Miel De Agave Pale Ale Revisited

If you recall from the beer/food pairing event I did last year at the 'El Burrito Bistro', one of the beers was a pale ale that was brewed with an addition of miel de agave syrup that I called Agaveza Pale. You can read about that experience here.

That beer was made with a commercial agave syrup that had a subtle, almost undetectable flavor. I decided it was worth brewing again in an effort to have the distinctive flavor of agave shine thought, supporting the maltiness of the grain. I headed out one morning in search of a more flavorful product.

Well, I came across a small company at the local market and tasted their offerings. What a difference, the flavor is bold with the distinct character of the agave plant. This agave syrup producer is a small company call La Montanesa. They're agave is dark brown with the smell of toasted bread and brown sugar, which is a pleasant surprise because the raw juice of the agave has a foul flavor. Evidently, cooking it down some really helps. In this new recipe, I left the grain bill the same and added eight ounces of this better tasting agave syrup and tweeked the hops by adding some late additions of a Cascade and Centennial blend. I'll let you know how it comes out and I'm hoping it's good enough to serve again at this years beer/food pairing.

In the mean time, I've got plans to brew an all-grain batch of a double IPA and then a dry stout.
I may not use any local ingredients in these beers and just go for good examples of these classic styles. Once these are finished carbonating in the bottles I will sit down with Noren Caseres (the owner of El Burrito Bistro) to taste and plan a menu.

P.S.
I'm really getting frustrated trying to collect enough bottles to reuse for all the beers I'm brewing. My original plan to bottle in the large 3.3 litre plastic carbonated water bottles didn't work out satisfactorily. What's happening is that an excessive amount of yeast sediment accumulates at the bottom of the bottle from the natural conditioning and when the cap is remove and the carbon dioxide is released, it begins to draw up this sediment and causes the beer to get murky. If all of the beer is dispensed quickly, it's not too bad, but the up and down motion of pouring into several glasses really agitates this sediment. “No me gusta murky.” One solution may be to dispense the entire content of the bottle into a pitcher and then fill the glasses from there. Any suggestions are welcome.