How a French Brewery Creates One of the Best Beers In the World

Dec 17, 2022 | Which countries are known for their beers? Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic - and France? Yes, the French created some international award-winning beers in recent years. We show you how the Cap d'Ona brewery from the south of France created the world's best dark beer in 2022.

Qatar Bans Beer Sales at World Cup Stadiums

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The about-face on alcohol could violate a multimillion-dollar FIFA sponsorship agreement, and signaled that soccer’s governing body may no longer be in full control of its showcase event.

DOHA, Qatar — Beer is out at the World Cup.

In an abrupt about-face, Qatari officials have decided that the only drinks that will be on sale to fans at stadiums during the monthlong World Cup will be nonalcoholic.

The decision, which came two days before the tournament’s opening match, was confirmed on Friday by FIFA, the tournament’s owner.

“Following discussions between host country authorities and FIFA, a decision has been made to focus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the FIFA Fan Festival, other fan destinations and licensed venues,” FIFA announced. The decision, it said, would mean “removing sales points of beer from Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters.”

The ban on beer is the latest and most dramatic change to an evolving alcohol plan that has for months increased tensions between FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, and Qatar, a conservative Muslim nation where the sale of alcohol is tightly controlled. But it also will complicate FIFA’s $75 million sponsorship agreement with Budweiser; infuriate fans already chafing at restrictions, costs and inconveniences around the event; and once again leave organizers scrambling to adjust — this time only 48 hours before the tournament’s opening game on Sunday. » | Tariq Panja | Friday, November 18, 2022

Revealed: Qatar has spent £440,000 hosting British MPs since 2012: openDemocracy analysis reveals extent of Qatar’s charm offensive in the decade leading up to the World Cup »

Coupe du monde 2022 : la consommation d’alcool bannie aux abords des stades à deux jours du coup d’envoi : Dans un revirement de dernière minute, le Qatar a décidé de restreindre davantage l’accès à l’alcool en marge du Mondial. »

Qatar setzt Bierverbot rund um WM-Stadien durch: 48 Stunden vor dem WM-Auftakt setzt sich Gastgeber Qatar doch noch durch: Rund um die Stadien wird kein Alkohol verkauft. Für die Fans ist es kurz vor dem Turnierstart die nächste Umstellung. »

Beer And Tobacco Are Kinda Good For You

By now, I’m sure we all know what the negative side effects of drinking and smoking are. Are there any positive ones?

A Drinker's Guide to Islam

THE GUARDIAN: A Palestinian beerfest is not as bizarre as it seems. Alcohol has long been a tolerated aspect of Muslim culture

If I said that we went to an Oktoberfest last weekend, readers may wonder why I am writing about it. If I added that the beer festival in question was in the West Bank and there we encountered a couple of self-deprecating young Germans dressed in lederhosen, some may start asking themselves what I've been drinking, or perhaps smoking.

To add to the bizarreness of the situation, this Oktoberfest, the seventh of its kind, took place not in hip Ramallah but in the remote village of Taybeh, perched picturesquely at 850m above sea level and with a population of just 1,500. Moreover, readers in western countries may wonder why thousands upon thousands of revellers had trekked all that way to attend a beer festival with only one beer on tap.

Secular Palestinians, expats and even leftist Israelis equipped with glasses of Taybeh beer wandered around food and handicraft stands, watched traditional Dabke dancers, modern music, comedy and theatrical performances.

Despite its remoteness and tiny proportions, Taybeh has earned its place on the cultural and social map as being the location of the only Palestinian beer brewery. It has battled the restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism to become a rare Palestinian business and cultural success story.

This may explain why Taybeh once adopted "Taste the revolution" as its advertising slogan. And, judging by its micro-brewery quality, the revolution tastes pretty good.

The very existence of Taybeh overturns the stereotype associated with Palestinians – and Arabs in general – as teetotal, fanatical Muslims. This caricature has been reinforced since Hamas's takeover of Gaza, where the Islamist party has imposed a de facto ban on alcohol, though bootlegging has become a popular, if risky, pastime.

