On the label of Back Home Beer’s latest release, an Orange Blossom IPA, is a quote from the 11th-century Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam. It translates to “Be happy with the now.”
Zahra Tabatabai has plenty to be happy about since starting Back Home Beer in Brooklyn in mid-2021. With the success of interesting and deliciously balanced beers like Sumac Gose and Persian Lager, she is shining a light on ingredients and flavors that hail from the Middle East—a region that, despite its foundational place in the history of fermentation, is largely unrepresented in the United States’ beer scene. Her late grandfather was a brewer in pre-revolutionary Iran, and relatives’ memories of his recipes and tastes inform her own brewing journey. It’s an even more important legacy given that, after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the new government banned the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages, a policy which is still in effect today.
But Tabatabai’s motivation goes deeper than beer: a desire to share her story and her culture in all of its complexity. Through Back Home’s social media and events in New York City, she has this year worked to increase awareness about current events in Iran—namely, the women-led protests for social and political change, and the state security force’s violent crackdowns. “It’s hard for this quote to resonate with everything going on,” she wrote on Instagram, alongside an image of the Orange Blossom IPA label and Khayyam’s quote, “[b]ut … there are glimmers of hope that Iran will soon be free.”
With such displays of frankness, compassion, and optimism, it’s easy to see why Back Home has a growing following. After launching, the brewing company has grown its distribution network in 2022 to well over 200 bars and restaurants across the five boroughs of New York, and recently added Washington, D.C. Tabatabai’s next goal is to open a taproom in Brooklyn as a community gathering space and to continue her charitable efforts, including donating a portion of the proceeds from keg and case sales to a Lower East Side food bank. “They say you must be the change you wish to see in the world,” she says. “I guess that’s what I’m trying to do in beer.”
Words,Niko Krommydas