“We hope that we will make Abu Dhabi a vacation spot folks come to for beer.” (Representational)
Abu Dhabi:
Inside his Abu Dhabi gastro pub, Chad McGehee inspects shiny metal tanks fermenting a particular brew: the primary beer made within the conservative Arab Gulf, the place alcohol has lengthy been taboo.
The 42-year-old American is without doubt one of the founders of Craft pub within the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the one licensed microbrewery in a area that’s usually as dry as its desert local weather.
As they search to overtake their picture and economies in preparation for a post-oil future, some Gulf petro-states are enjoyable alcohol restrictions, with entrepreneurs akin to McGehee trying to profit from the adjustments.
Only a few hours’ drive from Abu Dhabi lies Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, which has only one licensed alcohol retailer, open solely to non-Muslim international diplomats.
Alcohol gross sales are closely restricted in Oman and Qatar and are outright banned in Kuwait, and in Sharjah, one of many UAE’s seven emirates and a neighbour to cosmopolitan Dubai.
“We hope that we will make Abu Dhabi a vacation spot folks come to for beer, like Germany, New York or San Diego,” McGehee informed AFP on a latest go to to Craft, as patrons sipped beer close by.
“We need to be a part of that.”
The UAE has steadily loosened legal guidelines round alcohol. Final 12 months, Dubai scrapped a 30 p.c tax on alcohol and eliminated prices on the permits that enable non-Muslims to make use of its licensed shops.
In 2021, Abu Dhabi grew to become the one emirate to permit licensed venues to brew on-site, stipulating that the beer be served solely on the premises.
Guidelines are slowly altering elsewhere: Saudi Arabia opened its retailer within the capital Riyadh this 12 months, prompting hypothesis it could additional chill out alcohol legal guidelines sooner or later.
Nevertheless, Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb informed AFP final month that the nationwide ban will stay in place.
‘No matter we discover on the souq’
McGehee based Facet Hustle Brews and Spirits in 2019, at that time providing the UAE’s first home-branded — albeit imported — beer.
After Abu Dhabi allowed brewing, he co-founded Craft, which gives between eight and 14 beers at a time, lots of them wealthy in native flavours akin to karak tea, a preferred drink within the Gulf.
“No matter we discover on the native souq (market), we attempt to make one thing out of it,” McGehee mentioned at Craft, the place beer faucets are linked on to the brewing tanks.
“Now we have used native honey, native dates, and low… we’ve one other (beer) that makes use of black tea and saffron and cardamom,” added McGehee, referring to the substances of karak tea.
Within the UAE, whose inhabitants of round 10 million is 90 p.c international, the sale and consumption of alcohol was as soon as confined to resort bars frequented by expatriates.
In accordance with Alexandre Kazerouni, affiliate professor at France’s Ecole Normale Superieure, the Gulf monarchies started to skew closely in the direction of conservatism and a dedication to faith after Iran’s shah was toppled within the Islamic revolution of 1979.
It was solely within the 2000s that Abu Dhabi, the dominant emirate in a rustic with greater than 9,000 mosques, started to domesticate a extra liberal picture, step by step enjoyable social curbs together with these round alcohol, which is forbidden in some interpretations of Islam.
The change of alcohol laws “breaks with the bans that have been consolidated within the ’80s and ’90s,” Kazerouni mentioned.
“There may be competitors… with Qatar and Saudi Arabia over who will embody change within the area,” he added.
Social gathering hub
Abu Dhabi, which goals to draw almost 40 million vacationers by 2030, up from 24 million final 12 months, can be competing with Dubai, famend because the UAE’s vacation and occasion hub which instructions a better worldwide profile.
Craft buyer Andrew Burgess, a Briton who has lived within the UAE for 17 years, mentioned he has watched the nation remodel earlier than his eyes.
When he first moved there, expatriates have been barred from consuming or ingesting in public throughout the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims quick from daybreak to nightfall.
“To come back to a bar, you needed to go at night-time after all the things was lined,” he mentioned.
All that has since modified, however Western attitudes in the direction of Gulf nations have but to catch up.
“If I’m going again to England, my mates say ‘How do you reside in a Muslim nation? Your spouse have to be suppressed and you may’t drink’,” Burgess informed AFP.
Microbreweries like Craft “will simply open their eyes”, he added.
“It is about reconstructing folks’s mindsets.”
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
