I suppose the big question would be that implied from the start of the abstract: how has this culture of beer consumption in Egypt been reconciled with Islam's nominal condemnation of drinking alcohol?

In addition to that, has Stella beer been mainly localised to Egypt, or has it also spread to neighbouring (or even not quite neighbouring) countries in North Africa and the Middle East? And again, how has this been reconciled with Islam's nominal anti-alcohol stance?

I'm fairly certain I've never had Stella before, and Untappd would seem to confirm that so I have two questions!

First, how has Stella fared on the international market? It is now owned by Heineken, which I expect has given it better access to export markets, but up until that acquisition, was the market for Stella restricted to Egypt? Neighboring countries? Or was it something that could be found outside the Middle East?

Second... what is your review of it? These Untappd scores aren't giving me much incentive to hunt it down, I must confess...

What makes 1880 your choice of starting point? Some casual Googling around points to Stella itself dating to 1897, so it isn't that precisely, but I would expect it isn't a date without meaning either!

Additionally, looking at that period,how important was the European control of the country in providing the market for a brewery in an Islamic country to take root? Am I wrong in assuming that clientele would mostly have been foreigners at the onset?

Hi Dr. Foda, thanks for joining us!

Under president Nasser, Stella Beer was unified under government ownership. How did this affect the company, it's influence and "image" (for lack of a better word)? How did the move fit within Nasser's wider national project?

Hi! Thank you very much for doing this! Have there been efforts in the last century to resurrect ancient Egyptian brewing practices, or to use the pre-Islamic practice of beermaking and consumption as a marketing tool in modern Egypt?

Hello Dr. Foda, thank you for doing this AMA.

I'm a bit of an anomaly among my fellow yuppies, as I like to drink British-style stouts in a world that seems to prefer lighter and crisper beers.

What kind of beers have been historically been available in Egypt between 1880 and 1999, and how has this changed over that same period? Is there any point where I might have found a local stout or imported stout to enjoy with particular ease?

Hello and thank you for doing this AMA! I have heard in various places that the ancient Egyptian rulers fed their slaves beer in order to feed them and keep them complacent. Is there any truth to this?

How have levels of beer consumption changed over time and does that relate to other indicators of religiosity changing e.g. amount of people fasting, wearing hijab etc

1. Why does your book stop at 2003? Many regions around the world have experienced crazy beer explosions since that time! Can you provide any insight on what has happened since 2003?

2. What does the export market look like for Egyptian beer? I make sure to try all the new beers I can when traveling, and I've never seen an Egyptian beer in e.g. Europe!

3. How do beer and alcohol related statistics differ for Egyptian Muslims from the wider Muslim community?

Thanks!

Alright folks. I am going to call it a night. Thank you all for your lovely questions. It was a great pleasure to talk about something that means so much to me.

I am not sure of the policy, but if any of you stragglers, night owls, or people in other locations want to post something good, I would be happy to answer tomorrow.

Why can't I drink a lot of Stella (or Sakara Gold) without getting a headache or stomach issues compared to German beer?

Whats your favourite beer?

Hello, Dr. Foda. Thanks for the enlightening AMA. I’m not going to ask anything; instead I just wanted to say how cool your name is!

In some regions of Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro where I’m from, your name could be understood as “o mais foda”, meaning “the most fucking awesome” (pardon the expression).

“Foda” itself (we say it like FAW-duh) is a very colloquial word. As a noun it means ‘the sexual act’, but as an adjective it’s used to amplify other words, meaning very tough or complicated, and also very awesome.

“O mais” means “the (masculine) most”. In our accent in Rio the word “mais” is often pronounced as “mar”. “O mar” also literally means “the sea”, so Omar Foda can also be understood as “the most awesome sea”, and we do love the sea here :)

Sorry for this completely out-of-topic comment, I just couldn’t let this go unnoticed :)

What type of beer was brewed in Egypt primarily? Were different crops used? On the glance of it I would not, for instance, see Egypt as an ideal country for the growing of Hops.

You talk about technological changes - were these primarily driven from American & European advances in food technology, or did Egyptian beermakers come up with their own innovative solutions?

Is the the role of beer in modern Egyptian culture related to the fact that compared to some other Arab Muslim countries, Egypt has a relatively large and publicly prominent non-Muslim population?

Hi Dr. Foda

Have you ever come across the British film Ice Cold In Alex (1958) during the course of your studies, is so what did you think of it especially the famous bar scene with Heineken?

Thanks

Greetings Dr. Foda!

I'm also a historian studying 19th century brewing (from a U.S. immigration and ethnicity perspective). I confess that I didn't previously know about your work and look forward to your book!

