The Huskie Craft Beer Company Is Opening Its Own Beer Bar in Valletta

Huskie has spent the last few years infiltrating Malta from almost every angle. You’ll find it behind bars, in retail joints, being taken to the beach and pouring at festivals, to the point where the brand has become part of the local drinking landscape.

Which makes it slightly strange that, for all that presence, The Huskie Craft Beer Company has never actually had a public-facing space of its own. It is very important for you to know that this is now changing.

HUSKIE was founded in 2017 by Jean Bickle and Miguel Camilleri, two nuclear medicine physicists who originally started brewing as a fairly random casual hobby, as you do. What began as a garage science experiment eventually became a proper brewery and one of Malta’s most recognisable and loved independent beer brands.

Their first taproom, Off The Hook, is opening in Valletta. The name is not exactly playing hard to get.

The building was previously a fishing and diving shop, and Huskie has kept the original signage and façade rather than sanding away every trace of what was there before. Inside, the ground floor will house the main bar, while the first floor is being kept as a more flexible social space. The plan is deliberately loose: exhibitions one week, a projector screening of The Lord of the Rings the next, and whatever else makes sense in between.

In other words, this is less “brewery showroom” and more somewhere HUSKIE actually wants people to stay.

What’s on Tap

There’ll be 16 taps in total, with Huskie’s six core beers permanently represented: Alpha IPA, Baby Face Tropical Ale, Mosaic Single Hop Pale Ale, Chaos Stout, Old Boy Oak Aged American Ale and No.6 Lager.

The remaining taps will keep things moving, with Huskie specials and seasonal brews rotating in, alongside beers from guest breweries. Which is considerably more interesting than opening a taproom simply to pour the same six things forever.

The food menu is deliberately being kept small, with a compact selection of around five seasonal dishes that will change over time. Think pie slices, sausages, cheeses and hams, and fresh tomato spread on toast. Basically, things that make sense next to a beer.

Off The Hook soft-opens this Friday, before moving into full operation a few days later.

Two physicists, a former fishing shop, a lot of beer, and finally somewhere to drink it at source. About time.

Off The Hook – a Huskie Taproom 
20 St John Street
Valletta
Website