This is becoming one of my favorite beers lately. I have made it 5 or 6 times and tweak it a little bit here or there. When I had a bunch of family over in March (15-20 beer drinkers in the house), I tapped this beer around 4pm on a Friday and the keg burped around 2am Saturday and people were drinking from my three other taps as well. I just made this beer twice in the spring of 2013 and I have the latest batch of it on tap right now. Check it out…
[b]Bordertown Mexican Dark Lager
5.25 lbs Pale Ale Malt or Pilsner Malt (I used Canada Malting 2-row for this last one)
3.00 lbs Weyermann Vienna
1.00 lbs Flaked Corn
6 ounces Belgian CaraMunich 45°L
2 ounces Midnight Wheat
5.2 AAU Hallertau Tradition pellets for 60 mins
1 oz Hersbrucker pellets 2.8% for 20 mins
Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager yeast
OG: 1.050, FG: 1.013, IBU: 30, SRM: 14, ABV: 4.8%[/b]
I mashed at 151° (single infusion for 60 mins) and I also used 25% distilled water to lower the bicarbonate. I have used debittered black malt in the past but used Midnight Wheat in this one and it’s really nice. Very smooth with some color. I made this one with White Labs 940 Mexican Lager yeast originally but 2124 works very well also. I happen to have 940 working in a batch of Cabana Lager at the moment and I may just make another batch of Bordertown and use the 940 before I retire it. A pic…
Looks tasty Ken! Any particular bordertown in mind when you named it?
Well, no. I did originally use White Labs 940 Mexican Lager yeast so that’s where the Bordertown thing came from. I’ll leave that up to the brewer’s and/or beer drinker’s imagination. Cheers.
This recipe looks great! I have been wanting to make a Mexican Lager for my first lager attempt. I have one question though that I haven’t been able to get an answer to. What is it that gives Mexican beers their unique flavor? Is it a combination of the recipe or more the yeast used?
Looks like a great beer. Is the taste similar to anything I might be able to find at the store?
Here’s another shot of it:
For the answer to that, go to my site and click on MEXICAN BEER PAGE. I asked the same question on that page and got to an answer thanks to a pro brewer. Once you read that the Germans and Austrians set up a lot of the Mexican brewing infrastructure, you might look at Mexican beers differently. Or not.
It might be a combination of things. When I go down there, I stay away from Corona, Sol, Tecate, etc. and focus on Dos Equis Amber, Victoria, Leon, Negra Modelo and Indio. It’s possible that Indio is sold in the US now but it wasn’t a couple years ago. Victoria (a 4% Vienna Lager that is light but very tasty) has been brewed in Mexico since 1865 and started being sold in the US (Chicago was first) in 2010 and is rolling out across the US. When I put this recipe together, I had Indio in mind which is a nice, simple & refreshing dark beer. White Labs 940 is one key to making this beer but 830 or 2124 will work as well. Cheers Brothers.
Thanks for the reply. Your website looks great and is very interesting.
Ken’s website is indeed outstanding. Just like his posts. I have learned a lot from him, particularly about brewing lagers, which was timely since today I kegged an oktoberfest and a helles bock that were both brewed a month ago. If only I could have some of his beers…
Cheers Ken - much obliged.
[quote=“jeebeel”]Ken’s website is indeed outstanding. Just like his posts. I have learned a lot from him, particularly about brewing lagers, which was timely since today I kegged an oktoberfest and a helles bock that were both brewed a month ago. If only I could have some of his beers…
Cheers Ken - much obliged.[/quote]
Cheers, my friend.
:cheers:
