The Machines Behind The Brewhouse: Malta’s Industrial Heritage, One Floor at a Time

Malta’s history runs from the Stone Age to the end of British rule in 1964, but its industrial heritage rarely gets a mention, partly because so few buildings from that era are still standing. 

Built between 1946 and 1950, The Brewhouse is one of the exceptions. 

One of our last early reinforced concrete buildings still standing, it was designed with a single purpose: To brew exceptional beer, using gravity to move the process from floor to floor.

When Farsons restored the building, they went to painstaking lengths to retain most of the original brewing equipment — some of it purely decorative, some restored well enough to still work. All throughout the building, interpretation panels explain each piece of equipment, making it a genuine gem for any history buff to visit for free. 

Here’s a top-down look at what’s still there, and why it’s one of the best things to do in Malta for anyone curious about the island’s industrial history.

 

The Grist — Level 4: The Original Grain Weighing Scale

Level 4 is now a blank-canvas event space hosting everything from art exhibitions to conferences. It’s a large modern room designed to project your own vision onto — but the centrepiece is where it gets its name from. Painted in bright red, the original Weighing Machine was used to measure out precise amounts of grain before it was tipped down to the mill on the floor below. “Grist” refers to the milled and ground particles of malt used in brewing.

 

The Red Mill — Level 3: Where The Microbrewery Gets Its Name

Within The Chapels Gastrobrewpub on Level 3, you’ll find a fully operational microbrewery going by the name Red Mill Brewing Co, because, well, the original Milling Machine still stands proud there, painted fire-engine red. It’s purely decorative today, but it was restored so completely by one of Farsons’ skilled craftsmen that it can still turn at the push of a button.

 

The Redler Room — Level 2: A Boardroom Named After Its Machine

The original Redler Conveyor has been converted into a polished meeting room for up to 20 people. Think board meetings, working lunches, and team-building sessions, with a breakout space over The Brewhouse rotunda. This type of chain conveyor, still manufactured today, transported the milled grist to the brewing hall below for mashing and boiling. The hardest part of the conversion was undoubtedly cutting 2 pieces of glass large and strong enough to sit the whole length of the 8-metres long conveyor. But they managed it, and it’s beautiful.

 

The Brewhall — Level 1: The Coppers That Started It All

The unmissable highlight of The Farsons Brewery Experience tour, accessible only to visitors with a ticket. This spectacularly restored Brewing Hall is a marvel to behold, designed with a naval deck aesthetic, where the tops of the five original Boiling Coppers can still be admired today. It took two men working round the clock for a year to polish these tanks by hand and bring back their shine. Both the wall and floor tiles were chosen to replicate the original plans of the brewery, along with the Carrara marble staircase. Proof that timeless interiors never go out of style.

 

The Vats — Level 1: From Fermentation Tanks to Co-Working Desks

Also on Level 1, now a co-working space, originally the Fermentation Vessels used to turn ales and lagers into the beers you know and love today. Of the 28 original fermenting vats retained, 7 have been converted into hot-desks and meeting spaces. The Vats is one of Malta’s most unique places to work — a genuinely inspiring place to brew your next big idea.

 

Kettles — Level -1: Dine Under the Coppers

Located on Level -1, you can sit under the bellies of three original Boiling Coppers as you sip a coffee or tuck into a hearty meal. Look up, and you’ll notice a difference between the tanks — one of the three has visible rivets (in other words, it was pieced together, not welded). Documents reveal that it’s older than the rest, originally from Malta’s first Cisk brewery, dating it to around 1928. After the Simonds-Farsons-Cisk merge of 1948, this German-built vessel was transferred to this building in 1949 from the Malta Export Brewery in Hamrun.

 

Come See It for Yourself

You don’t need a ticket to appreciate the building. Pop in for a scenic, Instagrammable coffee at Kettles, or book it as the venue for your next team meeting, and you’ll still get a glimpse of what makes The Brewhouse genuinely one of a kind.

But for the full story — including the one room you can’t wander into without a ticket — visit The Farsons Brewery Experience.