Beer in Malta, Comino and Gozo with Quinno

A guest post by Quinten Taylor, with Reading & Mid Berks CAMRA roles, who is on Twitter as @SirQuinno [Photos also by Quinno]

First, a quick geography lesson.

Malta is, in fact, an archipelago consisting of three separate inhabited islands: Malta, Gozo and Comino. Malta is the largest and most densely populated of the trio. Gozo is a smaller, quieter and more agrarian island whilst Comino is a small outcrop between the two with a population of about five people (all based in the hotel!). This is useful to know, as we’ll be island-hopping in this article.

Malta - View of Valletta harbour from the Saluting Battery

Whilst English is spoken by almost all islanders, the official language is Maltese (an offshoot of Sicilian Arabic). Most menus are bilingual or fully English though, as are the people.

Getting around on the beers. If you don’t drive, transport is via the notorious Maltese bus network – notorious in that punctuality isn’t in their dictionary (to be fair when you’ve taken a few journeys through the narrow streets and traffic, you’ll appreciate why). However since the introduction of modern buses a few years ago and the availability of the bus company app, things are a considerably better. Do yourself a favour and get hold of a 7 day ticket (Tallinja card), which easily pays for itself after a couple of journeys. See publictransport.com.mt for details.

Beer and brewing in Malta is dominated by Simonds Farsons Cisk plc whose beer permeates almost all bars and supermarkets. Cisk lager is the predominant brew, with other brands such as Farsons (Red, Blue and Green labels) and Hopleaf complementing their portfolio. There are a couple of small independents – the established names of Stretta and Lord Chambray and the new upstart, Huskie (Phoenix Raw is listed on Ratebeer, but I found none of their stuff and the last Untappd check-in for them is August 2021). There’s also The Brew (brewpub in Sliema) and a cider producer, Tuff. In contrast to Maltese produce you’ll also come across a diverse selection of Italian brews and a less diverse (but pervasive) selection of British stuff.

There were a couple of places I had on my list that simply weren’t open. Whether this was temporarily or permanently due to COVID was unclear, so do have a look before you travel to see if Caffé Berry and Beer Cave have re-opened their doors.

Following in my footsteps, let’s start in…

Gozo

Now I’ll state upfront that Gozo was my favourite part of Malta. 

Beautiful place, with the highlight being the Gozo Salt Pans which produces salt directly from the Mediterranean Sea. A great place for walking as well. There are plenty of bars, but for the beer hunter there were only two that came up on the radar which were open;

Lord Chambray Brewery Tap (Mgarr Road, Xewkija XWK 9014)

An odd little place tucked away in a small semi-industrial estate (look out for the Mgarr windmill and you’re almost there, it’s the turning off the roundabout). 

A compact two-level brewery with a tap room at the front and most of their portfolio was on draught when we visited – 12 in all. 

They do a diverse range across various styles brewed for the islander’s palate. The friendly barmaid took us through the options and we decided to flight our way through them all. 

My fave was their bergamot flavoured White IPA, with a beer of real interest being (if not to my taste) Wild Fennel flavoured with – you guessed it – local fennel! My wife loved that one, even if I didn’t. Pencil in a good couple of hours here.

Gebuba (St. Peter & St. Paul Square, Nadur NDR, 1010)

The main venue on the island for beer choice is Gebuba, a little away from the action in the quiet town of Nadur. It’s a small bottle bar and due to COVID restrictions we were all outside in plastic tents on the pavement. 

Of all the places in Malta this is the one to hunt down local beers as they seemed to have a bottled version of almost everything produced by anyone, so useful for bagging the lesser-spotted Farsons/Cisk range and Lord Chambray beers not on tap at their place (including their amazing winter ale – made from carob honey and galanga root!). 

Seemingly popular with the expats as well, we got chatting with a friendly pair and could have happily spent all evening here. Again, two hours is a minimum spend in my opinion.

Maldonado Bistro

If you end-up staying in Victoria let me recommend Maldonado (Vella Street 18, VCT 1461) as your dinner destination; it was so good I went two nights on the trot, unheard of on my Euro travels! Booking essential.

From Gozo we head to…

Comino

Now, Comino has no proper bars. In fact all it has is a hotel. 

However, it’s well-worth the trip over to explore the wilderness (and for the ride, if nothing else). 

Beer recommendations? Well, there are three or four cabins by the dock which sell the basics, so if you want to try an ice cold can of Cisk lager, do it here; sat on the beach with the waves lapping and the sun on your face – you’ll find that it tastes pretty good!

