Puerto Vallarta Trip: Mexican Beers

It's honeymoon time is Puerto Vallarta and I will probaly do more poolside, umbrella drink lounging than searching for odd ball beers. The list of Mexican beers is preety short and most can be obtained in Texas.

So far the list is short:

Leon Negra (Grupo Modelo), an amber lager
Sol
Bohemia, More on this later, but this beer is named after the Czech brewers that came to Mexico to teach brewing!
Carta Blanca
Superior
And my favorite from the baja, Pacifico! I first got hooked on Pacifico in college, when my friends and I would sit in lawn chairs in the middle of the Blanco River, enjoying it by the cooler full!

We also visited a few small Tequila factories, one was made from 100% Blue Agave and they used some real old school techniques.

Mustang Wine, Local Grapes

The back fence of my current office has a large spread of ripe mustang grapes. A co worker and I have decided to pick a cooler full for me to attempt to make some mustang wine.

This is a recipe from my Grandmother, the notes warn that if it has been a rainy year the wine will have less of a punch. This also calls for a cheese cloth to be placed over the open fermenter to keep the flies out, thats' how it was done on the farm.

10 lbs of sugar
Grapes, crushed, leave skins.
1 or two yeast packages.

Ferment 10 days, rerack then bottle.

This produced a high octane grape wine, this is probablt better suited to drink in the deer blind to stay warm. Next back I will cut back on the sugar and try to mellow out the flavors.

Mr Beer Recipe

I was given a couple of small cans of Mr. Beer as part of a gift package. This isn't something I would normally seek out to brew but I have some empty carboys, so why not. It contains a bag of pre mixed goodies and a can of malt extract. Very simple boil and add mix, cool, ferment, prime, bottle. The recipe does not come with priming sugar, so the 1 1/4 teaspoon per 20 oz bottle to prime or 3/4 teaspoon per 12 oz bottles. Mixing it per bottle can cause some discrepancies in carbonation, might even get some explosions out of this one.

The Pale Ale and the Wheat Ale were used.

Bottled May 24th.

Notes: No explosions, some bottles opened with little carbonation and a few with thick foaming heads. Not my favorite beer but I still good enough to drink all of it. Can kits don't produce the flavor and body that you get from a mash or mini mash recipe.

Wedding Wine: Chardonnay

This is the second of the wedding wines for my wedding, October 29th.

Chardonnay Vinters Reserve Kit

Kit comes with a bag of Chardonnay grape juice and required ingredients.

May 5th: SG 1.085

June 1st: SG 1.000, re racked to secondary fermenter.
June 18th: Whipped to drive out co2. Re Rack add oak chips for flavor.
July 4th: Bottled

Notes: Tasted august 18th, sharp bite when served very cold, nice and mellow when served at 55 degrees.

Wedding Wines: Shiraz

What no beer? My fiance and I have decided to make some of the wine for our wedding guests to enjoy, along with the other beverages offered.

Shiraz Vinters Reserve Kit

Kit comes with a bag of Shiraz grape juice, essentially you get the liquid without the picking, de- stemming and pressing.

SG 1.081
3 tsp bentonite. 24 - 48 hour ferment

March 14th: SG .990, re racked to secondary fermenter. lower sg than expected, possibly due to late re rack. Nice buttery smell from fermenter, slight haze in wine.

March 20Th: Re rack and add 1/4 teaspoon of Potassium Metabasulfite for storage.

April 7th: Bottled, 24 750 ml, 2 1.5 L bottles.

Homebrew: Northwest Pale Ale

3/4 lb Crystal 60L 15 minute soak. I have the home brew store mill it for me.
1/2 lb Crystal 90L 15 minute soak.
7 lb Pale Extract Boil
1 1/2 oz Perle hops for 60 minute boil.
1/2 oz Perle hops add the last 15 minutes of 60 minute boil.
1 oz of Tettnang hops the last 5 minutes of the 60 minute boil.

California Labs Pitched yeast.

Notes: First time using a pitch yeast, activity was slow so I added some more yeast, yeast and hops volcano after two days. re racked, SG 1.01. No yeast problems after re rack.

Feb 26: SG 1.01
March 14: SG 1.01, re rack and primed.

47 12 oz bottles.

Notes: Despite the yeast explosion no bottles exploded and the beer developed into a great tasting pale ale.