Our base for a week sweltering in Malta was Buġibba, on the north-east of the island.
Architecturally, it's a nightmare of modern apartment blocks and busy roads, with a barren area of scrub-land in the middle of the peninsula, home to the town's cats.
On the plus side, you get sunsets...
An authentic megalithic temple in the grounds of the Double Tree hotel...
And a great crest for the local football team...
But, it has to be said that Buġibba isn't really a great destination for the artisan beer enthusiast.
Cisk is the dominant beer, strangely preferred in bottles or cans in some of the bars. We saw a fair bit of the Farsons range, from the same brewing conglomerate as Cisk, as well as lots of Guinness, Stella, Heineken, and - the oddly prolific - Charles Wells 'Bombardier'.
Our best local bar turned out to be the Craftsman Tap...
Cisk is the dominant beer, strangely preferred in bottles or cans in some of the bars. We saw a fair bit of the Farsons range, from the same brewing conglomerate as Cisk, as well as lots of Guinness, Stella, Heineken, and - the oddly prolific - Charles Wells 'Bombardier'.
Our best local bar turned out to be the Craftsman Tap...
An interesting first visit on a Saturday evening found the place thriving with all tables taken in the cool air-conditioned interior, and a gentleman entertaining the masses.
Apologies, I can't credit either the singer in his snazzy suit, nor the owner of the grizzled elbow in my picture.
The bar also served two beers from the Sliema brewpub, somewhere we planned to visit ourselves. But, bizarrely, the handful of English customers served whilst I waited at the bar all opted for cans of Skol.
We needed to travel a little further afield for some more adventurous beer finds.
On Thursday afternoon we caught the bus for the 45 minute ride south, through St Julian's, and on to Sliema.
36°C is probably enough to deter even the most committed of persons on a Curated Cisk Pub Crawl. It wasn't long before I was grumbling about the sweaty patches engulfing my shirt and my annual summer holiday sunburn incident.
The Brew Grill & Brewery (74 The Strand Tas, Tas-Sliema)
Everyone had gravitated towards the seating on the covered terrace out front, although I have no idea what makes people intent to sit outside when it's so hot. We were initially the only customers inside, where it was a little cooler in the basement room, although it filled up nicely whilst we were there.
The Salisbury Arms (81 Triq Il-Kbira, Sliema)
Yep, it's English run, will show you Premier League football, and serve you an English breakfast and pint of John Smith's Smooth.
Mrs PropUptheBar splashed out on the grilled swordfish whilst I went for the budget friendly €9.50 Maltese cottage cheese pasta. An authentic Maltese dish, apparently, and about the only traditional dish I'd be likely to have with the others being very rabbit-orientated.
The TV screens showed local football team Ħamrun Spartans tackling Armenian side Pyunik in a Champions League qualifying match. Oh, I might have made the effort to go to the ground had I known that was happening. Although it was stupidly hot to be watching football. Let alone playing it - no idea how they managed to run around in such temperatures.
Right, just time to bring you an unnecessary picture of the WC signage...
Hole in the Wall Bar & Cafe (31 High Street, Sliema)
This building was originally a stables before it was sold and converted to a bar in 1922.
It's certainly a smart and interesting place, proffering coffee, cake, craft beer, and arts and music events. The Hole in the Wall gets mentioned in most lists of beer places on Malta, although I didn't think it was great as a beer bar. No taps, just a small selection of cans and bottles in the fridge.
I picked a Stretta 'Pale Ale' in a can, one of the Maltese breweries that had eluded me until this point.
We took our drinks and sat on a table next to the free, multi-game arcade machine and before I knew it I was hooked.
Lots of joystick wiggling trying to remember those special moves on Tekken.
And that proved to be quite enough, thank you very much.
We caught the next bus back to Buġibba - welll...jumped in front of it as it tried to speed past our stop, is more accurate.
Somehow, my capacity for beer regenerated on the bus ride and I thought it was a good idea to pop into Fat Harry's Pub for a nightcap.
On the busy main square of Buġibba, this was a reasonable English pub, bedecked with all the necessary olde worlde pub tat within, and selling the decent Red Mill Brewing Co IPA on draft.
The crooning was too loud and drove us outside to the terrace within a couple of songs, darts from Blackpool providing the entertainment on the outdoor TV.
When we returned mid-week, the bar was much quieter, although had a steady succession of locals trotting in to say hello to the staff and sink a couple of beers.
Hits of the 80's on TV proved easier to handle than the live entertainment and we sat inside on uncomfortable cocktail bar stools, back on the Huskie IPA and the same breweries 'Chaos' stout from the bottle fridge.
