Malka Brewery, the biggest craft brewery in Israel, is located in Migdal Tefen, an industrial cluster in the Upper Galilee. 

The brewery is roughly 10 kilometers (six miles) from Israel’s border with Lebanon, and like the rest of the north, has suffered missile attacks from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group since October 8, 2023.

“Although we hear everything, we had to run to the bomb shelter only a few times [over the past year],” Gilad Dror, who has been the CEO of Malka Brewery for the past five years, tells ISRAEL21c. 

“Only two to three kilometers from here you have [the city of] Ma’alot-Tarshiha, and they have rockets and drones there on a daily basis,” says Dror, adding that being located in the industrial zone makes the brewery less appealing to terrorists. 

Brewing beer after October 7

Dror spent over 130 days following the October 7 Hamas attacks in the army, having been called up for reserve duty. “To be honest, if I hadn’t been in the army at that time, I would have lost my mind,” he admits. 

Two days ago, Dror was called up for reserve duty once again.

Ironically, Dror was on the frontlines fighting in the Second Lebanon War as a conscripted soldier when the brewery was founded back in 2006 by Assaf Lavie. The former pub owner from Tel Aviv is still fully involved in running the operations of the brewery. 

“We actually had to stop working completely for two or three weeks [after October 7],” notes Dror.

The brewery gradually resumed operations, but had to furlough five of its 17 employees. Many of the furloughed workers found other jobs, but others are still struggling. 

“For example, take Michal, the manager of our visitors center. She’s from a small village located four kilometers from the Lebanon border. She’s evacuated from her home. Her husband, a [commander] in the army, has been on duty since October 7. She’s without a job; alone with three teenage kids, moving from place to place by herself. 

“This is just one example of one person in this entire country whose life has changed dramatically.”

The empty north

Dror admits he was forced to furlough Michal because the brewery’s visitors center “is standing empty.”

“This place used to be packed with people. Now, no one comes here. People are afraid. The GPS doesn’t even work here,” he adds. 

Dror says the brewery’s sales have dropped by nearly 30 percent over the past year. 

“We used to have shops, bars, pubs and restaurants around here. They were shut down, and will not come back ever,” he predicts.  

“There are also no tourists in Israel, and we are a craft brewery. Tourists love craft beer. I wouldn’t say we are dependent on tourism, but we sell a lot to tourists.” 

We’re all in this together 

Despite its losses, Malka Brewery has been helping those affected by the October 7 attacks and the subsequent war, by any means possible.

Dror himself lost an uncle and a cousin in the massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz in the early hours of October 7.

“Initially, they were listed as hostages. But after 30 days they found DNA of them in their homes. They got burned completely, but it was kind of a relief to know that they were not in Gaza,” he admits. 

The company sent tens of thousands of beers to the people evacuated from their homes, who at the time were staying mostly in hotels in Eilat and near the Dead Sea. 

“We got a lot of help from people who volunteered to take the beer and drive there. Actually, the first couple of weeks in Israel were both devastating and incredible. Everybody did something to help.”

Holit

Recently, Malka Brewery announced it will be supporting the rehabilitation process of Kibbutz Holit, a community that also experienced immense damage on October 7.

“Our friends from Verstill, the distillery we are working with, decided they want to help Holit and offered us to partner with them,” he explains.

“We started selling our spirits in Florida and New York with the help of Verstill, which imports our products to the United States. Together, we found a distributor called ReserveBar. The owner is a nice Jewish guy, and when he heard the story, he said, ‘I’m in; I want to help.’” 

Verstill and ReserveBar will be donating all Malka Brewery profits to the rehabilitation of Holit. 

“Because we are a business that got badly damaged by the war, we are not in a position to donate all of our profits,” admits Dror. 

“What we can do is donate a lot of beer, mostly to Holit’s newly established pub.”

Special editions

Another way the company has been contributing since the start of the war is by making special editions of bottled beer featuring faces of fallen soldiers. 

The majority of these editions were released following requests from families of the fallen soldiers. 

“I would get calls that would say, ‘Our son was just killed in Gaza; he really liked your beer, and we want to have a special edition, with his face on the beer,” he explains.

“I think I’ve gotten these calls over 10 times since the start of the war; the latest one came this morning at 8am.”

For more information on purchasing Malka Beer in the United States, click here.