Taybeh Brewery facts for kids
Taybeh beer logo
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| Location | Taybeh, West Bank, Palestinian Territories |
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| Opened | 1994 |
| Key people | Nadim Khoury |
The Taybeh Brewery (which means "Delicious Brewery" in Arabic) is a special company in the Palestinian Territories. It was started in 1994 in a village called Taybeh, about 35 kilometers north of Jerusalem. This brewery is known for being the first Palestinian brewery and one of the very first small, independent breweries (called a microbrewery) in the Middle East. It even started about ten years before the first Israeli microbrewery!
Since Taybeh Brewery began, a few other small breweries have opened in the Middle East, including two more in Palestine: the Birzeit Brewery and Wise Men's Choice Brewery.
How it Started
Taybeh Brewery was founded in 1994 by two brothers, Nadim and David Khoury. Their family came from Taybeh, but the brothers grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, in the United States. While Nadim was a college student in the 1980s, he started making his own beer. He then went to UC Davis to study brewing and earned a master's degree.
The Khoury family used $1.5 million of their own money to start the brewery because banks would not lend to them. They sold their property in Brookline to get the money. The brewery made its first beer in 1995, and since then, people all over the world have enjoyed it.
Starting a brewery in Palestine in 1994 was a bit unusual because most people there are Muslim, and many do not drink alcohol. However, the Palestinian President at the time, Yasser Arafat, supported the brewery.
President Arafat's support was very important for the brewery to get started. Also, a rabbi (a Jewish religious leader) said that Taybeh beer was kosher, which means it followed Jewish dietary laws. Before 2000, about 70% of Taybeh's sales were to people in Israel. The brewery also needed to bring in its equipment and ingredients through Israel.
Challenges and Growth
Around 2000, a period of conflict known as the Second Intifada began. This caused many problems for Taybeh Brewery. Israel set up checkpoints and built a barrier between the port of Ashdod (where Taybeh imported its ingredients like hops, barley, and yeast) and the brewery.
These checkpoints and inspections made it very hard for Taybeh to get its raw materials. Sometimes, the brewery was charged a lot of money for delays at the port. For example, they once paid $6,000 for hold-ups on a $20,000 shipment of bottles. Nadim Khoury explained that shipments were delayed for security checks, and they were charged for these checks.
The barriers also made it difficult to ship beer to customers in Israel and other countries like Jordan. Travel times from the brewery to Jerusalem, which used to be 20 minutes, became several hours. Tourism in the area also dropped a lot because of the conflict. This was a big problem for Taybeh because many of its customers were visitors. As a result, sales fell by more than 90% by 2002, and Nadim had to let go of all 12 of his employees.
To keep the business going, Taybeh sold olive oil from a local church in Taybeh village to a company in Belgium. After the conflict ended in 2005, the brewery slowly recovered and grew to six employees. However, in 2007, the group Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip and stopped the sale of alcohol there, which was another challenge for Taybeh.
Since 2007, Taybeh has continued to recover and expand. By 2018, their beer was sold in at least 10 countries. However, they still face challenges from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and control over the ports. Taybeh still relies on Israeli ports to bring in materials and send out finished beer. Supplies that take two weeks to get from Europe to Israel can take another three months to reach the brewery in the West Bank.
The high cost of shipping due to checkpoints makes it hard for Taybeh to compete. Sometimes, Israeli authorities have even cut open their beer kegs. Also, there are concerns about water supply because of Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. Even though Taybeh uses water from a local spring, they worry that water shortages might limit their growth around the world.
Key Moments
- In 1997, Taybeh beer became the first Palestinian product to be made and sold under a special agreement (franchise) in Germany. This allowed it to be brewed and bottled for sale in Europe. Taybeh beer is also sent to Sweden, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
- In 2005, Taybeh started an annual Oktoberfest-style beer festival. This fun festival, called the Taybeh Beer Festival, happens at the beginning of October each year.
- In 2008, a documentary film called Palestine, Beer and Oktoberfest Under Occupation was made about the Taybeh Brewery and the Khoury family.
- In 2012, Taybeh opened a winery that makes Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon red wines. Nadim Khoury's son, Canaan, runs the winery after graduating from Harvard in 2013 with an engineering degree.
- In 2017, Taybeh beer and wine became available in the United States for the first time. The first store to sell it was Foley's, the liquor store the Khoury family used to own. Taybeh beer is now sold in other stores in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It took a while for Taybeh to sell their beer in America because of rules about what could be written on the labels. In the US, it is sold as "Product of the West Bank" instead of "Product of Palestine."
As of 2018, Taybeh beer is still sold in Israeli bars and clubs. However, selling Palestinian beers can sometimes be a sensitive topic in Israel. As of 2017, 60% of Taybeh's sales are in Israel and the West Bank.
