I know I'm a few years late in responding to this post, but I wanted to post anyway to help those who'll see this later on .. I've been in Mexico for about 4 years and brewing for 2 after getting hooked by an uncle of mine... I've found that homebrew ingredients and equipment are sometimes hard to come by and sometimes a little more expensive here than in the states, but overall, now not too bad and getting better.
For equipment, I'd say your best off DIYing it. Still a bit more expensive than in the states, but defiantly cheaper than buying online locally or tying to import. Hand carrying what you can back from the US works too for smaller items of or some of the harder to find hops and yeast (Simcoe comes to mind
). You can do extract here, but extract ingredients are extremely limited. You'd be better off doing all grain. Pots and corona mills are cheap if you know where to look. ...and home depot was the ONLY place I found that sells 10gal rubbermaid drink coolers (though their selection of copper fittings leaves little to be desired).
I never had any problems with mexican customs when hand carrying hop pellets, priming sugar or yeast, though things were well sealed and I did label things well, "beer sugar/azucar", "beer yeast/levadura" or "beer hops/lupulo" for example and I had a receipt just in case)... Bringing a copper wort chiller in the suitcase though did make the process a little interesting (just stay calm and explain what you have a - a water cooler/chiller)...
For ingredients, I can recommend 3 sites (at least the 3 that I've found).
- Homebrewingmexico.com out of Mexico City - (actually, got this from the post above). I've found that they are a little more expensive than the other 2 but sometimes they have things that the others don't... They're a little trickier to pay (you have to make a deposit in a local bank) but otherwise they're all right. Pretty quick responding my email (hadn't tried in English, but no problem in Spanish). The only site of the 3 that I've seen that sells 6-row also if you're looking for it. Reasonable selection of basic hops too.
- haztucheve.com out of San Luis Potosi - I've used this site the most of the 3, mostly though as their prices are cheaper than the previous and their selection is reasonably respectable. Their selection of grains has been good and I've seen recently that it's been changing. For example, a while back they had 2-row and some of the more common malts (caramel 40, munich, Vienna, wheat, chocolate, ...) then more recently out of 2-row but a lot of cara-xx malts... Hops selection is a little deeper that the previous, but also seems to rotate.
- fermentando.com out of Chihuahua - I just stumbled on these guys. Prices a tad higher than the others, but they sell in dollars and the others in pesos (and at this moment the exchange rate works better for you if buying in pesos)... Their selection from what I've seen is the best of the 3, but there are things the others have from time to time that i didn't see here... I'll try them out more over the next months to see how they keep playing out.
I've bought from all 3. All have been reliable and I feel good with them. Shipping was longer with Homebrewingmexico - more than a couple of weeks (if you've been in Mexico long, you know that this is more the norm than the exception), but the other guys managed shipping (from store to door) in less than a week. The 2nd and 3rd places I listed take PayPal which is more convenient than trying to find time to head to the bank to pay. Quality has been good overall from all 3, no major complaints. I didn't see any site that sells liquid yeast. Plan ahead and hand carry with you if you prefer over dried.
I'd only say take a little care with the local shipping company Estafeta (like a Mexican internal version of UPS). They're ok, but I've seen (at least for me) that they like to deliver to the house mid-morning. If you're not there, typically they'll leave a note and try back 2 more times. If they miss you all 3, it's return to sender. Normally it's not a problem, but their office hours are short in the day (which makes it sometimes hard to go and pick up if you can't be in the house waiting for them)... Maybe try sending to a company address instead if you see this as a risk.
Remember too, use good common sense when in Mexico. It's a different country. These are my experiences (feel free to use them), yours may vary (so use them at your own risk).
Anyway, hope this helps someone in the future. If you stumble across other websites or have other advice, post back to help those later on!
On a slightly (un)related note, I have picked up some bottles from the Minerva microbrewery out of Jalisco... Good stuff!
Good luck!
