i’ve just discovered this drink. i guess it’s geared toward the hispanic/latino market, or at least the goya brand is. but the flavor harkens back to my malted milk days–it just tastes like it’s missing the milk.
the ingredients: “brewed from water and the choicest barley malt, corn sugar, corn, and hops. malt beverage” it also says it’s less than .5 percent alcohol.
sooo…is this basically beer sans yeast?
"Well I found a source of Malta Goya. Actually the proper name is simply Malta. Goya is the brand.
What is it? According to the bottle, it is brewed from the finest malted barley, corn, corn syrup, hops, and water. Notice there is one special ingredient missing. Yeast.
This stuff is basically a malt soda pop. A product aimed at the Hispanic market. The label points out that it contains less than 0.5% (or was it 0.05%) alcohol and therefore exempt from taxes under bill… blah blah blah. Here’s the funny thing. Its brewed in PA.
Anyway, the stuff has 280 claries per serving, has a specific gravity of 1.060, and tastes like wort. Not simply like wort… Exactly like wort. We’re talking heavy duty malt extract flavor. The body is a bit thinner than a 1.060 wort, but its still pretty sweet. If you love malt you’ll like Malta.
The color is about the color of a good porter, nice ruby brown, but it does not seem to have much roasty dark malt flavor. Maybe its mostly dark crystal malts. The hops seem to be pretty non-existant, probably there only for balancing the intense sweetness.
No… I didn’t finish the bottle… but my 2 1/2 year old son kept saying “more? more?”
I found it a (of all places) Jewel Food Store at 22nd and Rockwell in Chicago in the Mexican food eisle.
I think I will see if the stuff will make a good source of wort for yeast starters. At 35 cents a bottle, it is a pretty cheap and simple source."
Thanks for the info - I had this stuff last in Venezuela (named Malto there, not Malta - probably the same stuff), and I really liked it! I tried to ask my hosts what it was made of, and they had a hard time explaining it - they just said “It is Malto, yes?” Having been a homebrewer once long ago and far away, I immediately suspected it might be wort.
Wonder if anyone here in KC sells it…
When I was in Venesuela, I tried like hell to drink all of the Polar I could find. They just kept making more.
MMMMMM. I literally grew up on Malta. There are several brands, but Goya is my favorite. When I was alittle girl I called it baby beer, mostly because of the bottling. I’ve not found it yet here in CA, not even in the Mexican food stores, but I am on mission.
I haven’t the foggiest clue of what the stuff is but from the descriptions it sounds like it could be delicious or disgusting.
You drink it cold I assume? Is it carbonated?
funneefarmer, i thank you. i was expecting a simple yes or no. but you raised the bar. and quickly.
sailor. it was carbonated, and i drank it cold. all of the pops (or sodas, if yer a hick :)) were just sitting on a shelf warm. so i dunno how i was supposed to drink it. i checked out goya’s webpage @ http://www.goya.com and under the beverages section, it looks like they have a lot of different flavors of pop or juices or drinks. and they have malta light. at 40 cents a 12 ounce bottle (or something like that) it wasn’t a bad price, just to try it.
there was also something called India Malta (or Malto or something). it was sold in 6 packs of 8 or 10 ounce bottles, or what looked to be a 40 or a 36 ounce bottle. maybe i’ll try that brand next.
it’s definately an interesting flavor. if you like malted milk, you might like it.
Well if it’s that cheap I’ll have to give it a try. There are several stores in Utica and Cooperstown that carry ethnic foods and drinks maybe I’ll be able to find it somewhere around here.
In many if not most of the countries of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean basin, malta is a very common product. In my childhood, back when we had more than one brewery in Puerto Rico, every beer maker produced a malta. Plus, soft-drink and juice makers also sold their brands. My favourite was Malta Corona (the PR Corona Brewery, since shut down, was not related to the Mexican Corona brewery. I think yet another different company bought the Malta Corona brand name). The big brand for us is Malta India.
It was, once upon a time, extremely popular, as a hearty, non-alcoholic pick-me-up (the old folks would at times also whip an egg into it, turning it thus into a sort of drinkable breakfast, precursor of the modern “protein shake”). It has since lost a lot of ground to various types of soda-pop; however malta has the advantage of being caffeine-free, low-acidity. Malta is carbonated, but it’s not “sparkly” like soda-pop or seltzer: upon pouring it builds up a nice thick head, like a good beer.
If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll be hitting the convenience store…
jrd