Multiple shades of amber

This article is part of an Executive special report on beer, wine and arak. Read more stories as they’re published here, or pick up October’s issue at newsstands in Lebanon. To many Lebanese, Almaza has been synonymous with beer. Ask for a beer at a bar or restaurant, and it was a chilled bottle of Almaza that you invariably got. But the Heineken-owned Brasserie Almaza’s monopolistic grip over the beer market is over. The omnipresent Almaza is no longer the only large scale brewer in the country, with Kassatly Chtaura’s Beirut Beer having hit the shelves this summer, while a third commercial brewery is in the works. The craft beer, or microbrewery, scene that has been dominated by Gravity Brewing’s 961 Beer since 2006, also has a new contender with Colonel Beer launched in July. It is boom times for beer drinkers — provided you like lager.  A lager market Kassatly’s