Malta

Undoubtedly where most of the action is. However the best bars are concentrated in two places – downtown Sliema and the capital of Valletta. The density means that these places aren’t distinct individual areas, they are part of the same urban sprawl along the coast. Beware that you’ll have to get transport between most of them though.

The Brew (74, The Strand, Sliema, SLM101)

Not what I expected; The Brew is a brewpub slap-bang on the Sliema party strip so don’t expect much in the way of beer aficionados here. 

When they hit (Porter, APA) they taste good but when they miss...it's pretty mediocre homebrew. Table service only on my visit which I think may be standard. 

45 mins will do you unless you want to tick all their beers.

Hole in the Wall (31, High Street, Sliema, SLM 1549)

A lot of online hype about this one but to be honest I didn’t really see the fuss. 

It’s a pretty small place with a range of bottles and cans though without much out-of-the-ordinary, it’s mainly British. Staff (bar one honourable exception) were also pretty lacklustre. 

Two beers I found to tick off, one of which was the Simonds Hopleaf – “Weak pishy and slightly metallic. An insult to Reading's finest” was what I recorded at the time! 30-45 mins here, I’d say.

Salisbury Arms (81, High Street, Sliema, SLM 1540)

OK so this one is a bit leftfield for this article as it’s one of those generic ‘Brit pubs in Malta’ which doesn’t exactly major in beer. 

However, I can thoroughly recommend it for the relaxed 90’s style interior and 90’s style pub food - my burger was as close to an old skool Wimpy as I’ll ever see again. 

Grub and a herbal high? This is one is for you. 60 mins if you stop for food.

Jack of All Trades (Depiro Street, Sliema, SLM 0035)

Offbeat bar. Visited mainly because of the range of Belgian beers on offer (as opposed to Maltese delights). Run by a guy who looks like a Focus roadie who was good value once he warmed up a bit.

The beer list won’t necessarily excite the tickerati but there’s plenty of Lowland standards to imbibe and if you like 70’s music (we got Pink Floyd’s Animals album in full) you’ll enjoy it here. 

COVID restrictions meant that it has been trading at a loss for a while and it’s touch-and-go as to whether it survives as a long-term proposition, so do give it your support. Stay length dependent on your wont for Belgian beers – I was happy with an hour.

67 Kapitali (67 Old Bakery Street, Valletta, VLT 1426)

In Valletta proper, this one came with a lot of online praise and it didn’t disappoint. 

From a Maltese point of view it’s Chambray-heavy though it also stocks Huskie beers which is your win, they had three of them and they were all pretty decent with the black IPA Tuta being the stand-out.

There’s also the full range of Tuff ciders. 

Have a good look at the bottle list and random point-of-sale stuff; we came across a brand new beer they had literally just had delivered from Sicily - Birrificio Alveria - which uses Maltese barley, wheat and Gozitan sea salt from the Xwejni salt pans. It was my beer of the session and on another day I’d have had a second. 

Stayed for just over two hours and could have easily clocked up more.

Wild Honey (127 St. Lucia Street, Valletta, 1183)

Comes with the maxim of ‘time your visit’. It’s a very small bar and we had to sit outside on the street (where you will see all sorts of characters). 

A genuinely eclectic selection from around Europe, we finished-up (via a bottle of Tynt Meadow from Leicestershire) with a rather expensive but lovely Goliat Bourbon Barrel Aged by To Øl, which was priced slightly cheaper than it would be in the UK. 

Stay time is dictated by your seat and the depth of your wallet – if you’re willing to splash the cash there’s enough here for a whole evening.

The Pub (136 Archbishop Street, Valletta, MT 1444)

Very small and tucked out of the way. Gets a lot of rave reviews but I didn’t really see too much as an English tourist to get excited about bar the Oliver Reed connection (he died here but luckily they've kept it tasteful and don't make a huge thing of it. There's fewer than 20 massive photos). 

One or two beers of interest in the fridge. 30 minutes to say you’ve done it.

Café Society (13 St John Street, Corner of St Pauls, Valletta)

Another one to time your visit – we were there on a Friday night where it was transformed into some sort of dimly-lit techno nightclub. 

Very multimedia, there were rolling videos of vintage beer adverts and general odd stuff. 

A fair beer menu with Huskie and Lord Chambray bottles we hadn’t encountered elsewhere. 

Link to Cafe Society tweet by @Sir_Doris

Quinno