Malta, or should I say Gozo, has its first artisanal brewery with the opening in June of Lord Chambray at the Gozitana Agricultural Village in Xewkija. While on a visit to Gozo, I went to meet Samuele d'Imperio, the managing director of Lord Chambray to discover why they set their eyes on making Malta's first craft beer. He told me the family had been visiting Gozo every summer for the past 25 years and it was always their dream to eventually buy a property with a view on Malta's sister island. They finally bought a property in Fort Chambray around five years ago. It has always been his parents' dream to retire on the island of Gozo. His father, an accountant, is around five years away from retirement. Samuele, also an accountant, fell in love with craft beers during a year working with Deloitte in Sydney. "We love Gozo and we wanted to do something for Malta and Gozo. But this is both my family's and my first experience making beer." They are however in good hands. … [Read more...]
Lord Chambray – Malta’s first artisanal beer
Craft or artisanal beer has taken the beer scene by storm worldwide. Craft breweries are opening and beer lovers are slowly starting to move from the commercial beers to microbreweries. Even in countries where beer does not have such a tradition, the rise of artisan beers has been astonishing. The concept of an artisanal beer is different and once you get accustomed to the taste it is not easy to return to a commercially brewed beer. Living in Belgium means that I get to taste many great craft beers all with different flavours and styles. But it is also exciting to discover that this new trend has reached the country where I was born and lived for most of my life. Malta is therefore following in this trend thanks to an Italian family, with a love for Gozo, who have invested money to launch the country's first artisanal beers. When I read about Lord Chambray a few weeks ago I knew that this was a very important development for Malta and Gozo particularly since Malta already … [Read more...]