Mexican style lager yeast

Hello my friends,

A friend of mine has asked him to brew a maxican style lager (same style as Corona which is his favourite lager).

I explained to him I will try my best to make something that tastes similar, but that I probably cannot make something that tastes the same.

I have access to Wyeasts in my country (Norway), and my local homebrew shop has some lager yeasts:

- Wyeast 2000 Budvar Lager
- Wyeast 2001 Pilsner Urquell H-Strain
- Wyeast 2035 American Lager
- Wyeast 2042 Danish Lager xl
- Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager
- Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager
- Wyeast 2278 Czech Pils (lager)
- Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager
- Wyeast 2633 Octoberfest Lager
- Wyeast 1007 German Ale

Which one do you think is the closest one to Corona? If none are, I may be able to order one from England if you can make a recommandation.

I've not drank a corona for years, so I do not remember much about its characteristics.

Thank you for your time,

Kind regards,
Marius Jonsson

If there's any way for you to get White Labs yeasts they actually have the corona yeast as a platinum strain, WLP940. Minus that though, If I were to say that the Munich Lager yeast. Most of the breweries in Mexico were created by Austrian brewers in the Vienna style, so let that guide you. What's your plan for a grain bill?

Pale malt,
Carapils,
Flaked rice,
Saaz,

I want to make a high gravity recipe as well. On white labs website, it has medium alc tollerance. How high OG gravity do you reckon it could ferment to finish?

Thanks for your time.

Marius

I'd probably do something like this (in percentages, I'm at work right now, so no beersmith):

75% pils malt
22% flaked corn (corona and most mexican styles use corn, not rice)
3% carapils

Mash it low, 146-148F for 90 mins. 12-15 IBUs or so of saaz at 60mins
Shooting for an OG of about 1.045 I'd say.

as for the percentage that the yeast would go to, I'd say if you build a big starter it should go to 10% pretty easy, as long as you do some good fermentation management.

Good luck.

Sorry, I meant corn, not rice.

Thanks

Marius

I don't know, I'd be skeptical to go above 10, although you could e-mail white labs and ask them, they'd probably respond pretty well.

If you are wanting to use the same yeast to make a Mexican style lager and a higher gravity lager, I would probably choose the Munich strain. While it may be a tad malty for the Corona clone (2042 might be a little better), it will work well, and for the higher gravity beer it will give you a more complex malt profile.

The White Labs strains and the WYeast strains are, for the most part, the same yeast with a different name. Yeast Strains

that and remember leave your carboy in a window in the sunlight a day or too
thoes hops arnt going to skunk their selves.
so you have an athuntic clear glass corona taste

Or just bottle in clear bottles! I did that for a cream ale awhile back, I bottled 2 six packs in clear bottles and left them in the sun.

If it's a light-colored, clear beer and bottled in clear glass bottles it only takes a few minutes to skunk it. There is a good article on light-struck/skunkiness in the most recent Zymurgy (the 'Session Beer' edition).

I recently took an intentionally light-struck Belgian Pale Ale type of beer to a family get together (my mother's birthday). I just wanted to demonstrate the difference (I also brought a non-light-struck Belgian Pale Ale in a brown bottle). Of course, as soon as my mother tasted the light-struck beer she said it was her favorite. So I guess I'll be skunking more beers in the future. Glad I didn't throw out those Corona bottles!

Just briefly, what does shrucking mean?

Thanks,
Marius

It's that taste and smell (skunk) that corona and other beers that are bottled in clear bottles have.

The Chemistry of Skunky Beer | BenchFly Blog

Skunks are only found in N. America, so you might not be familiar with it, but have you ever smelled really stinky good pot? Kinda like that.

BarleyWater said:

Skunks are only found in N. America, so you might not be familiar with it, but have you ever smelled really stinky good pot? Kinda like that.

Click to expand...

No I am not familiar with it, but I know the smell of pot very well.

Thank you

Marius

I suppose you could go the other way...a skunk smells like a Corona.