Yeast is East

 

“I want to democratise beer.” It may not be the most fitting conversation opener in the history of Starbucks. But on an early summer’s day on Hamra Street, with the assembled Beirutis trying their utmost to ignore the gathering insanity erupting in various corners of their country and engage in whatever normality is still available, maybe talking about beer is a healthy prescription. And it’s certainly more calming than a $5 coffee and a brittle blueberry muffin. Mazen Hajjar’s goal is simple: to give Lebanese beer drinkers more than a totalitarian choice of one. Beirut, he believes, needs more than just al-Maza.

 

“Sometimes you don’t just want a pilsner, sometimes you want a stout or a bitter,” Mazen says, sweeping a disobedient frond of hair back over his ear and trying to stir away the mountain of froth in a voluminous cappuccino that has, considering his theme, become slightly anachronistic. “We just want to give people an option. And I personally believe that beer is an alternative to fine wine; you can do food and beer pairings – an Indian pale ale with your curry, a chocolate stout with your dessert. There are so many different beers out there, but in Lebanon we only get to drink one.

 

“I love the micro-brews in the States,” he continues, working up a thirst that might require more than a coffee to quench. “There’s Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn Brewery, Anchor Steam, so many delicious beers. It’s the same anywhere in the world. Even Carlsberg are launching a micro-brewery to try and fight off the competition. I don’t think the big breweries can continue to persuade people to drink crappy beer.”

 

And so Mazen developed has Viva, a new brand of local brew that is clinking its way onto the nation’s shelves and doubling his compatriots’ choice. In fact, Viva will increase the choice by more than a factor of ten; being launched at the same time is the first of his sophisticated lounge-style micro-brewery bars, the first in the Middle East. Once open, they will produce special beers on demand. Whether you have a taste for a stout, a bitter, a lager or a Belgian-style wheat beer with loads of grain still floating around in it, then Mazen’s micro-breweries will be sure to offer it – home-brewed in front of your eyes. 

 

To do it, Mazen as created a very simple business plan. Viva will provide a range of around 10 specialised beers, all made with the highest-calibre ingredients, and sell them both in their bars – more are planned across Lebanon – and in exclusive stores. They are not interested in being mass market, so al-Maza needn’t be looking over its shoulder just yet. A head brewery will make the popular stuff, and the bottled beers for retail, while the pubs themselves will brew the specials on a weekly basis. 

 

“Mass-produced beer, especially lager, is designed to appeal to everybody,” he says, pointing his scorn more at the big American breweries like Coors and Budweiser than his domestic rivals. “They make a point of saying it should be served ice-cold, that’s their strategy. But if you’re serving ice-cold beer, by definition it’s got no flavour! Even if it had great ingredients to begin with, nothing will come through at -3 degrees. 

“The big brands work. When you’re on the beach and you want to quench your thirst, then those beers are perfect. I’m not saying anyone’s a moron for making that choice. But I want Viva to be the corner delicatessen of beers, not the supermarket. The home-cooked burger versus Macdonalds.”

 

“I was talking to one of my best friends, a Danish guy called Henrik Hage, about what I wanted to do next,” he says, describing a Beirut lads night out back in October 2005. “And I casually said that I wanted to make beer. I had approached a brewing equipment manufacturer in 2001 just to see what it involved, so it was an idea I had always had. But I shelved it for a while as I concentrated on an airline business.

 

Mazen isn’t simply the business brains behind the project. He’s also the head brewer. He took a course in master-brewing in Canada, and has been working with two other local brewers and a micro-biologist. Having been helped in the early phases by a former brewmaster at Carlsberg and a former brewmaster of LaBatts, he is now on his own. 

 

Viva is set to welcome its first customers in early August. If it succeeds in embodying Mazen’s enthusiasm, it will probably be the hit of the year. Ultimately, though, Mazen wants only one thing to be the winner. Lebanese beer. “I want people to understand that it just isn’t for hooligans,” he concludes. “I guess we’re just trying to make beer sexy.”

 

For the full version of this article, see NOX14.