Malte, an essential in A Coruña, Galicia.
At the opening of the English Channel the French and English delegations opened some bottles of champagne to celebrate the epic moment when two countries came together underground with just 35 centimeters of error. They organized a small party with their tables and their skewers, their croissants with cold cuts and their fantasies with potato chips.
Legend has it that the English brought beer, an Ale type. And despite the fact that the bubbles of the sparkling French opened the ban on hugs and congratulations, what was not left at all at the end was the English liquid gold.
It is a very simple recipe that has been with us for thousands of years. In periods of drought, it was preferable to the same bread, because from a few grains you can make a lot of beer, while, to make bread, you need a lot of grain for a small amount. There was beer that was even made with leftover bread. In fact, in the Czech Republic, beer is known as 'liquid bread'.
Hops are not included until the fifteenth century, just when other ways of making it are discovered, with other temperatures and other ingredients. The first was the Ale type, fermented at room temperature. La Lager, the blonde of all life, was 'found' in a cave.
Due to its elaboration, beer obtains more organoleptic characteristics than wine. Being a 'cooked', its denomination of origin is almost non-existent. It is true that in central Europe there are some wild beers that ferment in their own barrels with the help of the surrounding nature, such as Lambics, but they are the exceptions. In any part of the world there is someone fermenting cereals.
Beers in Malte, the fashionable Coruña brewery.
THE BEER CONVERSATION
"The wine is the land, the cuisine is the beer," says Juan behind the Malte bar.
This what he produces is hordes of poor devils who, like yours truly, only have taste buds for this concoction. Millions of fans across the globe worship in holy places called breweries, holding the bottles by the neck unlike the rest of mortals, observing the three colors of a perfectly thrown cane and draining every last drop from the glass even when it is lukewarm.
There are even contests for who makes it better or where they serve it better. The best national shooter is in Sada, at the Miramar restaurant (avenida da Mariña, 34). At a global level, the RateBeer Best portal, which recognizes the best beers and the places where to try them all over the planet, has named, for the second consecutive year, in the 'restaurant' category, Malte (Galera, 47, A Coruña) as the best nationally and seventh in the world. And Juan, who is the one who has devised all this, does not know where to start.** Something happens with Galicians and beer.**
"It was all because of the crisis," he explains.
I order a white beer. I remember my travels through Brussels to the rhythm of interviews with European parliamentarians and mussels and fries. One of the most mythical breweries is there, the Delirium Café, which held the Guinness record in 2004 for having more than two thousand different brands of beer for sale. As he sets the glass down for a second refill, he grabs a glass. He wants to give me a taste of his latest acquisition. The liquid is bright carmine red. A Grape Ale.
- "What crisis?" The virus? -I ask.
- -Nope. The one from 12 years ago,” he replies.
In 2008, an ERE put Juan on the street. He had been thinking about creating his own project for some time, but until then he did not see the opportunity. A native of Foz, he spent a few years in Santander studying tourism. He got to know first-hand what was being done in Europe through small craft beer initiatives in the Basque Country, or larger projects like that of his colleagues at DouGall's in Cantabria, which led him to think of taking it to Galicia for some time. .
"Why not?" I thought, he says.
Malte started with four griffins and now has 20
FAUCETS
It was in February 2012 when they settled on Galera street. A couple of years before they were on Calle Panaderas, that's why he's been at the forefront of the taps for a decade. He had no doubts about launching himself on the A Coruña market, since the lands bathed by the Atlantic are faithful to this concoction.
What Juan did not know was the response of a public accustomed to a few commercial brands and little brewing training. So the beginning was four taps. It didn't go bad. Two decades later he has two dozen, 17 of them are rotary. He pours me the white beer while I look at the menu. There are roasted chicken croquettes.
“I didn't want to scare the staff. I thought it was better to educate myself about the world of beer little by little,” she explains.
Today, those who visit Malte know what they are going for. The magnitude of the hordes makes the quality of the service and the product goes in crescendo. If not, we're leaving. We are that terrible.
The menu in Malte changes every quarter.
DISHES
The menu changes every two months, adapting it to the beers themselves and taking into account the product itself as one more ingredient. Now, due to the special conditions in which we live, all the dishes have been designed to be taken home, in 100% compostable packaging. In the same package you can take your favorite beer. Movie, blanket, craft beer and a portion of Galician stew wontons is not a bad plan, really. You judge.
—We are thinking of renting the glass containers. Like when when you were little they gave you back the amount of the 'helmet' —she exposes.
A two-liter growler costs 12 euros, which are returned upon delivery of the container. Zero waste. to older, they do beer tastings, a highly demanded service because one is not born learned, and throwing the rat in front of your colleagues from the plateau is just as sneaky (my colleagues from Salamanca, Hontangas and the Vallecas neighborhood never found it), but doing it with those who have been bathed by the Atlantic is guaranteed ridiculous.
Also They offer home-made unpasteurized preserves of dishes that made this tavern mythical: Lorbé mussels in Thai marinade, Carril cockles in Lambic beer gel or caramelized onion in Stout beer.
And on the menu, in addition to seasonal dishes, there is a splash that is calling me and I think that with white beer it can pair well, so I ask for it. And a bao of squid with onions for venturing out, because the baos seem like a bluff to me, and where there is a good sandwich of brona with sardine that removes everything.
But one of the patrons, who when entering said out loud “make Malte great again” while he laughed with his mask on, agreed when talking about the baby squid. And **when the plate reaches my forearms, I understand why. **
The cook, who had barely had a drink before arriving in Malte and is now a fan of sour beers, smiles. he tells me that the kitchen has to be traditional even to put it in a bathroom. And Juan, who is behind the bar throwing beers like someone who takes out churros, asks: "Do you want another one?"
Don't leave Malte without trying their baby squid.