Bottle. Sour chocolate malt aroma. Black brown with a small tan head. Sour lactic, chocolate, and slightly charred toast flavor with a light seaweedy aftertaste. Thin flat mouth feel.

My BA Review of May 2010: I have been to Malta a few times, but never since becoming a BA, so when a work friend told me he was holidaying in Malta I asked him to bring back a HopLeaf and a Blue Label for me, he did! Brown 25cl bottle, best before the end of Sept 2010, drank in mid-May 2010, poured into a Batemans branded half pint tumbler. This is the only true English style Pale Ale produced in the Med I know of, and it isn’t too bad. Light amber, paler in sunlight. The white head leaves some lacing, but falls away from the foaming head first produced to a thinner covering fairly swiftly. This beer isn’t overly hopped, but there is a slight wiff of hops in the smell as it warms in the glass. This beer brings back happy memories of sunburn and hot windless days on Malta. The actual taste isn’t strong, it isn’t supposed to be, hops are there, biscuity malt flavours are also present. This is just a pleasant drink to have instead of a lager when you are hot and need refreshing. 3.8% isn’t going to set anyones pulse racing, but the brew has stood the test of time and a lot of British tourists and servicemen know and love this beer. Mention HopLeaf and they go all weak at the knees, not because of the alcohol content, but the memories the beer invokes. Very drinkable in any company and any reason.

Brown 25cl bottle, best before 10 Sept 2010, drank on a sunny evening early June 2010. Poured into Palm Special tulip. Amber, clear, yet darker than your average Pale Mild. Off white bubbley head sat on top, the thickness fell away slowly to leave a high collar and wispy, but full covering. Roasted, toasted malts hit the nose, not over-stated, but there all the same. The malts carry on into the taste, some hop bitterness is evident, but the malts smooth those away to give an easy drinking beer that is ideal when you’re hot and don’t want a lager/pilsner based beer. It would/could be easy to knock down its mouthfeel, but at 3.3%ABV I feel it holds its own more than a lot of weaker strenghted Milds. As far as I know this brewery is the only one in the Med that brews ales, and long may it do so. It is also one of the reasons I’ve been on holiday to Malta four times!

12 oz bottle from Odeed. Nose is lots of banana, light alcohol, and hints of bubblegum and lacquer thinner.Clear yellow orange with a medium pale yellow head. Flavor is banana, a strong malty presence, and that hint of lacquer thinner. Kind of reminds in a way of a very strong weizenbock with the banana. Since the highest rated malt liquor I have rated is #45 out of the top 50, I guess this will be my highest rated. Do the best malt liquors come from Malta?