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We've just been shown how to extract the strange translucent quill that gives backbone to the beast, and separate the tentacles (delicious) from the eyes (not). Despite my taking great care, the creature's ink sack has exploded, leaving my hands looking like those of a messy Dickensian bank clerk. The cold rain beating on the upstairs windows of the Billingsgate fish market adds to the effect. It is sad, but what can we do? We need to have our own port - we need to have our own country - to be able to make our business work. But when we do, Palestine will have its own beer."For more information, see . Taybeh Golden, £1.85/330ml, from The Alternative Beer Company, .
Taybeh Golden tends to be the tipple of choice for diplomats and reporters covering the dispute in Jerusalem. It has a slightly dark golden colour and its barley has been more malted than most lager, so giving it a mildly caramel and nutty taste. It is a little reminiscent of the Boston Lager produced by the Samuel Adams brewery, which is hardly surprising as Nadim once lived in Brookline, Massachusetts.The brewery could do with the extra sales to the UK. In areas like Nablus and the Gaza Strip, the sale of alcohol, while still strictly legal, has ceased, as Hamas and other Islamic groups have grown stronger."It was just as well we didn't take out any loans," says Nadim, whose family has invested $1.5m [£800,000] in the business "The banks would have come and taken the equipment As it is we can survive by just covering our costs. Since the start of the Intifada, production has had to be cut by three-quarters as tourism to the region has dwindled and Israeli stockists have stopped selling it. The hardest part is getting it through checkpoints from Nadim's brewery to the Israeli port Even little things are more complex than they should be.
Under British law, the labels on the bottles we bring in have to have the importer's name on, but even arranging to get a few boxes of these labels to the West Bank has taken weeks longer than it should."Davis has so far been successful in getting her beer stocked by the simple method of sending out samples - because the beer really is very good. "The specialist bars and stockists are more interested in the original than the beer brewed under licence," she says. "But it's going to prove a big challenge getting shipments out of the West Bank. We follow the German Beer Purity Laws of 1516 and only put in the four natural products: hops, water, barley and yeast Absolutely nothing else - no corn or rice to bulk it out. Even very few German breweries make beer like this anymore, but the only way a small business can compete is by being distinctive."That distinctive recipe has made Taybeh appeal to a following of European drinkers and the beer has been brewed under licence in Germany since 1997. This is the version which has been available for the past few months in the UK through the Alternative Beer Company, a small business set up by Rowan Davis, a peace campaigner who plans to give a share of her profits to Palestinian and Israeli charities.Davis has mostly been supplying the beer to bars, restaurants and clubs around London but is now in the process of bringing her first batch of Taybeh direct from the West Bank to the UK.
