Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [86]
José and his son Ozbaldo have become impassioned and recognize that one of their major challenges is the education of the Mexican beer drinker about beer variety and things like foam, drinking out of a glass, hops, malt, flavor and the fact that lime is not needed for his beer. These are the same challenges microbrewers have faced throughout the world as they return the flavor, culture and tradition to beer.
* * *
CZECH-MEX TIJUANA URQUELL
Czech-style pilseners are something special. They are the original pilseners. They are traditionally unique with their soft, almost honeylike malt aromatics and flavor. Czech hops are flavorful and deliciously herbal, with a thirst-quenching character. This is a modern-day formulation of traditional Czech pilseners with a touch of Mexican lightness that deserves your attention. The recipe can be found in About the Recipes.
* * *
In the land of Modelo, Corona and Tecate, there are now a few more lagers from which to choose.
The Oldest Brewery in America
ETERNALLY SPRING, at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet, surrounded by volcanoes towering over 20,000 feet and only 50 miles from the hot, humid tangle of the world’s largest jungle, stands America’s oldest existing brewery. As though its surroundings were not spectacular enough, the brewery’s history inspires the mind while contemplating the origins, wisdom and tenacity of its founders over 470 years ago.
The high Andean air in the city of Quito, Ecuador, is bright, clean and easily calmed by the country’s readily available pilsener and Club Premium lager beers. Ecuador, a country situated on the equator and the size of Colorado, has a lot to offer: the towering mountains of the Andes; tropical beaches; the Amazon basin jungle; brilliant deserts; Indian, African and Spanish culture; and America’s oldest brewery.
As part of the Spanish conquest, the city of Quito was founded in 1534. It was only a matter of days before work on a church and monastery was initiated. Seven monks who had traveled to the South American continent from Flanders (now part of Belgium) brought their yearning for beer as it had been brewed in the old country. Wheat was imported and cultivated, and soon America’s first brewery was malting, brewing and fermenting America’s first wheat beer.
In the garden of the monastery one of the padres gave me a short history of the brewery, which has now been restored as a museum. Through an interpreter, he explained that cultivation of wheat was followed in later years with the introduction of barley. The small, simple brewery was popular with the growing population at the monastery and expanded into a more “serious” brewery in 1595.
Up until 1957, the five-to-six-barrel (U.S. size) brewhouse malted its own barley and sun dried it. The brewery continued operation until 1967, when according to the padre, the Pope issued an order halting brewing operations. The tradition of the Franciscan Order of Monks embraced a vow of poverty and humility, and the new Vatican’s interpretation did not perceive beer brewing as part of those values.
However, up until the brewery ceased operation the monks were brewing 12 batches of beer per week, half of which the monastery church kept for itself and the other half of which was distributed to other churches and monasteries in the area. Wheat beers and pale beers as well as very dark beers were regularly brewed, according to the padre’s story.
These beers are now only a memory in the minds of a select few people residing in Quito. The manager at the small hostel where I stayed in told me that his father used to work in the brewery. He couldn’t recall very much except a locally produced proteinous substance that was used in the brewing process. I figured it must have been some sort of clarifying agent similar to isinglass, which is derived from the swim