Beer Diary...

I received my first order ever from a homebrew store in Mexico! A homebrew store out of Mexico City called Fermentando sold and shipped me four kilos of 2-row to brew a batch of IPA while I'm down here in San Miguel. The order process was easy using my Pal pal account and I received the shipment via Estafeta in just four days. I was happy with the process and feel like a satisfied customer. Now, I need to mill this grain. I could have ordered it pre-milled but I like the idea of using this molino that I found at the market. I used it a couple of years ago for this project and had good results with my efficiency so I'm confident this time that the results will be similar. This mill is inexpensive at a cost of about $25 and easily available here, where roller mills are hard to find. It's adjustable with a wing nut that holds the position of the grinding plates at a certain distance. Here I will maximize my yield by setting the gap very close and crushing the grain sev...

Tijuana brewing or T.J.'s makes a good beer compared to the mass produced lagers that are typical of Mexico, and that's how you need to evaluate this one. It's a light (yellow) lager but with much more flavor then for instance, Modelo. A slightly sweet bready beer with a fast dropping head and a mild floral hop aroma. Filtered and clean tasting. From the craft beers I've sampled her so far this is one of the better ones. Cerveceria 21Beer Calling itself a pale ale 21 Beer states 4.3% abv. and the ingredient list includes ' anti oxidant' besides the usual water, malt, hops and yeast. Interesting. Cerveza Fina Artesanal is the apparent brewer for La Casa de La Cerveza which is located in the state of Jalisco although I'm unable to locate these guys on the web.  It is mysterious and my friend over at  http://beerandrecordsinmexicocity.blogspot.com/  reviewed this beer in the past and that's the only way I was able to find the website for 21 Beer  ...

Be back at you when I return from a little beach time. Drinking Pacifico and thinking of nothing. I hope it's not too cold in your part of the beer world. Hasta luego!

I've heard some voice concern over the investment in equipment to start brewing your own beer at home. True, you could spend quite a bit if you buy more than you need and buy the best of everything. However, there are really inexpensive ways to start out and this is what I recommend. The reason I say this is that many begin brewing only to find that it's just not there thing. Well, the loss is minimal based on the suggested equipment I list in this video. On the other hand, If you really develop a passion and continue to brew, there is still no great loss in your initial purchase as you step up to more elaborate and expensive systems because a lot of what you initially bought can still be utilized in your new system. I recorded a brief explanation of the basic equipment needed to get started brewing an extract beer. I quickly ran over the list of items with no explanation of the use of these items just to show how little it takes to make a batch of beer. In fact, if you wante...