Hopleaf Pale Ale is a bitter ale brewed with malt and traditional English hops made according to the recipe based on the original British Simonds Hopleaf Pale Ale. It is Malta's first locally brewed ale and the first beer brewed by Farsons Ltd., launched as Farsons Pale Ale in April, 1928. In 1929 Farsons merged with the local branch of H&G Simonds, a Reading-based brewery, becoming Simonds Farsons Ltd. One of developments deriving from this event was the addition of the word Hopleaf resulting in Simonds Farsons Hopleaf Pale Ale. The original trade-marks used by Simonds and Farsons, featuring a hop leaf and a depiction of Neptune respectively, were similarly incorporated on bottle labels, adverts and promotional merchandise.1 Hopleaf Pale Ale remains one of Malta's most popular beers winning a number of international awards since its first accreditation by Brewex in 1956. A large variety of bottles, crowns, labels and eventually cans, were utilised over the years, accompanied by adverts and promotional merchandise. The scope of this page is to illustrate such material through the items held in our collection.
