Thumbs Up For The Mexican Cerveza
1181 days agoFinally had a chance to share the Mexican Cerveza with my friends a few days back and well, most of them loved it! Seemed that you can’t go wrong with the Cooper’s kit. I have tried the Australian Pale Ale, the Pilsener and now the Mexican Cerveza and it seemed that everyone enjoyed the brews. Anyway, there were some complains though. Some of them said that the beer was a bit too weak for their taste. I have to agree with them. I have not taken the readings when I made the brew so I am not too sure about the actual ABV of the beer but my best guess would be about 3%? It does really need some more kick to make this Mexican Cerveza a real beer. We are not wasting so much effort and time to make root beer right? So maybe the next time I do this brew again, I will be adding a little more dextrose. Do note that the Mexican Cerveza is actually a light lager and thus, is not supposed to be strong. But I think a more appropriate ABV should be like 4-5%.
I am also finding ways to make the colour of my brews lighter. From what I read in the forums, brews made from malt extracts will often be darker. This is mainly due to the malt extract preparation process as well as carmelization during boiling. There is no way to prevent carmelization from happening. Even with the late malt extraction method, the resulting beers will usually be darker than from what we see at the stores and from all-grain brewing. The boiling of bittering hops will require a amount of malt extract in the wort. And to add bitterness, you will have to boil the hops in the wort for perhaps 45 minutes to an hour. This will definitely darken the brew. Some people said that it’s the taste that is more important. To a certain extent I agree but the problem is getting beginner drinkers to drink homebrew. If you show them a dark coloured lager, I am sure most of them will freak out. In Singapore, most of us grow up on Tiger beer, a kind of light lager and with that, our concept of beer is all beers are light golden brews. I am not suprised that most Singaporeans had never seen an ale before in their life.
Anyway, I should be bottling my Apfelwein this week or next week. I am still have a slight cough and when you are sick, you should not brew. Definitely don’t want any germs to get into the beer (or wine). I must wait till my cough is completely cured before I attempt any brewing at all. I will keep you guys updated on what is happening to the Apfelwein. One of the complains I have is that it can be a little sour. This time, I have added two cinnamon sticks. Hopefully the cinnamon will impart some sweetness to the Apfelwein. And how appropriate, Christmas is coming! Good time to enjoy Christmas with Apfelwein!
