Meet Haidar Hachem

We had the good fortune of connecting with Haidar Hachem and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Haidar, what do you attribute your success to?
Having learned to just let go and let what will happen, happen. I am a huge believer in fate/destiny. One thing Marilyn (my wife, @littlemariii) and I always say is that “it always works out”. No matter how much you plan or try to set something up, there will always be outside influences that will come into play that will either work towards or against you. If it doesn’t happen to go your way, you just have to let go of your ego and take whatever the outcome of the situation was as a learning experience. I have been a type one diabetic since the age of two. That didn’t stop me from playing football all the way through high school and having the chance to play college ball with scholarships (I had the chance, but didn’t take it). In 2012 I was diagnosed with diffuse sclerosing thyroid cancer, which is the fourth of four variances that is the most aggressive/rare, lucky me. Lmao. This first opened my eyes to the fact that I can’t sit behind my desk and work my life away. After having had gone through the surgery and radioiodine treatment, that pushed me to become an ultra runner and travel the world as much as possible so I can see all that I would be able to see in my lifetime. I have done things and crossed things off my bucket list that I’m extremely happy to have done. I’ve run 75 miles in 24 hours (my longest run to date) and I raised money doing that for St. Jude’s Children Hospital. I’ve traveled all across the United States and ran a bunch of different races and have eaten a lot of great food and drank a lot of great beer. And speaking of beer, I’ve gone to Oktoberfest & Spring fest and traveled to a bunch of different countries on top of that. Now that not only changed my vision in my daily life, but what I wanted to do for a living as well. I studied and graduated at Florida International University as a Civil Engineer with a discipline in structural. I could have taken over my fathers civil engineering firm if I wanted to, but it’s not what made me happy. Things aligned and worked out in my life (including the marriage to my beautiful wife) so that I can become a brewer! I am currently a brewer along with my homie Daniel Steigerwald at Lincoln’s Beard Brewing Company (Westchester). We are under the Fire Pit Hospitality Corporation umbrella and provide beer to Strange Beast Brewpub & Pizzeria (West Kendall) and the soon to be Maxwell Brothers Clothing Store (Palmetto Bay). My dream is to open my own brewery and I am currently working towards that goal.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As stated earlier, I left the field of civil engineering behind to become a brewer. That would not have been at all possible for a couple of reasons. First, remember that 75 miles I told you I ran? Well leading up to the ultra, I was going around asking for sponsorships for the race. One of the places I went to was Lincoln’s Beard Brewing Company. I had been there many times before drinking, but this was the first time I met John Falco. He’s one of the owners and basically the face of Lincoln’s Beard. We met that day and became friends right off the bat. Fast forward a couple years later, Marilyn and I asked if we could use the mezzanine at Lincoln’s Beard for our wedding ceremony and Falco said “under one condition… you let me officiate the wedding.” Mari and I looked at each other and we said “of course!” Fast forward a couple months after that and Falco asked me to jump on board the Strange Beast brew team as the Head Brewer. I was stoked! This is the chance I was looking for to break into the industry. I started on the Strange Beast team as a beertender on June 26, 2019 was hopping back and forth between serving beer and making pizzas as well. August 2019 was our first brew day where we created Lawyers Don’t Surf NEIPA and the rest was history. In the beginning of the new year, Jan 1, 2020 Danny and I met (we had actually known each other a little while through meetings here and there) but we actually starting working together. So the place I got married at is actually now where I’m brewing beer at! It always works out!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well duh, I would definitely want to take my friends on a tour through Kendall! We would start at Strange Beast for pizza & beer then take some crowlers to go and hit up the walking trails at Kendall Indian Hammocks Park. After that we would hit Robert Is Here in Homestead and check out the Buddhist Temple over there too!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First off, I would like to give credit to my parents & family for raising me, taking care of me and providing for me as a child and teenager. Giving me all the experiences they did which formed me into the person I am today. And having grown up with my siblings made it all the better. Secondly, I would like to give credit to all my friends (past and present) for all the good times and memories that also formed the personality and person that I am today. Finally, I would like to shout out my wife Marilyn. My best friend, my partner in crime, my soul mate, the yin to my yang. She deals with all the things behind closed doors, including my diabetes and mood swings, and just loves me as much as physically and emotionally as possible as any one person could, even if it does get annoying at times. She’s my everything and she pushes me to be better and supports me in any and all of the crazy decisions/ideas I come up with. That’s true love.

Website: www.samuraipiggyandfriends.com
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Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/haidar.hachem96
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjtYk5AtUqE3O5riI_QFdVQ