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Hayk Hakobyan, founder and director of the Armenian "379beer" beer production, is young and energetic. He is 36 years old and has been in business for most of his life. Hayk's beer business, however, has been operating for only two years.

"...After the sale of our company, my brothers and I saw the potential of producing good beer in Armenia. The main problem was to find a good specialist brewer... And we managed to invite one of the best brewing technologists in Armenia, Gevorg Hambardzumyan... Another important aspect of our establishment was the question of importing quality raw materials for the new beer brand. Since it was decided from the beginning to make the best beer, we turned to the world-famous German company Weyermann ® Specialty Malting in this domain. At first, they were quite skeptical about our prospects, as they work only with large manufacturers, but we managed to agree on the start of cooperation. And a little later, when the representatives of Weyermann saw how we were developing quickly and were already ordering much more considerable batches of raw materials, they admitted that the decision to work with us was the right one.”

So what does it take to produce quality, and most importantly, delicious beer? First-class technologist, best raw materials, and finally, "tasty" water.  "Since it was decided that the production will be near the [Armenian] capital [city], we sampled all types of water available around Yerevan. The water of Katnaghbyur [town] in Kotayk [Province] was the best for beer production. They established our factory there."  The first batch of beer was produced two years ago, in March 2022. At the same time, the technical opening of the 379 Torch and Brew beer restaurant took place in the very center of Yerevan, on Republic Street, near Republic Square.  "I am proud that in just one year, our team managed to enter the market with a bottled product. Since 2023, thanks to our aggressive market policy, we are present in almost all major supermarket chains, beer specialty establishments... Today we have about 480 partners, and we continue to grow. During the year, we increased the production volumes by 2.5 times, and today we produce about 350 thousand liters of beer annually. And the potential of our capacity is up to 1 million liters."

A little about brewing

Beer can be divided into two types: ale or top-fermented beer, and lager-bottom-fermented beer. The "height" of the fermentation is determined by the appropriate types of yeast, with the help of which the beer is fermented, reaching the product state. Depending on the specific type of beer, this fermentation takes place under natural conditions for 25 to 45 days. However, in modern brewing, food chemicals can be used, with the help of which this period is reduced by half and, accordingly, the efficiency of the equipment used increases by two times.

"We didn't go that way, giving priority to 'traditional' brewing based on natural raw materials and natural processes. Accordingly, the price of our products is higher than the market average. But let’s agree that a quality thing cannot be cheap."

There are many types of beer, but especially the most popular ones can be distinguished among them. The "379 beer" has singled out four such varieties and, based on the original recipe, began to produce Pilsner, Weizen, American wheat ale, and Dunkel.

“Our German-style Pilsner is light, crisp, and invigorating, brewed with the finest German malts so as to create the malty bitterness and floral-herbal aromas characteristic of the variety.   Weizen is a traditional Bavarian beer. And the ‘379’ maintains the best traditions of this type of preparation. Weizen is characterized by a sense of lightness, a combination of banana aromas, and at the same time the softness and unique taste of wheat.

The American wheat ale is characterized by a light malt flavor with a light wheat aftertaste. When brewing this type, we use the finest aromatic American hops, giving the beer a citrusy, subtropical flavor.

Dunkel is a dark lager style beer. This style of dark beer reveals balanced flavors of chocolate, bread crust, coffee, and caramel.

We wanted to satisfy almost any beer lover; that is, we produce one of the all kinds of the world's most famous beer," said Hakobyan, adding that his favorite type in these series is Dunkel.

About the numbers and the dragon

Many people have noticed the symbol "379beer" and probably asked more than once why “379” and what does a dragon have to do with it?

"Since water is one of the main ingredients of beer, and in Armenian mythology the dragon is the guardian of water, then our choice is completely natural. At the same time, the Ouroboros Dragon biting its tail in a ring, as depicted at us, is also one of the ancient world symbols of self-improvement and self-development. It is completely in line with our values. And ‘379’ is the ‘digitization’ of the Armenian word ‘vishap’ [meaning dragon]. As is known, a certain number corresponds to each letter of the Armenian alphabet.

Ambitions of beer

"Our long-term goal is to enter the world market in two directions. The first is franchising our restaurant brand, and the second: exporting our beer. Of course, in the current logistics and other conditions, export is still possible only to Russia. Transporting to Europe, and even more so to the US, is very expensive. However, in the modern world there are many interesting cases of achieving success under difficult conditions. Case in point: the Cobra beer promotion story. This beer was originally brewed by two brothers in India. They were able to find a recipe that the English liked. But bringing beer from distant countries was very expensive and unprofitable. Then, the Indians found a brewery in Poland that was not working at full capacity and began to produce their own beer there. Now Cobra is one of the famous beer brands in England and Europe... the modern market is very saturated, and it is very difficult to find your niche [there]. But I am deeply convinced that if you do something well and put your whole soul into the work, then success will surely come."

 "It may sound a bit pathetic, but sometimes it can't be avoided. Our mission is to create a strong brand whose strength is the team, where no one tolerates mediocre work, procrastination, poor quality, and slowness. We value time, we are not afraid, we think, act, and change the situation. And the goal is to be a market leader without stereotypes and boundaries. We don't believe in history, we build the future."

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