Halal Beer? In the Bag

Selling alcohol to Muslims doesn't sound like a smart proposition. Never mind beer granules. Yet Gerhard Kamil, 45, is taking aim at the 53 million-gallon Middle Eastern malt-beverage market with a new product: malt granules that become a foaming, nonalcoholic beer by adding water. The Bavarian brewer is wooing soft-drink bottlers from Iraq to Indonesia with his "PlatoTec" process, which makes tiny, layered granules of malt at about $2 per lb. Tapping the nonalcoholic halal-beer and flavored-malt-drink market positions GranMalt against Heineken's Fayrouz in Egypt and Carlsberg's Moussy in Saudi Arabia. But as consumption grows an estimated 6% annually over the next five years, exporting GranMalt gives Arab brewers an alternative to importing bottled beer or building a brewery, which is often met with political and cultural obstacles. Being nonalcoholic, it is not subject to the heavy tariffs of Muslim countries that allow imported alcohol, says Kamil. --By Coco Masters