Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [87]
The brewery was preserved as a museum with the help of two Ecuadorian breweries, Cervezas Nacionales of Guayaquil and Cerveceria Andina of Quito. Adjacent to and part of the museum is a preserved beautifully small, beer hall. The flavor of it all seems to linger as a cross between Flemish and Germanic brewing traditions. A visit to the monastery brewery is well worth the effort if you ever find yourself in the city of Quito. And I know the padre appreciated the bottle of my own homebrew that I gave him after our tour of the brewery at the monastery of San Francisco.
The following is partially excerpted from an article by Paul V. Grano about the brewery and the brewing of one type of beer by the monastery. The article appeared in the January 1966 issue of The Brewers Digest.
Established in 1534 the brewery at the San Francisco Monastery, Quito, Ecuador
The brewhouse consists of a copper-lined concrete mash kettle, a wooden lauter tub with a bronze false bottom and a hot water tank made of an old German hop cylinder. All heating is by direct wood fire. Thirty-three pounds of pilsener malt plus 50 pounds of caramel malt and 20 pounds of black malt (milled in a coffee grinder in the monastery) are mashed in and the usual infusion method is followed. Since the agitator, which was installed for the Fathers, is inadequate they have to take turns in stirring the mash in order to avoid burning on the bottom. This is quite a hot and heavy job.
The mash then runs to the lauter tub by gravity, and the wort is pumped back to the mash kettle by hand. Here 100 pounds of brown sugar dissolved in hot water is added. The hop rate for the batch is two pounds. When the boiling of the wort is finished the wort once again runs by gravity to the surface cooler and is left there over night. The next morning, the yeast that we [La Victoria Malting/Brewing Company] provide them is added and fermentation goes on at about 60 degrees F (15.5 C). The original extract is about 10.5 degrees balling and when the beer has fermented down to one degree balling above the end fermentation the beer is bottled immediately. The bottles are filled through four siphons and crowned by hand. The empty bottles as well as the crown corks were [recently] given to the monastery by our brewery when this type of bottle was discontinued for commercial purposes some years ago.
The fermentable extract still in the beer produces about .5 percent CO2 by weight or 2.7 percent by volume after 10 to 12 days of storage when the beer is ready for consumption. The alcohol is about 3.4 percent by weight and the taste is very pleasant. The Fathers are served one glass for lunch and one for supper. About one hour before serving, the crown corks are lifted slightly; otherwise the beer would pour like champagne.
To conclude, I would mention a small episode, which took place a few weeks after we had first agreed to assist the Fathers. I went over to the monastery to ask the “Brewmaster” how the beer had turned out, to which he answered me with a smile that where he had previously used one padlock to close his storeroom, he now had to use two!
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QUITO ABBEY ALE—1534
Taking the proportions of malt, sugar and hops as revealed in the 1966 recipe, I’ve formulated a small-batch recipe that closely matches the character of beer brewed in the final and 432nd year at the monastery. This recipe can be found in About the Recipes.
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The Brewing Soul of Cuba
THE ELECTRICITY and lights are out in my neighborhood, Charlie, but not to worry. There is no problem.” No problem—yes, the universal phrase spoken in every language, taking on infinite degrees of unreality. We found ourselves winding our way through the streets of Havana, ending in a western suburb. One street block was electrified; another was night dark. We stopped, and the noise of his Russian-built automobile slowly gave way to the vibrancy of the tree-lined neighborhood. The engine pinged as it cooled. I slowly rolled up my window