Looking for a Cinco de Mayo Beer

[gerg_burglar]

My dad and I are brewing Saturday for their annual Cinco de Mayo party. We're an Irish family, so any excuse to drink is a good one.

We are both new to brewing, so probably a recipe with extract and specialty grains. Looking to brew a 5 gallon batch.

My dad prefers porters; I'm not picky. But the people who typically attend the party are older, so I don't know what their preferences are beer wise.

Anyone have any good ideas for what we should brew?

Thanks in advance,
Burglar

 

[jmcquesten]

My dad and I are brewing Saturday for their annual Cinco de Mayo party. We're an Irish family, so any excuse to drink is a good one.

We are both new to brewing, so probably a recipe with extract and specialty grains. Looking to brew a 5 gallon batch.

My dad prefers porters; I'm not picky. But the people who typically attend the party are older, so I don't know what their preferences are beer wise.

Anyone have any good ideas for what we should brew?

Thanks in advance,
Burglar

Mexican lager if you're able to lager. Something like a Vienna lager with Mexican lager yeast. I've been considering making something like this myself. Something similar to Oskar Blues Beerito.

 

[BeerAddikt]

"Salty Gose the Margarita" which actually uses Triple Sec liquor to prime the bottles.

http://homebrewacademy.com/gose-homebrew-recipe/

Haven't brewed it myself yet but it's on my list.

 

[Pappers_]

Those are good and interesting suggestions, but maybe a little ambitious for most new brewers.

Going with what your Dad likes, porters, sounds like a reasonable plan. They're flavorful and there's enough going on to cover up many flaws that might creep in. Not particularly Cinco de Mayo themed, but maybe you could serve it with shots of Mezcal.

Riffing on the Vienna lager suggestion, you could do a similar sort of ale, something light like an American Wheat. I do one of those, its light, dry, sessionable, easy-to-drink, only somewhat bitter. The sort of beer you could squeeze a lime into for Cinco de Mayo! After it won a silver medal at a competition, I added it to the HBT Recipe Database https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=581953

Its an all-grain recipe, but converting it to extract with steeping grains is straightforward:

3 lbs Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM)
2.5 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM)
No steeping grains needed
0.5 oz Horizon hops (11.5%) for 60 minutes (could use Challenger or any neutral bittering hop)
0.5 oz East Kent Goldings hops (5.5%) for ten minutes
Irish Moss (1 tablespoon at 10 minutes, for clarity)
US-05 dry yeast

If you can control the fermentation temps at around 65F and ferment for three or four weeks, that should give you a relatively clean and neutral yeast flavor profile.

Cheers!

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

That's easy. Just take a cue from what most people do on May 6th.
Budweiser, Miller light, Coors, or maybe you try something daring and try corona or Dos XX

 

[Norselord]

Vienna Lager...


Not even kidding.

 

[C-Rider]

Since dad likes his Porters.....brew your favorite and then at bottling time mix in some COLD BREWED MEXICAN COFFEE. Add at bottling time gives you a chance to taste it until you get the flavor you want. I use 8 oz in 2 gallons.

 

[JonM]

I haven't used it myself, but Briess makes a Vienna liquid malt extract. I bet if you got some of that, you could make a Vienna pseudo lager with ale yeast. You'd get good results fermenting it cool with Nottingham dry yeast or 1007 liquid yeast.