961 Beer — Brewing Against the Odds

The phone rang. Denmark calling.

Mazen Hajjar was ready to give up. Lebanon was at war, and the idea of opening a craft brewery in Beirut suddenly seemed impossible. He offered to return his Danish partner’s investment and walk away from the dream.

But Henrik had a different view. Rather than retreat, he saw a story taking shape — and gave it a tagline:

“Brewed under siege!”

There would be no quitting. This was the moment to capture the story.

Later, interviewed by Greg Kitsock of The Washington Post, Mazen Hajjar recalls:

It was July 2006. The 34-day war between Hezbollah and Israel was tearing the country apart.

“So, I’m sitting on my balcony and bombs are falling, and I open… the book Beer School, the autobiography of Steve Hindy and Tom Potter, who founded Brooklyn Brewery. First sentence, first paragraph, first page: ‘I woke up to the sounds of bombs exploding outside my hotel… in Ashrafieh, Beirut.’ That’s when I thought, ‘Eureka!’”

A few months earlier, Mazen had left a stable and lucrative job in the UAE and returned to Beirut to pursue an uncertain entrepreneurial future. Henrik, a Danish friend and investor, shared his frustration with the lack of exciting beer in Lebanon — a country often described as one of the historical cradles of beer civilisation.

Together, they began discussing the idea of a craft microbrewery in Beirut.

War and geopolitics aside, there were still plenty of obstacles.

The Lebanese beer market was dominated by a local brewery founded in 1933 and later acquired by Heineken. Mazen, meanwhile, had no formal background in brewing. His main qualification was a deep appreciation for drinking beer.

So he began to learn.

He read every brewing book he could find. Henrik would arrive in Beirut carrying bags of wheat, barley and hops, and together they fermented beer in Mazen’s kitchen.

Wartime, it turned out, was an excellent time to experiment.

The early results, however, were not encouraging. In Mazen’s own words, they “tasted horrible and smelled even worse.”

Every Sunday, friends and acquaintances gathered in his apartment to taste the latest batches and give their feedback. Gradually, the beer improved. Soon, the tastings attracted more people than the apartment could hold.

Then, one night in December 2006, two strangers knocked on the door and asked if they could buy some beer.

Mazen was perplexed — almost as if he had become a black-market dealer — but the message was clear: the project had outgrown his kitchen.

It was time to expand.

New brewing equipment was ordered from Canada. When it arrived, however, the system came in countless parts — pipes, tanks and valves — with no clear assembly instructions. Hiring technicians was far beyond their budget.

So the team assembled the brewery themselves.

The Canadian supplier eventually sent a warning stating that the installation could lead to explosions and that the company accepted no responsibility.

But the system worked.

Around the same time, Mazen travelled to Canada to obtain a Brew Master certification, bringing professional brewing knowledge back to Beirut.

One question remained:

How do you introduce craft beer on a viable scale in a society where almost no one has heard of a red ale?

Resistance — or resilience — is often said to be part of the Lebanese character. But resistance can also become stagnation.

961 Beer chose to challenge that idea with a simple slogan:

“Are you resistant to change?”

The phrase became the brand’s driving force.

“Change” became the promise of 961 Beer in a country often thirsty for it. It shaped the company culture, the label design, the website and later even the interior of the 961 Beer pub in Beirut.

The 961 label itself was deliberately understated — almost under-designed — so the beer could speak for itself.

And the name carried its own message.

961 is Lebanon’s international dial code: a number that speaks of identity, connection and openness to the world.

That spirit is captured in 961 Lebanese Pale Ale, brewed with flavours deeply rooted in the region: za’atar, sumac, anise, chamomile, mint and sage.