Orlando Niz, creator and owner of Malpeis beers, was a professional tenor and traveled a lot for work, until one day, on tour in Finland, it was so cold that he had to stay home, so he took the opportunity to investigate how to make beer, one of his passions. In the radio program Mas de Uno Gourmet of Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, Niz explains how he went from making 20 liters of beer for friends to producing runs of 2,000 liters of Lanzarote craft beer.
- How did the idea of making beer come about?
I have always liked beer and I was lucky enough, with my previous profession, to travel quite a bit. I was in Finland and it's very cold there, so I spent many hours in the apartment. I started investigating and when I arrived in Lanzarote we started to get to work.
We made our own beer at home and we liked it. Then, over the years, my partner, who is an oenologist, suggested that I set up a factory and I agreed.
- What investment did it take to start making beer professionally?
At first I didn't really have much money to invest in machinery, but I juggled and was able to acquire something with which I could work at first. I am self-taught, no one has taught me. I always read a lot about beer and above all I try to learn from my mistakes. I also have many friends in the sector with whom I talk.
- Do your friends call you much more now that you produce beer?
No, but if we go somewhere, they know that I'm the one who puts the beer. I even have a portable tap that can be set up in five minutes. It is true that they come to the brewery a lot, they let me know, I go up and have a few beers with them.
- You have six different beers, what was the first one and how has it evolved?
The first one I created was the Jable, which is a fairly fresh beer. Within the high fermentation beers it is the closest to the best to a lager, a pilsen something like that. It was effectively changing until we achieved stability for a product that is alive and has no additives.
These are products that suffer a lot from temperature changes and can have rapid oxidation. Over the years you learn many techniques to stabilize without chemical additives.
- What volume of beer do you produce today?
When I started I made 20 liters, which in two hangouts with friends went quickly. Now I do runs of 2,000 liters, which is a lot of bottles.
- What is your star beer?
After the jable, came the bermeja and the rofe. The one that rotates the most is the jable, but my favorite is the bermeja, a beer with a lot of body, with hints of toffee caramel, and which at the same time has bitterness due to the presence of hops.
Then I have made others, such as wheat beer; or dry stout beer, a Guinness-style black beer, and they have also been successful, but I don't have the capacity to maintain so many references.
- How do you create a new reference?
Normally, I go to the style. For example, I say, let's create a session IPA. Then we look at the ingredients that are usually used. In this case light malts, there should be no presence of caramel, it has to have a dry finish... whatever. On that I go choosing.
There are some tasting sheets that are from the BJCP, a beer guide that I use to define aromas, mouthfeel,... and I do tests.
- In addition to your brewery in Tinajo, where can Lanzarote residents find your beer?
Our sales focus is on restaurants. We also have some distribution points in gourmet stores, and some small town stores, such as Lourdes' store in Soo, but we do not sell in large stores for now, it is our philosophy.
- In Tinajo, in the brewery, you also offer food, what can you tell us?
One thing that is giving a lot to talk about are the hamburgers, we make them ourselves and they are giving good results. There are also sausages, cheeses...
- What are your hours?
From Tuesday to Saturday. Tuesdays and Wednesdays we only open in the afternoon from 6 to 11 at night. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays we open from 12 noon to 11 at night.
- You have a new project, can you tell us about it?
Yes, of course. We are going to open another location in Masdache soon. It will be where the old El Campesino restaurant was. It will be like the one in Tinajo, but if the kitchen allows us, we are going to elaborate a little more, with grill and low temperature.
