Cervesa style beer with agave nectar added...

[idaho_outdoorsman]

Newbie here with my first post. I've only done one beer that I just bottled yesterday (American Hef.). From tasting it flat and warm I think it's going to be great. I'm kind of a seasonal drinker so my next brew will probably be a Mexican style lager (Cervesa if you will). I'm going to be doing partial extraction for now. I already want to play around with recipes and want to add some agave nectar, why brew if its ordinary and boring right? (Really enjoy the Dos Eques Azul). My question is this: Who has tried this and how did it turn out. Also how much should I add to a 5 gallon recipe to add a little sweetness. And I'm assuming it would be after knockout? So basically how much should I add and at what point? Thanks for any feedback in advance, cheers!

 

[Kent88]

Haven't tried it and am not familiar with agave nectar, but any simple sugars are just going to ferment out and actually leave it more dry. If you are looking to keep a beer a little sweeter and you're doing a mini-mash, keep the mash temperature up around 156F, maybe even as high as 158F. You could also use certain steeping/specialty malts which have starches that wont ferment out. Lactose could also be added and brewers yeast wont ferment that, but it doesn't add much for sweetness (unless you add a ton of it, maybe), it is used more to add body.

I like your "why brew if its ordinary and boring right?" attitude.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Agave nectar has very little flavor. It is mostly comprised of simple sugar, and, as mentioned above, will ferment very completely. It will not add significant flavor to your beer and is likely to dry it rather than sweeten it.

I made an agave nectar "mead" a few years ago. The end product tasted like a sweet white table wine (sweet due to a high OG coupled with a yeast intended to finish sweet).

I've not had Dos Equis Azul, but if you're aiming for a beer infused with tequila flavor, you're better off just adding some tequila before bottling.

 

[asterix404]

So this is going to be very hard for two reasons. The first is that you will be lagering in the summer time. You will want to keep temps no higher than 55. The second is that you are going to make a light lager beer which means anything you mess up will show and show big time.

That said, a nice dry lager is nothing to sneeze at. Those beers are typically very thin. What you will find though, is that extract brewing doesn't work as well as all grain. This is not true of all beers, like heff's, but for lagers it will show and show big. If you are serious and love it, like I think most people do, get a brew in a bag setup going and keep the mash at 150. You will want to use pilsner or 2-row. Check out recipes online but I can almost always tell an amber lager that is extract based. It will not get you want you want almost all of the time. That said, I do know adding extra light DME is a decent way to kick up the sugar but you want very little body with these beers. Theses are kicking back on a summer day beers. For beer that is very similar, check out Dusseldorf alts or steam beers. Trust me, it is very funny but Mexican Lagers and German steam beers are linked very tightly.

 

[idaho_outdoorsman]

Thanks for all the great feedback!! Glad I found such a helpful community of brewers and asked first. I will definitely be trying something different from what I had originally planned. Looking for something light with a little sweet and/or citrus to it.