When we returned mid-week, the bar was much quieter, although had a steady succession of locals trotting in to say hello to the staff and sink a couple of beers.
Hits of the 80's on TV proved easier to handle than the live entertainment and we sat inside on uncomfortable cocktail bar stools, back on the Huskie IPA and the same breweries 'Chaos' stout from the bottle fridge.
On Thursday afternoon we caught the bus for the 45 minute ride south, through St Julian's, and on to Sliema.
36°C is probably enough to deter even the most committed of persons on a Curated Cisk Pub Crawl. It wasn't long before I was grumbling about the sweaty patches engulfing my shirt and my annual summer holiday sunburn incident.
Still up in the thirties in the evening: it was really too hot for wandering around bars, but we tried our best.
The first point of call, on the Sliema waterfront (as long as you ignore the four lanes of road between the buildings and the sea) is Malta's brewpub.
The first point of call, on the Sliema waterfront (as long as you ignore the four lanes of road between the buildings and the sea) is Malta's brewpub.
Everyone had gravitated towards the seating on the covered terrace out front, although I have no idea what makes people intent to sit outside when it's so hot. We were initially the only customers inside, where it was a little cooler in the basement room, although it filled up nicely whilst we were there.
Here's the beer list, a couple of the ales unavailable on our visit, although we made light work of making our way through everything else that was on offer.
In fact, we nailed the beer list and finished on Dry Hard Cider (an unwise 8%) and IPArol Spritz (just unwise in general).
In fact, we nailed the beer list and finished on Dry Hard Cider (an unwise 8%) and IPArol Spritz (just unwise in general).
My favourite was the APA, although kudos for a quality Bourbon Stout, the bourbon flavours making it taste more like an imperial than the (still quite hefty) 7% that it was.
Hey, I haven't included a shiny brewing equipment picture on the blog for some time...
Hey, I haven't included a shiny brewing equipment picture on the blog for some time...
Making an exit from the brewpub, we branched off into the narrow streets of Sliema to a pub with an exotic-sounding name.
Yep, it's English run, will show you Premier League football, and serve you an English breakfast and pint of John Smith's Smooth.
Right, just time to bring you an unnecessary picture of the WC signage...
And to search those football scarves hung from the ceiling for one from a decent team.
Ah, there you go! 😊
Ah, there you go! 😊
We had one more pub on our short list to visit on this hot evening.
Which was probably just as well, as all that beer and cider at The Brew had gone to my head.
Which was probably just as well, as all that beer and cider at The Brew had gone to my head.
This building was originally a stables before it was sold and converted to a bar in 1922.
It's certainly a smart and interesting place, proffering coffee, cake, craft beer, and arts and music events. The Hole in the Wall gets mentioned in most lists of beer places on Malta, although I didn't think it was great as a beer bar. No taps, just a small selection of cans and bottles in the fridge.
We took our drinks and sat on a table next to the free, multi-game arcade machine and before I knew it I was hooked.
Lots of joystick wiggling trying to remember those special moves on Tekken.
We caught the next bus back to Buġibba - welll...jumped in front of it as it tried to speed past our stop, is more accurate.
Somehow, my capacity for beer regenerated on the bus ride and I thought it was a good idea to pop into Fat Harry's Pub for a nightcap.
On the busy main square of Buġibba, this was a reasonable English pub, bedecked with all the necessary olde worlde pub tat within, and selling the decent Red Mill Brewing Co IPA on draft.
Here it is in the daytime...
We had an enjoyable week in Malta, battling the heat to complete a packed itinerary of churches, catacombs, air-raid shelters, megalithic stones, and the odd dip in the sea.
And I think we did a fair job of sampling a few craft beers alongside the Cisk, before catching out flight home.
And here it is inside of an evening - all the custom preferring the terrace to the back room with its Bass breweriana and Cisk flags.
And I think we did a fair job of sampling a few craft beers alongside the Cisk, before catching out flight home.
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| Cheerio, Malta. |
A couple of points, Nick. First, would you recommend Malta as a holiday destination?
ReplyDeleteSecond, wasn't Fat Harry's Pub the place where the late Oliver Reed met his demise, after challenging a group of Royal Navy sailors to a drinking game?
Hi Paul.
DeleteThat's two trips to Malta that I've made now, so I'd certainly recommend it. Perhaps at a cooler, quieter time outside the summer months. Nothing's too far away, buses work well, lots of history and marvelous buildings, and you can get a keg John Smith's bitter at the end of the day!
Oliver Reed met his demise in The Pub in capital Valletta. There are a couple of pics from there on the post prior to this one.
Cheers!