June 2008 Archives

Mexican beer has become very popular all over the world the last 15 years and especially Corona the absolute top of the Mexican export beers. But Beer has a long history in Mexico. Long before the Spanish arrived Maya and Aztec people where brewing beer like beverages. Grain based (usually maize corn) were used to brew alcoholic "beer"

In the middle of the 19th century immigrants of German background and four years under the ruling of an Austrian emperor gave the Mexican beer brewing some new impulses. It was also a Swiss immigrant who started the first Mexican beer brewery who produced lager, this beer grew in popularity and at the end of the century the industrialization of the Mexican beer business was on. When in the 1920 the prohibition started in United States you can imagine Mexico became a popular country to travel, and it gave the next boost for some new Mexican beer breweries. Today Corona is the flagship beer of the Mexican beer industry. It is a very light lager (you can compare it with an American-style pale lager)

If you want to brew your own Mexican Cerveza we recommend the beer kit from the  legendary Cooper's company.

There is a funny little trick with Mexican beer we found on You Tube. For this trick you need to put a bottle of Mexican beer vertical standing inside a freezer for three hours. Take the beer out and tap it against a hard surface. Watch the magic happen before your eyes!

Mexican beer with lime and salt

Mexican beers are typically served witch a part lime in the neck of the bottle and sometimes a dash of salt, an other way to drink it is to mix the beer with a lot of juice from a lime and hot sauce. But what could be better then brewing  it your self and drink it on a warm day with friends and family.

Irish beer has a long history, as well as Irish beer brewing. In the beginning of the nineteenth century there were in total more than 200 breweries in Ireland, this fell during the nineteenth century to about fifty, and now today there are only about 12 left.

Ireland produced historically Irish beer called ale, made without hops because these were not native to the Irish country. But Ireland did not use them all through the 18th century, almost all other countries did use hobs as an ingredient because of the flavor it gave their beers.

"Most beer was imported from England and Scotland in the eighteenth century. However in 1756 Arthur Guinness set up a small brewery, moving to Dublin in 1759. Having initially brewed bitter, he switched to producing porter, which was a style from London. Unlike the London beers he used some unmalted roasted barley for his Irish beer, as this avoided tax (which was on malted barley only), making it more bitter and dry. In the early twentieth century the Irish beer brewer Guinness became the largest brewer in the world, exporting the Irish style to many countries." quote from Wikipedia

There are a number of different types of stout:

• Dry or Irish stout


• Chocolate stout


• Oatmeal stout


• Imperial stout


• Porter


• Coffee stout


• Baltic porter


• Oyster stout


• Milk stout

Roasted Barley is the key ingredient in Irish beer like the classic Irish Stout, it gives the beer a dry coffee like taste, a very dark color but still a white foam. This key ingredient is in fact at an high temperature roasted unmalted barley grain, to prevent it from burning the grain is lightly sprayed with water.

At Coopers you can buy mixes for Irish beer and the also have an excellent Complete Irish Stout Package this has all the ingredients you need to make a beer that has an impressive richness of chocolate malts and roasted barley. A wonderful Irish beer you should really try brewing.