Taybeh Brewery

Taybeh Brewery was co-founded in 1994, shortly after the signing of the first Oslo Accords in 1993, by Nadim Khoury and his brother David. Their family originated in Taybeh, but they grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, where their family ran a liquor store. In the 1980s, as a college student at Hellenic College in Brookline, Nadim began making his own beer in the basement of the dorm where he lived. He subsequently took up formal studies in brewing at UC Davis in California, eventually graduating with a master's degree. The establishment of the Taybeh Brewery was funded with $1.5 million of the Khoury family's own money, as banks refused to lend to them, and the family got the seed capital for Taybeh by selling their property in Brookline. The idea of a Palestinian brewery was controversial in 1994, as Palestinian society is predominantly Muslim, and alcohol consumption is culturally disapproved of, but Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was an early supporter of the brewery on the grounds that it would help break Palestine's dependence on alcohol imported from Israel. Arafat's support is believed to have been instrumental in enabling the brewery to be established. However, Taybeh beer was also certified as kosher by a rabbi from the Ofra settlement shortly after its founding, and 70% of its sales before the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000 were to Israelis. As a result, sales plunged, with revenue falling by over 90% by 2002, However, it continues to face obstacles imposed by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and control of the ports. Taybeh continues to rely on Israeli ports for importing raw materials and exporting 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 and other constraints has made it difficult for Taybeh to compete, and its beer kegs have been cut open by the Israeli authorities on occasion and their containers sent back. A disparity in water access in the West Bank brought about by continued Israeli settlement expansion means that Taybeh has concerns about its future water supply. Although it is able to use water from a local spring, the business expects the water scarcity to limit its international expansion. ==Milestones==

In 1997, Taybeh beer became the first Palestinian product to be franchised in Germany, where it was brewed and bottled for sale in Europe. In 2008, an Australian named Lara van Raay produced a documentary called Palestine, Beer and Oktoberfest Under Occupation, which focuses on the Taybeh Brewery and the Khoury family. The Taybeh Brewing Company was highlighted in the January/February 2010 Issue of the fine beverage publication Mutineer Magazine. In 2012, Taybeh opened a winery, which produces Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon red wines. The winery, which was established with the help of an Italian winemaker, has been run by Nadim Khoury's son Canaan since he graduated from Harvard in 2013 with an engineering degree. though their beer is sold in other stores around Massachusetts and in Rhode Island. Taybeh had been attempting to sell their beer in America since at least 2005, when it was first approved for sale in the US, , 60% of Taybeh's sales are in Israel and the West Bank, down from 70% in the West Bank alone in 2010. ==Beers==

, there are six varieties of Taybeh Beer: Golden, Light, Dark, Amber, Non-alcoholic, and White. Golden, which is 5% alcohol by volume (ABV) is the original variety. The Dark and Light beers (6% and 3.5% ABV, respectively) were introduced for the 2000 celebrations in the Holy Land. An Amber variety (5.5% ABV) was launched in 2007. A non-alcoholic beer variety was introduced in 2008 specifically for the local Palestinian Muslim market. Taybeh White (3.8% ABV), a Belgian-style wheat beer, was launched in 2013. ==See also==