Bethlehem's Festive Beer

Article by: Amelia Thomas, December 2007

Christmas in Bethlehem: it's all choirs, churches and Father Christmas look-alikes. In Manger Square, beside which, in the Grotto of the Nativity, Jesus is said to have been born, the lights are lit, the tree goes up, and the plastic Santas in gift shop windows jiggle their hips mirthfully.

But here, in the largely Muslim and teetotal West Bank, neither sherry nor mulled wine are the choice of festive drink. Instead, the Middle East's only microbrewery, in the nearby picturesque Christian hillside village of Taybeh, is busy churning out its own brand of festive cheer.

In the brewery's corrugated production shed, bottles clink as they make their way around an automated conveyor belt. Workers check bottle tops and straighten labels. The walls are dotted with advertisements for the brewery's Taybeh Beer, icons of Jesus, and photographs of grinning founder Nadim Khoury. Khoury himself, in Taybeh-logo t-shirt and shorts, is busy in the gift shop, where ashtrays, mugs, bumper stickers, and the amber nectar itself, can be purchased.

'It started out as a hobby,' explains Khoury, as he checks on the morning's sweet-smelling progress. 'In 1979 I went to live and study in Boston and got hooked on home-brew through some student friends. Every year when I came home to visit my family, I brought a few home-brew kits back with me. Then, when the first intifada Palestinian uprising broke out just before Christmas 1987, Palestinians started boycotting Israeli products - which meant that Christians wouldn't drink their beer. Immediately, my father and grandfather suggested manufacturing a Palestinian replacement. By 1995 I had returned from the USA with a degree in brewery engineering and a permit to begin production.'

These days, the village sees profits rather than prophets.

It wasn't long before Taybeh launched as a family business - it remains so today - and soon expanded to four varieties: gold, dark, amber and light. A non-alcoholic version is set to be introduced to the local market, to overcome retail barriers in the 'dry' sectors of the Middle East. 'Gaza, for example,' says Khoury, 'is alcohol-free under Hamas, so we've lost our outlets there. But with this non-alcoholic version, we can reconquer the local market.'

And is it true that, to appeal to - or appease - Hamas, the new labels are green, their trademark colour? 'Money is also green,' Khoury smiles evasively, 'Grass is green. The world is green. Green is beautiful.'

But in Taybeh, green isn't quite as beautiful as the golden result of a combination of imported Belgian and French malt barley, Czech and Bavarian hops, Palestinian spring water and local knowledge. 'There are five reasons to drink Taybeh,' explains Khoury. 'It's fresh, local, natural, premium quality, and made of the finest ingredients.' Add to this the bonus that it's helping, in some way, the beleaguered Palestinian economy, and it makes the perfect tipple for connoisseurs of conscience.

Though Taybeh is the only brewery operating in the Palestinian Territories, alcohol production itself isn't a complete anomaly here. Arak, a strong aniseed-flavoured liquor, is still produced in some parts of Ramallah, while wine also has a history in the region. 'In Biblical times, there were dozens of wineries in this area,' says Khoury, 'though nowadays, for a number of mostly political and economic reasons, there are only two.'

Taybeh itself has its own place in Biblical history, slightly later than the Christmas story itself. This small sleepy village of barely 2000 is said to be the location of Biblical Ephraim, which Jesus visited in the New Testament's John 11:54 ('...he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples') and whose name was changed to its current incarnation by Saladin in 1187.

These days, the village sees profits rather than prophets. It hosts the annual Taybeh 'Oktoberfest', which this year attracted some 10,000 visitors, many of whom bought handicrafts and produce and stayed on for lunch, raking in much-needed funds for local cottage industries. Later, one falafel vendor arrived at Khoury's front door just to give him a hug. He had, he explained, sold more falafel in one day than in the entire year before. Another local vendor of honey, pollen and Royal Jelly has now managed to sell his products further afield because 'people have heard of Taybeh: this brewery has put us on the map.' Even the product itself helps locals, with the spent grain, a by-product of beer production, feeding farmers' animals.

Chirac has drunk it, Suha Arafat (Yasser Arafat's wife) has drunk it - everyone's drinking it.

'Thank God, we're doing well,' grins Khoury, whose brew is now being produced for the German market under license in Germany, is regularly exported to Tokyo, and is even enjoyed in a number of bars in Tel Aviv. 'Chirac has drunk it, Suha Arafat (Yasser Arafat's wife) has drunk it - everyone's drinking it.'

Meanwhile, back in Bethlehem, a festive dram or two of Taybeh can be enjoyed in a number of places, particularly in hotel bars. And back on the street, those electronic Santas keep gyrating along to piped carols - apparently without touching a drop.