took two years to get permission to set up.

The lure of expanding into virgin territory outweighs those concerns for now, says Jamil Haddad, the founder of Colonel. “I thought about opening in London or Europe,” he says. “But here it’s a new concept and I can do something unique.”