Agave Cerveza

[Foothiller]

Amazon and other sources sell an "International Series" pack of 2 refills: Oktoberfest Lager, and Aztec Mexican Cerveza. I and others have had good results with Oktoberfest, but the Cerveza has not had as good of reviews. So, I am trying alternative recipes for the Cerveza. I made the following as a simple recipe, and found it to be tasty midway through conditioning, so I entered it in a county fair that had entries from all around Northern California as I was also submitting another entry (knowing it would condition more before judging) - and won an honorable mention. I also shared this at my homebrew club meeting, and got many compliments as well as discussion of using an unusual ingredient with good results. In a 2.25 gallon batch in the LBK, my recipe was:

1.87 lb Mr Beer Mexican Cerveza
0.5 lb Pale DME
0.4 lb Booster (half bag), hoping for head retention
0.5 oz Cascade hops in a 20-minute hop boil
0.7 lb Agave Nectar
Mr Beer dry ale yeast

Use the normal procedures, but add the agave nectar one week into the fermentation, ferment for a total of 3 weeks, and bottle-condition for 4 weeks. I fermented in the low 70's.

There have been a variety of descriptions for the fermented agave flavor: dry wine, honey-like, tequila, apple, apricot, etc. An area for improvement is that this ended up with little head, and it probably would have done better if it had head.

While it was fermenting, before developing the agave flavor, I had the impression the Cerveza would make a nice base for fruit beers - so that will be what I try next.

[BeerRust]

Amazon and other sources sell an "International Series" pack of 2 refills: Oktoberfest Lager, and Aztec Mexican Cerveza. I and others have had good results with Oktoberfest, but the Cerveza has not had as good of reviews. So, I am trying alternative recipes for the Cerveza. I made the following as a simple recipe, and found it to be tasty midway through conditioning, so I entered it in a county fair that had entries from all around Northern California as I was also submitting another entry (knowing it would condition more before judging) - and won an honorable mention. I also shared this at my homebrew club meeting, and got many compliments as well as discussion of using an unusual ingredient with good results. In a 2.25 gallon batch in the LBK, my recipe was:

1.87 lb Mr Beer Mexican Cerveza
0.5 lb Pale DME
0.4 lb Booster (half bag), hoping for head retention
0.5 oz Cascade hops in a 20-minute hop boil
0.7 lb Agave Nectar
Mr Beer dry ale yeast

Use the normal procedures, but add the agave nectar one week into the fermentation, ferment for a total of 3 weeks, and bottle-condition for 4 weeks. I fermented in the low 70's.

There have been a variety of descriptions for the fermented agave flavor: dry wine, honey-like, tequila, apple, apricot, etc. An area for improvement is that this ended up with little head, and it probably would have done better if it had head.

While it was fermenting, before developing the agave flavor, I had the impression the Cerveza would make a nice base for fruit beers - so that will be what I try next.

Idid a very similar recipe with MAC, and it came out great.

1 can MAC
1 pack light DME
1/2 Ozs. Of Casade hops last 5 mins
Zest of 2 limes
1/4 cup honey

The taste was great. I saved one to try next summer to see how the result may change.

[tomtravelino]

Did a similar LBK recipe, Lime Cerveza.

1 lbs light DME
1 oz Saaz @ 20
.5 oz Hallehaue @ 10
At flameout added
Actez HME
1/2 cup lime juice
Zest of 2 limes
1/2 cup Agave

[asnider]

I did a version of the Chile Lime Beer recipe on the Mr. Beer website, using a mix of dextrose and maltodextrin in place of the Booster, and it turned out great. I was hoping to make another batch using jalapenos from the garden but our pepper plants have proven to be a failure this year.

[Foothiller]

There seem to be some possibilities here, using the Cerveza HME as a base. That's handy since it comes bundled with the Oktoberfest HME in retail packages.

[nighthawk]

Did this recipe with 4oz of maltodextrin instead of the booster and a full volume boil. Had it ferment 3 weeks and cold crashed in a 40 degree refrigerator for 3 days prior to bottling. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

[mashani]

There seem to be some possibilities here, using the Cerveza HME as a base. That's handy since it comes bundled with the Oktoberfest HME in retail packages.

It is one of the refills I can find a use for. Last time I had it I added some amber dme and some Northern Brewer hops and made steam beer using Caifornia lager yeast. It made a really good steam beer.

[Trollby]

I did a Lime version with Agava but the yeast stalled on me when I bottled so it never carbed. It hit it's FG so I thought was fine.

I been drinking flat versions here and there to just drink up.

[nighthawk]

Finally got to taste this one and it's a keeper. The addition of the agave nectar adds a bit of ethanol bite at the end, but the addition of the hops and dme really bring this one out and the maltodextrin gives it a full mouthfeel (or so she said.) Not much in the way of head retention, but I've heard rumors that the Mr. Beer recipes are notorious for that. Got another batch in the lbk brewing right now; decided to try adding another 0.5oz cascade as a dry hop 1 week into the fermentation. So yes, the Mexican Cerveza HME can be saved.