Not an old-time home brewer but i did spend 1984-1990 in Saudi Arabia. You could buy distilled liquor (Sid - short for Sidiqi) but distilling it, even having it was dangerous - if cought, the Saudis would crucify you. By comparison, nearly all western expats made wine and beer at home, and as long as you didn't go out drunk in public, or drive drunk (a lot of expats did) the authorities would leave you alone (if caught, it was a standard result - 6 months in jail, followed by 80 lashes - laid on the floor, alternate strokes from 2 coppers with bamboo canes - followed by deportation. "Lashes" is actually misleading, as it didn't actually break the skin, just bruised it - a bum like black charred meat; western nurses, if caught, were instantly deported, never harmed - which made them very dangerous as they were reckless as hell! Not allowed to drive so you'd find yourself ferrying 6 drunk nurses back to their hospital from a party - you'd be sober but bricking it, as you'd be flogged, if caught, not them! ).
Anyhoo, how did you make your beer and wine I hear you ask. Well, all the supermarkets (big US-style, probably bigger than anything in the UK at the time) - sold what was effectively brands of non-alcoholic beer, red and white wine. It didn't say this on the label obviously. You bought a bin, say 6 cases of the beer stuff, 7 kilos of sugar and a packet of bakers yeast; some tubing; you reused the swing-top bottles this stuff came in; used Milton as a sterilizer; tipped it all in. In summer, in an un-airconditioned room, you could bottle ("beer" or "wine" ) after 3 days. Chilled, as I remember, this was quite palatable. But I guess it was like prison booze i.e. after months without, you tend to become less discriminating.
I do remember it was always very strong - going on holiday, standard pub measures of spirits, beer and wine tasted virtually non-alcoholic.
[If anyone was in Riyadh during that time, we probably ran into each other - the expat world was small and self-enclosed! Groups of expats living together in a villa used to run bars, to get on the party circuit - anyone on here remember "The Orphanage" or "units"? Expat alcoholic version of friends reunited]
