Meil de agave pale ale

The blue agave

Another batch of beer is in the fermenter today, a thick head of krausen has already formed on the top thanks to the US56 dry ale yeast and perfect fermentation temperatures. The weather here in San Miguel is near perfect for brewing with it's hight desert coolness the temp. in the shade is 75F. and in the evening it is in the low 60's in our upstairs bedroom where I keep the fermenter. Yesterday when I brewed, I was in tee shirt and shorts feeling the warmth of the sun and breathing in the malty goodness of boiling wort. I added 1-1/2lbs. of meil de agave (honey of the agave) at the end of the boil for added sweetness (fructos) and perhaps a mild flavor of the abundant cactus. I am also interested in having a little of the local ingredients imbued, adding the sense of this place of wide open expanses with scrub and cactus littering the arroyos and mesas. Again I used the liquid malt extract that I ordered from http://morebeer.com/
the hops that I received from http://www.hopsdirect.com/ Speaking of ingredients, our landlord, Victor, who has lived in this area all his life has taken up my quest to locate malted barley near here. I wish him luck but I'm not holding my breath. I can't even find a homebrew store on line for Mexico City and the nearest brewery, Modelo, is in Mexico City. Finding barley at an animal feed supply is more likely but I am in not position to malt it (see my blog titled 'malting barley').