The BeerVasion

The BeerVasion

First of all I wanted to point that beer, for the Middle-East community in particular the Lebanese one, is the one and the only blonde that is almaza which literally means diamond in Arabic. So I wanted to clear something, like I cleared the megapixel myth. The nose receptors combined with the tongue can generate infinite amount of flavors when the signal is transmitted to our brains.

In these infographics below you can clearly see how much the taste and smell are complicated. With this complexity each human being has his own favorite combination. We all have the same mechanism but the interpretation in our brains differs and sometimes the actual signal differs.
 It is a Pandora of infinite flavor generation.

Take it for example the preference of a perfume over another and how for some a perfume is awful but for other it is THE perfume that complete their senses.

Most if not all will skip the first part and acknowledge the fact that this process is super-complex.

Well now I'm gonna introduce you to a simplified complexity of beers, in short beers are either Lagers or Ales. The infographic below will clear up the ideas for you:

(Click for the big view)

Now let's talk Complex -- Now we're talking

So as you can see that there are thousands of beer styles crafted around the world. So beer as the wine has a wide variety of styles. Each style is crafted for the combination code that is unique to our individual brains. There is no equal, the more you taste and experiment the more you are likely to find that epic moment when you swallow that beer that matches you combination.

So now that the bubble has burst, Let's talk beer.

So to fool the consumer big companies tend to brew beers that are likable by most of the people, they don't vary the style because their ultimate goal is to create a robotic atmosphere that is focused on only one style of beer. So if you are stuck in your country with one style of beer for years any outsider is immediately alienated because of the doctrine created by the big company.

The problem is that at first the consumer did not know that he has a choice... like in wine. In Lebanon all are know-it-all in wines but as for the beers their only information is restrained to the 3 syllable word al-ma-za.

The first guy to burst to bubble was Mazen. He is one of the true Lebanese patriots, He doesn't care about politics nor the religions. He only care about uniting people and making a Beer-name for Lebanon across the mountains and the oceans. Long story short he created a truly Lebanese beer from the premium ingredients shipped all the way from the United Kingdom and Germany.

He named his beer 961beer, +961 being the international telephone code for Lebanon.

My favorite style, the Red Ale. 

Mazen with the premium hops

961 Beer Heart

 Mazen, The C.E.O of 961beer is like any normal Lebanese but turns into an energetic lightbulb when he talks about beer. In his office he has put all his card on the table telling me that has no secrets to the world. In fact he wants the other to know what he's got so he can work on the next big thing. This way he has a constant rotation of beer styles hence covering bit by bit different combination in each and one of us

And that's me Meeting at last the Biermeister

   

Malt from Deutshcland

 So Mazen chose the Reinheitsgebot which in german means the German Beer Purity Law. This law only permitted water, hops and malt as beer ingredients. So there's no additives like Maize which you can find in Almaza, hence by this law Alamaza isn't suppose to be called a beer. 

Of course you can choose to ignore this law, and trick the consumer by using low grade material so you can sell more! Big companies are all about money, Craft-beer brewers are all about Beer Premium Quality.

This 961beer is the Kissmeyer, it is only shipped to Danemark making a name for Lebanon in the heart of Europe. Besides 961beer can be found all the way from the USA to Australia passing by Honk kong

 961 beer has internationally 12 different style. Lebanon is too young for the hole gamut because people still don't know that there is a choice... there is democracy in beer too. You can dislike all of the 961 beer style ONLY if you have tasted each and one of them. Mazen wants to introduce variety into the market and ultimately his goal is to target the wide variety of combination with a wide variety of different beer style.

The beer styles in Lebanon include : Lager, Red ale, Witbier, Porter, Lebanese pale ale, American IPA, 

Here you can find a hint of Irland, Irish stout produced only for the Saint Patrick's Day

Jean studying the label because of the distinctive taste of the Lebanese Pale Ale. This pale ale is amazing in its variety of tastes that you can feel.

The interesting part between me and the 961beer, is that this photograph caught their attention via twitter. So they contacted and offered me free beers as well as they want to buy some of my photographs for their ads because, like me, Mazen and Thomas (his partner in 961beer) like to see the complexity there is in one simple clean neat shot.

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Here I introduced the 961Beer to my friend, quickly each one of them hocked up for a beer style and screamed for more beer ! 

So much for the mouth and nose, pore the beer directly into the Brains !

Panoramic shot of Beer Styles.

 

Thanks to Mazen And Thomas the Beer kept poring that amazing weekend ! 

A porter Bottle tanning in the sun

I hope know that the beer myth isn't a myth anymore and you should all get out there and experiment the styles that is offering 961beer, you can find the beer in big supermarkets like TSC and Spinnies. Hopefully we can find this beer in our little dekeneh here in the bekaa valley. It only takes one epic moment with this beer to change your beerknowledge forever.

Common Is Boring, so why 961beer should be common?

Hope You enjoyed the photographs, you can see more of my photography work on my page on facebook

Sincerely yours Vlad ... Or Chedded ;)

found this interesting pictogram, nations classified by drinks ;) :