‘Nice to be free’ says Palestinian brewer after trip to Glasgow to launch beer

“It was nice to be free”, a Palestinian brewer has said of a recent trip to Scotland to launch a lager brewed in partnership with a Scottish company.

Madees Khoury travelled to the UK from the West Bank village of Taybeh in August, as part of the Taybeh Brewing Company’s collaboration with Glasgow-based firm Brewgooder.

During the visit Ms Khoury, who is the Middle East’s first and only female brewmaster, launched the lager Sun and Stone, which is is now stocked in more than 1,600 Co-Op stores.

All proceeds from sales of the drink are being used to support Taybeh’s community and the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Middle East Humanitarian Appeal.

The 40-year-old described her time in Scotland as “emotional”, and said she wept when she saw a pro-Palestine demonstration taking place in a Glasgow park.

“Living in Palestine and under the occupation, and going through all these struggles and difficulties and challenges with the road blocks and the settler attacks, and just being in your own bubble, you don’t see and you don’t feel the international support,” she explained.

“So, when I was in Glasgow, when I was walking around, I would see the Palestinian flag, and I would see demonstrations at the park.

“It was just very heart-warming, and I felt that we were not alone as Palestinians. It was an emotional trip.”

She also contrasted her everyday experience of Scotland with that of living in the occupied West Bank.

“It was nice to be free, and to be able to move around so easily, making plans and just going around,” she explained.

“Whereas in (Palestine) you plan something and then you might not make it on time because of the delays of checkpoints or traffic or roadblocks, or something might happen”.

During the trip, Ms Khoury joined Brewgooder co-founders James Hughes and Alan Mahon at the Glasgow brewery where Sun & Stone was brewed, and together they toured local pubs stocking the beer, as well as attending the launch night.

A mural by local signpainter Hana Lindsay was also unveiled at Park Lane Market in the city’s Southside, showing solidarity with Taybeh.

Ms Khoury said she received “lots of support” from the people she met during the visit, and that many were “surprised” to learn there were Christians in Palestine, and that people there drank alcohol.

She added that the lager itself – which she described as “a Palestinian, high quality, hand-crafted beer” – also helps promote awareness of “a different side of Palestine”.

“When they see Taybeh abroad, they want to know more about the business, about the product, about our challenges, our success stories, about Palestine and Palestinians,” she said.

“So, it’s not just great beer, but it’s also an image of Palestine, and this is what we’re working on.”

The Taybeh Brewing Company is currently working on doubling the capacity of its brewery in the West Bank, with a view to making more beer and expanding into new markets once the situation in the West Bank is “calm and peaceful”.

“We keep working in the hope of better times when the borders are open, when tourists return, when weddings and festivals are possible again,” Ms Khoury said.

“With the new brewery, we’ll be ready to brew more, to expand into non-alcoholic beers, and to keep telling a different story of Palestine.”

For now, she said, producing and exporting beer remains a challenge due to obstacles like road blocks, checkpoints, restrictions on importing and exporting goods, and attacks by Israeli settlers.

She said only last month an armed settler had been illegally ploughing land owned by her father and uncle “as if he owned it”.

“I did go to the mountains to film him, but I didn’t go anywhere near him, because I was too scared that he might shoot me, or kill me,” she said.

Despite the challenges, she said it was important to keep growing her family business, which was set up by her father and uncle in 1994.

“I don’t know if we’re naïve or we’re living in la-la land, but we have to continue to build and to grow and to invest,” she said.

“What else are we going to do — just be sitting ducks and wait until the Israelis kick us out or steal everything? If we stop, we’ll lose hope.”