Beer Diary...

Dirty grains I've started the process to malt some barley that I located at a feed store here in San Miguel. This is part of an experiment to see if I can somehow create beer out of the local materials at hand. This stuff looks pretty rough with a lot of dead grain and chaff. There is also quite a bit of large foreign grass that looks like straw in addition to many black and red beans. After the first of many washings To start, I placed five kilos of the barley in a bucket and filled it with water, agitating the grain as I filled. I discovered the grain was very dirty as evidenced by the grey water. With the bucket full to the rim I skimmed off about half a pound of loose, floating material to discard. I repeated this process several times until all of the waste material was gone, the water ran clear and the viable barley was setting nicely at the bottom of the water filled bucket. I have placed the bucket in a cool closet and will drain the water in about eight ...

I am spending the first nine days in San Miguel De Allende living in temporary lodging and don't plan to launch into any homebrewing activities until we move into our permanent place in a couple days. O.K. I have started to purchase a few brewing related items and five kilos of raw barley that I plan to malt myself but other than that, nada. In the mean time I have been roaming the uneven cobbled streets taking in the new sights and noticing the changes to the town since last year. One remarkable difference I've noticed in San Miguel this year compared to last is the improved variety of beers available. Last year, I could only find Modelo products and a smattering of Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma with their Bohemia Classic being my beer of choice. Now there are a couple of new bars that have a limited but unique selection of imported beers from Germany and Belgium. El Gozo El Gozo is one such bar. It has the feel of a downtown Mexico City 'stark modern' look to it wi...

Our flight out of San Jose, California went smoothly. My heavy, beer equipment ladened suitcase was checked in without question despite the excessive 35 kilos of dead weight. My small carry-on case had some additional non-metal brewing stuff that wouldn't trigger any x-ray suspicions but was mostly my clothes. After a few sleepless hours in the air we arrived in Guanajuato and I naturally got the red light at the imigration inspection station and hoisted my suitcase up on the stainless steel table top for closer scrutiny. I threw open the lid to expose an array of vacuum sealed bags of malt extract and specialty grains along with an assortment of brewing equipment. "This luggage is not normal." The inspector said in spanish as he turned to signal his supervisor into action. The superior stepped up and pulled out a bindle of milled pilsner malt and held it up to the flourescent light, squinting at its contents. "Esto es cebada malteado," I said in broken spanis...

The homebrew movement in Mexico is at the infant stage in development, kind of like it was in the U.S. in the early 80's. Sparse product availability, exorbitant costs and questionable freshness or quality. I can only find two homebrew retail outlets in all of Mexico, Fermentando and Homebrewing Mexico and the inventory at both is very limited and expensive. For instance, Cascade hops at Fermentando are $6 and at Homebrew Mexico, $13 U.S. per ounce ! I guess this is understandable considering the expense of importing the product from Oregon or Washington to Mexico City but I think that the price is more an indication of the uniqueness of the hobby and the willingness of the newly obsessed Mexican homebrewer to pay any price to fulfill his desire to brew his own beer. It is difficult to get some of the equipment we're used to having in the States. For instance, at Homebrew Mexico you can get the vial that holds the liquid for the hydrometer test but the hydrometer itse...

Once again I fill my luggage with the 'hard to get' materials for brewing in preparation for my stay in Mexico. I maxed-out my large suit case and half of my carry on which leaves me with about twelve cubic inches of open area for clothes. I may have to stuff my underwear in the side pocket of my computer case. I begged to lease some space in Susan's luggage but she won't budge. She suggested I take less brewing ingredients. Ha! what does she know. But that's not what this post is about. I wanted to ask the readers of this blog for some feed back at this time. I have been blogging here for a couple of years now and need to know what works and what doesn't. What type of posts you look forward to and what bores you to the point of stopping the feed. Looking back over the last few months I notice a pattern I've gotten into of interspersing posts using five major subjects. 1. experiential homebrewing techniques 2. homebrew recipes 3. commercial beer reviews...

Thanks to the generosity of brewer John Gillooly at Speakeasy Brewing in San Francisco I was able to successfully brew up a batch of Black IPA. I guess it could be called India Black Ale (IBA) but nobody does so I'm going to stick with Black IPA. For me, this beer stuck out from all the others at the Stumptown Brewing's 'Russian River Revival' beer fest. Read my take on the festival here . Without looking at it you would think you were drinking a great example of a west coast style IPA with great hop flavor and aroma with a nice balance of unexpected roastiness. Then looking at it you are shocked by the fact that the beer is black as night. When I had this experience my first thoughts were "I've got to brew myself ten gallons of this!" After a couple of back and forth emails with John I formulated my ten gallon batch and proceeded to brew it during a demonstration of the Santa Cruz County fair with the help of fellow brewer Michelle. The following is the ...

As I continue to homebrew, I discover and perfect techniques that make the process easier, more effective and/or more efficient. Often, simple modification in my equipment or in my brewing procedures at first appear small and inconsequential but are in fact significant in terms of making the brewing day more enjoyable. Today I want to go over three more tricks that I use on a regular basis. Back in March I listed here some homebrew tricks (go here) to save time and money and those are worth returning to as you review these new items. As the cooler winter months approach and the temperatures in the area where my fermenters sit (in this case my garage) get cooler, I have found a simple way to keep the fermenting beer from dropping down into the range (below 60f.) that prevents my ale yeasts from performing properly. There is nothing scientific about this technique and it requires some vigilance on my part but it is well worth the effort. 1.) I take an inexpensive, clamp-on utility lam...