There are those who will protest that Taybeh is the exception that proves the rule. After all, it is the only Palestinian brewery, and it is owned and run by Christians. But the absence of local competitors has more to do with the difficulty of setting up a viable business in the Palestinian territories, which requires a certain foolhardiness and courage – and, anyway, most of the people who drink Taybeh are Muslims. » | Khaled Diab | Saturday, October 08, 2011

Still Brewing in a Dry Land: Pakistan's Only Beer and Whisky Firm
THE INDEPENDENT: After 150 years, business is booming at Pakistan's only beer and whisky firm. Andrew Buncombe finds out why

An employee of the Murree brewery, which has ambitions to export its beer to Britain. Photo: The Independent
On the walls of the historic Murree brewery, Pakistan's sole producer of beer, hangs a slogan that its owners would wish upon the entire country. "Eat, drink and be Murree," puns the poster, seemingly produced in the 1970s.

Understandably, making beer and whiskey in a Muslim country, where 97 per cent of the population is officially banned from enjoying your products, has never been an easy business. Non-Muslims are exempt from the ban, but even for them obtaining a drink can be complicated: some five-star hotels require foreigners to affirm in writing that they are non-Muslims and will be responsible for anything that happens when they are under the influence before they can order a drink.

And amid the upsurge of militant violence of the last two years that has seen the Taliban attacking targets across the country, setting fire to girls' schools and even banning the sale of videos and DVDs, common sense might suggest that the fortunes of this establishment, which celebrates its 150th anniversary next year, might be on the wane. Yet the opposite is happening: sales are booming – embarrassingly so.

"Sales are good," said Isphanyar Bhandara, the brewery's 36-year-old chief executive, "but we don't want to shout about it because that also brings negative publicity and criticism, because this is a Muslim country – and yet sales are growing." >>> Andrew Buncombe | Thursday, November 05, 2009

Murree Brewery of Pakistan


Watch another video on the Murree Brewery here

Touring the Horrible: A Guide to Germany's Darkest Places
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL : Beer, bratwurst and lederhosen are an undeniable part of German culture. But so too is the country's brutal 20th century history. SPIEGEL ONLINE takes you to 11 of the country's most unsettling sites.

The Vogelsang Fortress -- Ideology Cast in Stone

Bundestrasse 266, starting at the German town of Gemünd not far from the border with Belgium, winds out of the town and up onto a high plateau. Before long, past a small town called Morsbach, you will come to an inconspicuous turnoff. The drive takes you through beautiful woodland past bright blue lakes. But it is a beauty that lies in direct contrast with the journey's endpoint: Vogelsang Castle, one of the Nazis' elite training schools.

Open to the public only since January 2006, the complex is sprawling and confusing, the fortification full of nooks and crannies. Indeed, most opt for a guide to point out the most important sights.

Photo Gallery: Germany's Darkest Places >>>

Under the direction of Robert Ley's German Workers Front (DAF), one of three elite training centers took shape on the Eifel Ridge beginning in 1934. It was designed as an investment in the Nazi party's future, where the next generation of Hitlers was to be formed. Sport formed an important part of the curriculum, as did racial theory and geo-politics.

The 500 students -- a number which eventually grew to 1,000 -- were known as "NS-Junkers", and were housed in sparsely furnished barracks. The complex was taken over by the armed forces at the outbreak of war and subsequently used to accommodate the troops during the Ardennes Offensive and the push into France.

The differing national attitudes towards a place that is connected with National Socialism is rarely as obvious as here. While the English, say tour guides, are most concerned with understanding the complex from a pragmatic viewpoint, and the Americans are the first to ask how often the "German Führer" visited Vogelsang, the Germans on the other hand feel duty bound to find a politically correct justification for their own curiosity. They say they feel "committed to the past, … >>> | Friday, October 23, 2009

Model Who Drank Beer to Be First Woman Caned in Malaysia
THE TELEGRAPH: Muslim model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno has become the first woman in Malaysia to be sentenced to a caning after being caught drinking beer in a beach resort.

The 32-year-old will receive six lashes at a woman's prison next week in what is being viewed as an example of the growing influence of Islamic hardliners on the country.

The mother-of-two who lives in Singapore with her husband, paid a fine of £860, but declined to lodge an appeal so she could get the punishment over with and put the episode behind her.

