Ever Wondered Exactly How Cisk Is Brewed? Here’s The Answer
Some of us remember visits to the Farsons Brewery in Mrieħel as school kids. Back then it was just a sweet excuse to be out of the classroom – the legacy of the Farsons brewery would have meant next to nothing to us at that age. But years later, after having drank our fair share of Cisk at graduation parties, barbecues, political rallies, etc., we can really appreciate how the people over at the brewery contribute to our overall happiness in life.
It is with this attitude that we made our way up to the old-but-new brewhouse – it was inaugurated four years ago and is a far more efficient (and greener) model – to meet one of the brewers Martin Polidano – a man who has been conducting the ingredients that make our Cisk possible for nearly 12 years.
Martin was an exacting, entirely no-bullshit character, who was keen to let us in on some important facts about what makes Cisk…Cisk.
An obsession with quality
Where the magic happens: the vessels at the Farsons Brewery — the Cisk ‘kitchen’ – Photo by Andrew Mercieca
While Martin was in no mood to advertise on behalf of his employers – stressing his position as a “professional brewer, not just a Farsons brewer” – he felt it was right to emphasise how the brewery cuts no corners (and costs) when it comes to delivering its product to the eager and loyal marketplace.
He took us through the whole process, from the importation of the natural ingredients, through to the analysis of their fermentation, and finally the tasting process. He explained why the Cisk brand has maintained its strong grip on the local marketplace. It’s because quality comes first.
Freshness is key
“Really, the main advantage to having a local brewery is the simple fact of being able to deliver our beer to the bar – or the supermarket – immediately after it’s brewed,” Martin explained.
“Remember – beer is a drink that doesn’t age well.” For this reason, “Cisk will automatically taste better than any other international beer on the market – this is not a dig at other beers, of course… it’s just a simple fact. Because ours is fresher.”
State-of-the-art equipment
Martin talks about the make-up of Cisk’s natural ingredients with ease and dexterity, yet he reserves a lot of his enthusiasm for the brewery itself.
He explains that the new brewhouse is equipped to the highest standards and largely automated – only two members of staff are required to keep it all running. This well-oiled system is programmed to handle the make-up of each ingredient as necessary.
“At the end of the day, this is our kitchen. Just as in your kitchen you’ll have your pots and pans, here we have our vessels”
However, Martin also reminds us that behind all the fancy machinery is a timeless but simple process.
“At the end of the day, this is our kitchen. Just as in your kitchen you’ll have your pots and pans, here we have our vessels. And for the most part the process of brewing is temperature-stepped, which means that it’s all about adjusting the strength of the heat accordingly, depending on what we’re brewing and at which stage of the process we’re at.”
“Just like, in your kitchen, you would add and reduce heat while cooking a dish.”
Expertly sourced ingredients
“Our lager malts are sourced from the best regions in mainland Europe – Germany, Holland, Belgium – while the malt used for our ales is brought in from the UK,” Martin tells us.
Apart from water – “remember that all beer is 95% water” – and malt, the other key ingredient for beer is hops. He opens up a container of them – they’re in neat little pellet shapes – and takes a sniff.
To the untrained nose it all smells a little bit like a pungent variant of tea. But Martin, being professionally acquainted with the smell, revels in it, before going on to tell us about where it comes from, and why it comes in this particular shape.
“Nothing is processed”
“For our lagers we source the hops from the Hallertau region in Germany, and for the ales it comes from the Kent region in the UK.” At this point, Martin once again reiterates the company’s commitment to quality – describing Kent as being the equivalent for ales what the Bourdeaux region in France is for wine.
“You’re seeing them as pellets right now, but they remain in their natural state – nothing is processed. It’s just that before the plant is harvested, it contains a lot of vegetative material that is of no use to us, so what happens is that the core of the hop cone is processed and transported to us in this form – again, we’re paying a price for that.”
In a lot of ways, the hops are what ‘make’ the beer-drinking experience, because they give it both its aroma and its characteristic bitterness.
“And remember that tasting beer is not like tasting wine – where you swirl in your mouth and spit. You have to swallow the beer to experience that characteristic bitterness.”
A very green system
While this aspect of the Cisk experience may not have a direct bearing on the beer’s flavor, the fact that the new brewhouse – operational for three years now – is as green as can be ensures that Cisk’s ethical prerogatives are in order.
It’s filtered through sand. Wait, what?
As we approach the end of our tour, Martin moves onto to a crucial point about his beloved beer. He points out exactly what gives lager its easy ‘drinkability’.
“Like most other lagers, Cisk lager has a ‘clean’ taste with a distinctive and well-balanced character. Its rich hop aroma and pleasant bitterness has made it the natural choice and thirst quencher for beer drinkers who want to savour the original brew which has remained faithful to its recipe of 1929.”
The original Cisk Lager Beer is a golden-coloured, bottom-fermented lager.
“It’s because it’s made through a filtration process using silica… sand, basically. The beer is still ‘murky’ before this stage: the kind of texture you get with craft beers. After we pass this mixture through the sand, we get the ‘clean’ taste that we’re after.”
And in yet another testament towards Farsons’ commitment to quality, the sand itself is also imported from a location that specialises in the kind of material required – Martin informs us that it’s mined in and delivered from a particular area in California, Lompoc.
And made with so much love
As was made abundantly clear to us during our visit to the brewery, Martin does his job with love and passion. “We’re here to ensure that Cisk drinkers keep getting what they’re used to – quality beer made with the best ingredients, that you can keep drinking with no difficulty at all…”
And hectoliter by hectoliter, Maltese people both home and away are still drinking their Cisk, and they’re showing no signs of stopping. We’re pretty sure that Martin’s (and all of his team, of course) pride in the quality of the process, and his love for the product is the reason why.
