FUHEIS, JORDAN — Yazan Karadsheh pours pints of beer from the Carakale Brewing Company taproom, looking out on tranquil hills as the sun disappears behind them.
Karadsheh, 32, is the brewery’s founder, CEO and master brewer. Now, as the brewery grows — it celebrated its third anniversary in November — Karadsheh is realizing his dreams.
The Jordanian native once called Boulder home — during and after his studies at the University of Colorado — and said he gained information and insight from his time in the college town at the foot of the Flatirons.
“It was a good decision to stay in Colorado,” Karadsheh said.
Carakale is the first microbrewery in Jordan, which is nestled between Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Named for both the caracal cat and ale, it overlooks Jordan’s rustic, rolling hills.
When Karadsheh decided to start a brewery in his home country, his goals included creating a beer culture in Jordan and concocting the first internationally-recognized Jordanian beer.
Karadsheh became interested in the brewing industry as an undergraduate at CU, where he studied electrical engineering. His decision to attend CU largely was due to family; his brother went to Colorado State University at the time.
After graduating from CU in 2006, Karadsheh worked for Halliburton in Rock Springs, Wyo., before realizing the oil industry was not for him.
As an undergraduate, Karadsheh came across a book about beer at Boulder’s Barnes & Noble. Post-graduation, he talked about starting a brewery with his brother. Karadsheh said he was worried about staying in a career rather than following his dream.
“One day I just snapped and said, ‘Screw it. I’m going to go for it,'” Karadsheh said.
‘Falling in love with craft beer’
After leaving Halliburton, Karadsheh ventured back to Boulder, where he offered to work for free at several breweries. He found his home at What’s Brewin’, a homebrewing supply store that later closed.
Karadsheh said he jumped up and down when he finally landed a job, adding it was a beneficial decision to stay in Colorado.
“As far as Boulder itself, I caught the bug of falling in love with craft beer,” Karadsheh said. “I definitely appreciated the art behind making the recipes and putting things together from the homebrew supply store.”
While working at What’s Brewin’, Karadsheh met Charlie Papazian, founder of the Brewers Association and the Great American Beer Festival. He suggested Karadsheh consider attending the University of California Davis, which has a semester-long master brewer program.
Karadsheh said he “got the golden ticket” because one of the prerequisites for that program was an engineering degree.
“Going from a homebrewer to a technical education to seeing it at a bigger scale were the right steps for me to grow in my career,” Karadsheh said.
Once again, Karadsheh returned to his Boulder base, completing an apprenticeship at C.B. & Potts and Upslope Brewing Company.
At Upslope, Karadsheh worked with Dany Pages, the brewery’s co-founder and director of brewing operations. He said Karadsheh had a positive attitude while volunteering and then being employed at Upslope.
“(Karadsheh) said his dream was to start a brewery. He got inspired,” Pages said. “A lot about starting a business is about courage. You don’t need millions of dollars to start a brewery. You can use creativity.”
In 2009, Karadsheh said he felt confident enough to return to Jordan and start a brewery. It took years to build Karadsheh’s dream, and he brewed beer locally in his parents’ backyard while he worked on licenses and getting the brewery started.
‘No road map’
Despite the brewery’s success, Karadsheh emphasized there were several challenges to get to its current point.
“There was no road map, no application,” he said, emphasizing he had to help build the legal path to establish a microbrewery.
“It was a David and Goliath fight,” he said.
Karadsheh said the atmosphere was market-dominated and people did not understand beer. They are price-conscious, Karadsheh said, and there was a lot of red tape. Once Carakale opened, employees started giving tours to explain beer and how the brewery is unique.
It’s a different atmosphere than in Colorado, which boasts 284 craft breweries, the third-most in the United States, according to the Brewers Association.
More than 90 percent of Jordanian residents are Muslim, according to the Embassy of Jordan in Washington, D.C. Even though much of the population does not drink because of that Muslim faith, Karadsheh believes there is a stable drinking culture in Jordan.
“There are a lot of people who don’t (drink), and there are a lot of people who do,” Karadsheh said.
Karadsheh said more than half of Carakale drinkers are expatriates, but the number of Jordanians drinking beer is growing steadily. Fuheis, the location of the brewery, is a predominantly Christian town nearly 30 miles from Karadsheh’s hometown of Madaba, and just over 10 miles from Amman, Jordan’s capital and largest city.
Carakale currently employs 26 people, but Karadsheh said the number of staff should increase to 30 by summer’s end. The brewery is currently working on renovations to utilize its space, which produces beer for at least 350 liquor stores, 200 on trade. Carakale draft beer is available in more than 30 locations.
A common goal is to incorporate local flavor into the beer, and for Carakale to have its own voice in a congested market, according to Jordan Wambeke, the head brewer who has worked at the brewery since 2015.
The brewers agree one of the most unique aspects of Carakale is the closeness of the staff and that “everyone has a hand in everything,” Wambeke said.
Andrew Brunson, lead brewer, began working with Carakale in 2016, and he noted the close-knit brewing community. Karadsheh added that the handful of Middle Eastern breweries support each other.
‘Very big dreams’
Karadsheh, Wambeke and Brunson agreed they are at a point where they have increased freedom and can experiment with different flavors. They are integrating local herbs into some of their seasonal beers and have incorporated coffee beans, cardamom and date molasses.
Carakale currently sells in Singapore, and the brewery is taking steps to bring its beers into the United States. Karadsheh said he’s on the verge of signing with a distributor, and Carakale’s beers will make their American debut this month at a festival in Arizona.
More than seven years after leaving Boulder, Karadsheh’s vision and Carakale’s success continues to grow.
“This is way past my imagination at this point,” he said. “I had very big dreams.”
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