The harsh sentence has provoked anger among women's rights groups who fear it is another sign of the creeping influence of conservative Islam on Malaysian society.

In the northern backwater state of Kalentan ruled by the hardline Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, authorities have decreed that supermarkets must have separate checkout queues for men and women and beaches be segregated.

Young couples caught sitting too close together on park benches in the state capital, Kota Baru, are hunted down by the city's moral enforcers and fined up to £285 in Sharia courts.

The Islamic alcohol prohibition laws in Malaysia's eastern Pahang state date back more than two decades. But Malaysian-born Kartika, who now has Singaporean citizenship, is the first woman to fall foul of them.

She was arrested in July last year in a hotel nightclub in the beach resort of Cherating during a raid by the state's religious department and admitted drinking beer.

An Islamic court fined her and ordered her to be caned at Kajang women's prison next week, but spared her a jail term of up to three years.

She received word of the sentence from her father and said she would be returning to Malaysia from Singapore.

"I accept the punishment," she said. "I am not afraid because I was ready to be punished from day one. [The authorities] hope to use my case as a way to educate Muslims. So go ahead. I want to move on with my life." >>> Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok | Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Obama’s Beer Fails to Cool Fiery Race Row
THE SUNDAY TIMES: The president’s reaction to the arrest of a black scholar has dented his reputation and distracted Obama during a tough week

THEY are calling it bar-stool diplomacy – a novel attempt by President Barack Obama to cool a heated racial controversy by inviting the offended parties to settle their differences over a beer at the White House.

Yet the president’s efforts to limit the fallout from a row over the arrest last week of Henry Louis Gates Jr, a black Harvard professor, may serve to extend a furore that has shaken the White House and raised questions about Obama’s vaunted leadership skills.

The row showed no sign of diminishing yesterday as Massachusetts media pressed for the release of police tapes that could shed new light on the angry exchanges between Gates and Sergeant James Crowley, a white officer who arrived at the professor’s Cambridge home to investigate a report of a break-in.

The incident led to a rare breakdown of Obama’s previously impressive political judgment. Having spent much of the past two years steering clear of racial controversy and nurturing an image of so-called “postracial” conciliation, the president plunged unexpectedly into the Gates affair.

He declared on Wednesday, when it was still far from clear what had happened, that the Massachusetts police had “acted stupidly” by arresting Gates, whom Obama described as a personal friend.

By Friday evening, Obama was back-pedalling furiously and his invitation to Gates and Crowley to join him for a beer was interpreted as an acknowledgment by the president that he had spoken too hastily in “maligning” the police. “I could have calibrated those words differently,” he said. >>> Tony Allen-Mills in Washington | Sunday, July 26, 2009

Sudan Enjoys Cool Beer Thanks to SAB Miller after Long Dry Season
TIMESONLINE: Since the imposition of Islamic law 25 years ago, having a cool beer in Sudan meant running the risk of 40 lashes. Today SAB Miller is preparing to open a brewery in the south of the country.

The company, one of the largest brewers in the world, plans to create a new beer and is investing £25 million in the plant, in Juba, the capital of south Sudan, which is governed by mainly Christian former rebels.

“We will not only be consuming but producing alcohol,” Samson Kwaje, the Agriculture Minister of south Sudan, said at the launch.

Tension is running high between north and south over disputed oilfields, with both sides apparently arming for war. To the southern politicians, who have an eye on full independence, the new beer is a statement of identity as much as a thirst-quencher.

When the Government in Khartoum introduced Sharia in 1983, alcohol was banned throughout the country. The imposition of Islamic law sparked an uprising in the south, which turned into a 20-year civil war, pitting the Christian rebels against northern Muslims.

In a peace deal concluded in 2005, the rebels won the right to a semi-autonomous secular government. Freed from the shackles of Khartoum's Islamic regime, beer lovers were the first to notice a peace dividend.

Entrepreneurs on bicycles would ride the rutted roads to Uganda, bringing back as many crates of alcohol as they could carry. Today restaurants in Juba offer wines, beers and spirits. >>> Rob Crilly in Nairobi | December 15, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>