So I have some extra agave nectar and Patron tequila laying around in my house, and I crazy idea popped in my head. I borrowed some recipe ideas from other boards and threw them together to compliment the agave nectar. Here it is:
Program used: BeerSmith
Type: IPA
Batch size: 5 g
pre-boil size: 7.37 g
boil time: 90 min
efficiency: 65% (my efficiency blows because of buying pre-crushed grains).
Estimated abv: 8.5%
OG: 1.078
FG: 1.013
Pre-boil G: 1.057
Grain bill:
12#, 8oz of Rahr Pale Ale Malt.
1# of Munich Malt.
12oz of Crystal 60L
4oz of Honey Malt
4oz of Special B malt
4oz of White Wheat Malt
1# of unprocessed Agave Nectar
Single Infusion.
Mash in at 151 F for 60 minutes.
Mash out at 168 F for 10 minutes.
Flysparge with 3 gallons of water at 168 F.
At Bottling:
1 shot of Patron tequila per gallon of beer. (5 shots)
add 3.34 ounces of corn sugar to water to carb, or keg it.
Make sure to buy the unprocessed kind of agave nectar, usually the darker it is the less processed it is. I hear the less it is processed, the more agave character pulls through the fermentation.
Any ideas for changes and critiques are welcomed, as I am fairly new at creating my own recipes from scratch. Just keep in mind you may have to love tequila like I do in order to enjoy this concept.
Personally if I were to add Tequila to a beer, I’d consider a Mexican lager. I’d use a much simpler grain bill. Mostly pilsner malt with just a little crystal for some color maybe some flaked corn. And very light on the hops. Just my opinion.
I was actually thinking about that when I was writing up the recipe, but I wasn’t sure how a highly hopped mexican lager would turn out. Well, a highly hopped lager for that matter.
If you want the tequila to come through, I wouldn’t think you’d want to go heavy on either the malt or hops, IMO. Again, if it was me, I’d shot for a Mexican lager. Pils malt or a maybe a mix of Pils and Vienna for the base. Just a little crystal, maybe C20 or 40 for a little color. Maybe a little flaked corn and then real light on the hops. Something mild and low IBU’s. I’d shoot for 15 IBU’s give or take. But again, not to say your recipe isn’t a good idea. Just not what I would do. And use a lager yeast if you have the ability to lager. If not, Wyeast California Lager 2112 is a lager yeast that will produce lager like characteristics if fermented in the upper 50’s to the lower 60’s.
I just used that yeast to make a Vienna Smoked Lager. Fermented at 58F for about 5 days and slowly raised the temp to 65F over a few days. Then let it sit at 68F for about 2 more weeks. Just bottled and tasted it the other day and I have to say I’m shocked at how good it is without even lagering yet.
I wouldn’t put tequila in it, but I LOVE highly hopped pilsners. Imperial pils. DFH makes one called My Antonia that’s just fantastic. I’m actually trying to clone it this weekend. It’s continuously hopped over the 60min boil. They add hops every minute or so. I’m going to take the 3 hops (Simcoe, Magnum and Sazz) grind them all up together and add a little every 5-10mintues or so.
I do like your idea of reducing the complexity of the malt and hop bill to make the tequila characteristics be the star of the show. I guess I didn’t even think about making it lightly hopped, to me it makes sense what you are suggesting. I’ll probably be doing a little bit more of research and tweaking before I actually going about doing this.
As far as the highly hopped lagers go, I am going to have to get my hands on an imperial pils. Hell, I don’t think I have even heard of that style before, sounds incredible. I do like DFH, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled when I go to the store next time.
[quote=“Male-ale”]I do like your idea of reducing the complexity of the malt and hop bill to make the tequila characteristics be the star of the show. I guess I didn’t even think about making it lightly hopped, to me it makes sense what you are suggesting. I’ll probably be doing a little bit more of research and tweaking before I actually going about doing this.
As far as the highly hopped lagers go, I am going to have to get my hands on an imperial pils. Hell, I don’t think I have even heard of that style before, sounds incredible. I do like DFH, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled when I go to the store next time.[/quote]
My local beer store has a good selection of craft beers. It’s in one of those bigger 750ml bottles. Fancy cork and metal cage on top. Should be in the warm beer section if they have it. It’s a damn good beer.
Oh, just thought of another. Not sure where you live, but if you can get beer from Victory brewery (Downingtown, PA) they make a pilsner called Prima Pils. It’s not an imperial, but it is highly hopped and very good. I know the brewery is growing and supplying more and more areas every year. Just not sure where you are and how far they ship. They make a lot of good beers actually. If you can get your hands on any, give them a try. The only one I stay away from is their smoked beer called Scarlet Fire. It’s terrible, unless you LOVE a ton of smoked malt in your beer.
Sounds like a terrible idea(tequila) BUT, I can’t knock it until I’ve tried it. Have you ever tried adding .125 oz tequila to a similar recipe IPA? .125oz/pint is what I came up with …just a thought. Let us know what you decide!
@shredd3r, That is a really good idea! I actually did that with a witbier I made earlier to determine the amount of fruit extract to put into the 5 gallons. Worked fantastically. Measured out the calculated amount, recapped, shook, and let it sit for a bit in the fridge.
I’ll be doing that in a couple days when I have more time on my hands.