I'm interested in the transnational aspects of your research. How, for example, does Stella's development relate to the global rise of industrialized light lagers taking place during this time. How does the Belgian-influenced Stella compare to, say, the German-influenced origins of Tsingtao in China, the Austrian-influenced Vienna lager breweries in Mexico, etc?

Please please please PM me! I'm doing quite a bit of work beyond my research to connect beer-focused scholars and develop public engagement initiatives. For example, I just helped organize the Chicago Brewseum's first Beer Culture Summit, a hybrid-format conference for beer scholars, museum experts, and industry professionals. I'd love to get better acquainted!

What does beer culture look like at the ground level in Egypt? Is it similar to marijuana culture in the The United States where it's kind of a "wink and nod" situation where most people don't particularly care if their neighbor uses it? Or would it be more analogous to something like prohibition or harder drugs, with a very strong social stigma and heavy government enforcement? Or neither?

Do Islamist organizations in Egypt like the Muslim Brotherhood have an anti-alcohol stance?

And if they do, do they view Egyptian society as commiting takfir (being "fake Muslims") for producing beer and having a more relaxed attitude on it in contrast with more conservative Muslim nations? And if they don't, why not?

EDIT: question made no sense initially.

Was alcohol available to the peasants or just the upper classes?

In Southern Africa, drinking and brewing traditional beer is very much a community-building experience — you could probably say the same about most European practices too.

I'd be curious to hear more about whether (and if so, how) the beer culture has developed differently in Egypt, given the impact of Islam?

How much of that beer that was given to the pyramids workers would I need to drink, as a 180 pounds 30 years old man with a little alcohol tolerance, in order to get proper wasted?

In the last ten years, there has been a "discovery" of Norweigian Farmhouse yeasts known as "Kveik" that have almost amazing temperature tolerances compared to modern yeasts - probably because of the isolation and commercialization of yeasts over the last century.

In Egypt, is there a history of yeast that could be different from what is commonly used in ales and lagers?

Has Egypt's non Muslim classes (i.e. Jews and Christians) played a hand in the development of Stella?

Have you tried Dogfish Head Ta Henket beer? If so, would you say that is an accurate representation of ancient Egyptian beer?

Hey there Dr. Froda,

Two questions:

First, As alcohol is generally forbidden in the Middle East, how is Stella advertised in Egypt? Who is it branded towards, what is their target audience, and what pressure did the company receive if any from the muslim community?

Second, pulling from what's stated above (emphasis mine):

As the company’s success was built on a mix of innovation, efficient use of local resources, executive excellence, and shifting cultural dynamics, this is the story of the rise of a distinctly Egyptian “modernity” seen through the lens of a distinctly Egyptian brand.

What has the company or CEO done to justify the critique of "executive excellence"? What does that entail?

Thanks in advance and looking forward to many of the potential answers later~!

Thought I'd ask a quick question, since in my studies I read that people were paid in beer and bread for the work for quite a lot of cebturies. Or if they were slaves, fed with beer and bread. And especially important in Sudan and such. I could be remembering wrong, of course.

My question is if you know how many calories a worker was paid for manual labour through beer and bread, and for how long this payment persisted? And perhaps, as I'm sure you know, how a single brand came to be so ubiquitous in countries like Egypt and Sudan when there are far bigger brands across the world?

Did beer drinking in Egypt become popular because fresh water sources were unreliable?

EDIT: The reason I'm asking is because the uptake of beer in Medieval Europe had a lot to do with polluted water. I'm curious if this was also the case in Egypt.

Did the beer in ancient Egypt taste anything like what we know beer to be like? Is there any way to know for sure?

Whats your favorite beer? How did Egypt live after romans took over?

Do you know what the ancient Egyptians used for beer/alcohol or were such things brought over with the Greeks and Romans?

Before the invention of refrigeration, was beer generally consumed at room temperature in Egypt? Were other methods used to keep it cool, like storing it in a cellar?

It is my understanding that some of the earliest beers in Mesopotamia were brewed from baked loaves soaked in water. Does Egyptian beer have parallels in antiquity?

Was beer invented lots of times or just a few times?

I remember Stella well from backpacking in my misspent youth. One thing has stuck with me ever since: Why are there Stella regular and Stella export? What's the difference? Why is Stella regular green? And more broadly, what role does each play for the Stella company and Egypt as a whole?

Actually, that brings up another point. Egypt is a very ethnically diverse place. Does Stella bridge the many decides or does it represent one group more than others?

Was Egypt under Muhammad Ali dynasty a nationalist movement?

How much does the beer that was brewed in ancient Egypt differ from the beer today? Is there anything that comes close to mimicking that style?

so how did beer change the history of time?

I'd love to hear some connection between Stella, beer tradition in Egypt, and ancient Egyptian beer recipes. I recently read an ancient Syrian, I think, recipe for a lamb stew that called for beer as an ingredient.

We used to say that the unofficial motto of Stella was "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" - because about 1-in-5 bottles would be 'off' and would make you very sick. At least, that was our excuse. Not hangovers, just bad seals on the bottles.

what's the 1-line accurate + comprehensive summary of this?

I know mead has its early history based in Egypt. Does Stella share any of its brewing process?

As a non brit I very much find Stella to be nondescript and boring, so I want to know if Men Behaving Badly popularized Stella Artois, of if the British really have that poor taste in beer?

What makes Egyptian beer different from other beers?

On a hot summer night deep into the Sahara in 2005 (“hot” as in 105F/40.5 C after sundown), the figurative “drinking lamp” was lit for myself and thousands of other troops at Operation Bright Star’s “tent city.”

A Stella truck literally rolled into to the desert to sell $2 “tall boys.” However, there was a catch: none of it was refrigerated.

Given the exorbitant heat from earlier in the day, this stuff was the perfect temperature for a cup of coffee or tea. Making matters worse, we had no ice.

I remember the topic coming up that the ancient Egyptians probably drank beer at the same temperature — until the commercialization of ice. I remember we then discussed this would be true for beer in any desert climate — that it would be warmer than the ambient temperature of the air after sundown.

I found the smell and taste of the beverage very unpleasant in these conditions. Was the situation I was in at the time reminiscent of the way this drink would have been consumed before refrigeration?

Thanks!

The opening chapter of Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy, told through the perspective of the mother waiting on the father to come from a night of heavy drinking, blew my mind when I read it at university. It was a part of Egyptian and Arab culture I’d never imagined, and your AMA takes me straight back to it. What was the drinking culture like in post-WWI Egypt? Which social classes engaged in drinking, and did the type of drink consume differ between different classes and demographics?

Holy shit I have a Stella T from when I went in 2006.

I only found one bar in Egypt that served alcohol that wasnt the Hard Rock Cafe Cairo, it was some weird little hotel bar.

Thank you so much for participating in this AMA.

I am interested in the views on women and beer.

Is the drinking of alcohol discouraged more in women than men?

Do women in Egypt prefer wine over beer, as can be seen in certain societies?

Are women discouraged from being in places where alcohol is served?

Thank you in advance

What is the most weird ingredient they used?

If I went to Strasbourg in 1664 and purchased a Kronenbourg beer, would it taste anything like a modern Kronenbourg 1664?

Or to put it another way, did lagers in centuries past taste similar to those of today?

As a fellow historian and globetrotter, I have to ask, how does Egypt’s Stella compare to a standard beer found in Venezia, Italia? 😉

How widespread was beer in ancient Egypt?

Finally! Some ground breaking research on an important subject! I suppose my questions are pretty simple, what's your favorite beer and what was the beer in Egypt made with? Obviously the differences between ingredients and the process used between beer now and then is vastly different so what makes Egyptian beer different from today's beer?

Where was the first beer made, and what would it be reminiscent of.

Hello! According to the ethnobotanist Dr. Christian Rätsch, ancient Egyptians were brewing beer as well, involving ingredients such as mandrake. Do you happen to have some background information to share about this beverage by any chance?

Watching old black and white movies from the 50s and 60s you find that most people had a bar in their home. Another one of your answers mentions that this a result of beer = modernity but that isn't my main question. My question is when did having a bar fall out of favour with the general community?

My other question is a bit stranger but also comes off the back of a movie. In Ahmed Mekky's H Dabour there are many instances of drinking but where the titular character's actions could be attributed to an upper class lifestyle (literal first scene of the movie is in a nightclub) another character from the other side of the social/economic spectrum is seen drinking and smoking cannabis. The hasheesh I can understand to a certain degree, but my main question revolves around his drinking habits. Did the poor/lower middle class drink in the same patterns as the bashawat and did they drink the same things or brew their own drinks?

I don't have any questions, I just wanted to congratulate you on that beautiful last name! "Foda" means "Badass" in Portuguese, so you'd certainly raise a lot of eyebrows here in Brazil! Hahahaha

Even your faculty page, ofoda.html basically means "The badass." I love it.

Keep being foda!

This is more a "history of Egypt" question than a beer question. Egypt was a critical breadbasket for the Roman Empire and then the Eastern Roman Empire: wheat taken from Egypt was distributed to people in Rome and Constantinople and helped sustain those populations beyond what their homelands could grow. What happened with Egyptian agriculture after the Muslim conquest and end of Roman rule, and what political effects did it have?

isnt Stella like the worst beer in Egypt?

beerah ta3bana bgad