Mexican Beer Recipe?

I don't mean to sound snarky here but what exaclty IS a Mexican-style beer? All the Mexican beers I've had have been forgettable light lagers, just like most countries export (the one exception being Negra- Modelo - an amber-colored light lager). Is there some native Mexican beer style (perhaps chicha or pulque?) that does not get exported?

_Randal

There are really two types of "Mexican style" beers that I can think of. Both are really imported styles. One is the very light pilsner lager, such as Sol or Corona. The other is the Vienna style, like Negra Modelo or Dos Equis Amber.

Both of these are lagers, so to get close to duplicating them you'll need to be able to ferment cool (~50F) and lager cold (~33F). You can approximate them with a clean ale yeast, but you still will need to ferment as cool as possible, and probably skip the lagering step. If you ferment warm, they will be "flavorful" like ales and won't taste "right."

If you don't get a specific recipe for what you are looking for, just look for generic recipes for those styles.

Derric

Clone brews has recipes for Modelo and Dos Equis. Extract and all grain

Gracias -- Helps- Prem

This is interesting. I'm new to brewing and am using kits in cans. My second brew is a Coopers kit for Cerveza. All the kits (including this one) want you to ferment at 21 C minimum. Well, it's winter here so that's not going to happen! I've found that the Cerveza was fermenting very happily in the low teens celcius. But 33 F is zero Celcius, isn't it? Would it still work at that temperature? It gets down to 5 C in my house at night, but I've been wrapping the fermenter in a dark wool blanket by day (warmth and to keep the light off it), and wrapping it all up in a feather quilt at night. This keep it in the mid teens Celcius.

I'm planning to make quite a few lager and pilsener beers before it warms up (spring is lurking).

Lagering is more cold aging than fermenting as I understand it. 32 F = 0 C. 5 C would be 41, 10 C would be 50 F. Different yeasts tolerate cold better.

Joe

...

The bottom line is that you ferment at about 50F until the fermenting is done. 50F is 10C. So mid-teens is fine. You only drop to freezing after the fermenting is done and store it there for as long as possible (I do 4 weeks). The longer you store it (lager it), the better...

Do note that you should use real lager yeast to ferment at 50F. Most real lager yeast will ferment on down to 40F (4.5C) pretty well too. The Coopers kits probably don't have real lager yeast, but have ale yeast instead. That is why they want you to keep the temp. up so much. Buy some lager yeast separately from the kit.

The colder the ferment, the fewer "ale-like" flavors you'll have and the cleaner the taste will be. The long lager helps things like clarity.

15C is 59F, so that's not too cold for an ale yeast to work, and most of them will produce a pretty "clean" beer there I imagine... probably simulating a lager pretty well.

Derric