"Imperialistic " Mexican Cerveza

A couple months ago I was talking to a friend about the hoppiness of beers, and the recent imperial beer trend. I wrote a post about how I think there seems to be a trend in American brewing to make beers as big and hoppy as possible. While I can respect that people enjoy it, I think it can be excessive at times, in a very American way. Obviously everyone has different beer tastes and luckily there's enough great craft beer to satisify all those tastes.

In that post I mentioned a beer from East End Brewing Company in Pittsburgh called the Ugly American. I've never had this beer, but I loved the description: "A perfectly enjoyable classic Belgian Trippel corrupted almost beyond recognition with a completely inappropriate amount of US hops. Only in America can such excessive excesses be fully appreciated, celebrated, and enjoyed.."

I love the concept of this and the sentiment. I'm not a huge hophead, but I do enjoy hoppy beers. So that got me thinking of what I could do similar to that idea, and I came up with a hoppy Mexican Lager. I've spent a lot of time in Mexico and enjoy some Mexican beers: Negro Modelo, Bohemia, Montejo. The Gringo is based partially off Bohemia, I'll post the recipe, but I'm using Munich, Vienna and Pilsner malts. I also threw in some flaked maize to lighten up the body. But to "Americanize" it, I am using 2 ounces of Centennial hops for a 3 gallon batch. Another first for me, I'm going to use the slurry of California 2112 yeast left over from the Yinzer Lager. It'll have alot more hoppiness than a standard Mexican Cerveza (and hopefully some citrusy overtones from the Centenial hops) and at 6% abv, its stronger as well.


I'm planning on brewing it this weekend. It's not quite a true Imperial, but in the spirit of the Ugly American, The Gringo is definitely an Imperialistic Mexican lager. We'll see how it turns out.

Salud!
The Bearded Brewer