Turn of the last century Mexican homebrew

a work colleague of mine found that I brew beer and shared a recipe he found in his great grandmothers effects after she died. His grandmother said that her mother brewed beer at home in Mexico and that this was the recipe. It is in Spanish so I cant read it and his rough translation made no sense on portions. I have uploaded an image of the recipe and will try to figure out how to get his translation up as well. Please help if you can. It would be neat to try a homebrew from recipe over 100 years old.

The image is too grainny to read properly. Can you rescan at a hgher resolution? If necessary, send me the file to the address in my profile.

this looks too interesting to pass up!

I have a pdf file that is better quality but it exceeds the file size for the forum. I will send to your email

Well, I tried but cant figure out how to attach a file to a private message. I uploaded the file to a webstie. Here is the link It was a bit difficult to scan as the paper is reddish and the writing is rather light

Hopefully someone can translate and re-post. I'd really like to see this.

Man I hope so as well. Cool stuff

I would like to see a translation as well.

Cheers and good luck

I'd be happy to provide permanent image hosting for the image on my paid webhost. In addition, conversion if it's a PDF.

Bump. Any luck, OP?

I'd also love to see it - translated or not!!!

I'm trying to collect and brew as many old-school recipes as I can from all around the world - I'd love to try brew a Mexican recipe!!!

BorealBrewer said:

I'm trying to collect and brew as many old-school recipes as I can from all around the world - I'd love to try brew a Mexican recipe!!!

Click to expand...

Have you gone through the links in my beer history sites thread?

There's links and all matter or historical recipes in that thread....

Some of it is a little hard to read, but we might be able to work with it. My girlfriend grew up in Venezuela and is fluent in Spanish and English. I'm sure she could do a pretty good job.

i'm bilingual and can read what is legible but some of it is so faded it's hard to make out. also, some of the measurements are unfamiliar to me; 60 cuartillos of water for example. it looks like the recipe started on a previous page so the first part is cut off.

i have to head home from work but i'll chip away at it later on. it does not look like a very promising beer i have to say. the only thing in there that looks like a recipe includes honey (150g), cream of tartar (200g), and a bit of barley (1lb) along with the orange peel and coriander mention before.

Downloaded, converted, and cleaned it up a bit. Fixed the contrast and brightness levels to enhance the readability. Also toned slightly to make it easier on the eyes, so it's no longer a black and white.

OP, if you have an original non-PDF scan, I can get much more out of this. PDF is a lossy format for images by design.

Click the yellow banner for super-zoom, or click the image a few times to see it full-size on my host.

1 cuartillo = 0.514 liters = 0.54 quarts = 0.135 gallons

There are actually two recipes here. One is for 200 "quartillos" of beer and the other is for a mead, Miel de ? (Pielon(?)).

The author gives us her own conversion for cuartillos to grams. "Hot water 1500 gramas = 3 cuartillos". So, 500 grams of water = 1 cuartillo or 1/2 liter = 1 cuartillo. Although she also approximates 250 grams as 8 ounces.

The writing is a bit hard to discern properly. The first recipe appears to be for a wit beer: 2 ounces of corriander, 12 ounces of orange peel

Actually, the meady looking part appears to be the bottle conditioning sugaring. Sorry.

Here's the best transliteration I can come up with. Translation next...

Para 200 cuartillos de cerveza se toma 7,500 gramos aproximadamente son 15 libras.Semilla cilantro 2 oz. Lupulo 375 gramos com 12 oz. Corteza de naranja agria 60 gr ó sea 12 oz. Fermento de cerveza 250 gramos. 8 oz.

Se hace hervir el Lupelo y la corteza de naranja por una hora en 60 cuartillos agua pura cuando falte una cuarto de hora para terminar se pone la semilla de cilantro que solo debe hervir un cuarto de hora, y cuando (?) esta caliente se (/) en una barril de capacidad de 200 cuartillos, que se acabara de llenas con agua de la mejos clase porque este es de la major importancia. Se (?) por ulitomo 250 gramos de fermento (?) en una copa de agua y se mescal todo perfectamente (?) con fuerza, y al caba de algunas horas si la altura es poco elevada comienza desde luego la fermentacione es caforandose por la boca del barril á medida que se derrama se va llenando de agua en la que de antemano se á echo una segundo cocimento de lupulo…

…cilantro, cómo se tiene aicho antes cuando la espunia disminuje es que east echa la cerveza.

La cerveza calrificia con 4 gramsa be buche de pescado ó de cola de grenetina, que se desuelbe 1o (primero) en agua;echo esto se mescal ó agitaa furtemente con un palo (?) cuando algunos los hacera pasar por filtros finos.

Pasados dos dias se procede al embotellaje poniendo á las botella lafrones de corcha amarradas con una pita.

Miel de pilon 150 gramos – 5 ounces
Agua caliente 1500 “ – 3 cuartillos
Cremo tartaro 200 “ – 1 oz
Cebada prepared 500 “ – 1 libra

Todo esto se remuele muy bien hasta que se enfrie cuvien dose para que no se verifique la fermentacion, sí nó hasta el acto de (?) de el.

For 200 quarts of beer, take 7,500 grams, about 15 pounds. [unknown grain] Coriander (2 oz). Hops (375 grams) about 12 ounces. Orange peel (60 grams, or about 12 ounces). Yeast (250 grams/8 ounces)

Boil the hops and the orange peel for an hour in 60 quarts pure water. At 45 minutes into the boil, the coriander should be added to just boil a quarter of an hour, and when (?) this hot is (/) in a barrel of capacity of 200 quarts, which filled with purest water, because this is of major importance. Is (?) by at least 250 grams of yeast (?) in a cup of water and everything is mixed perfectly and with force, and after a few hours, if the yeast is fermenting, put it in the barrel measure a spilled starts filling up with water which in advance is to make a second cooking hops…
…(?), how you made before when foam diminishes is this to take the beer.

Clarify the beer with 4 grams of isinglass or gelatin, which is dissolved in water first; then this is mixed or agitated strongly with a spoon then passed through a fine filter.
After two days put the beer in bottle tied with a wire.

Honey from pilon(?) 150 grams – 5 ounces
Hot water 1500 grams – 3 quarts
Cream of tartar 200 grams – 1 oz
Prepared barely (malted) 500 grams – 1 pound

Cool this mixture so that it does not damage(?) the fermentation.

I'm afraid that's the best I can do. It's not much of a recipe and it leaves a lot to be desired as far as details.

Perhaps others can fill in the details.

Looks like once it all comes together, it's pretty close to a standard White Wit recipe with orange peel and crushed corriander seeds.

Piloncillo is a type of unrefined sugar common in Latin American cooking, could be what "Honey from pilon(?) 150 grams – 5 ounces" is...

Thanks for the translation ianw58, 200 quarts of beer with only 15 lbs of grain in it? sounds like a watery weak beer to me.
or did I miss something in the recipe?

If Im understanding the recipe right, it looks to me like its a 60 quart mash with the 15 lbs of grain (Im assuming) then boil with additions, then put into the barrel, top off barrel with water, make a yeast starter and add to barrel, add yeast starter to barrel, after krausen falls, prepare and add the rest of the hops, (wait Im assuming again)
Clarify with filtered gelatin for 2 days, then add a prepared and cooled mixture of pilon, water, cream of tarter, malted barley and bottle.

Anyone else getting other information out of this recipe that I missed ?, and a 16 lbs total grain bill for 200 quarts/50 gallons of beer? or is this a 60 quart recipe, boiled down 60 minutes ? that makes more sense to me, but its not how I read the recipe.

Anyone have any insight?

Cheers