DENVER, CO— Bierstadt Lagerhaus and their RiNo neighbor Finn’s Manor have teamed up to release a beer sourced from Mexico. With strong roots in tradition, Bierstadt takes the four ingredients, water, yeast, malt, and hops, a strict Reinheitsgebot process, and their resurrected brew kettle from Germany to perfect the classic lagers they are passionate about. Although they are rooted in tradition, it doesn’t stop them from deviating from their three core offerings to create these seasonal “fun” batches of beer to enjoy, such as Cerveza Clara y Mas Fina Especial.
Our Content Editor Karen Mills caught up with Bierstadt Lagerhaus about this unique new beer. Here’s what co-owner Ashleigh Carter had to say.
What inspired this particular recipe?
We got the idea talking to Thomas owner of Finn's Manor (an incredible cocktail and beer bar). They have a great Mezcal selection and actually took their staff to Oaxaca to learn about it. He proposed the idea of a beer for Cinco de Mayo/spring that took actual corn from Mexico and we thought about it and figured we could pull it off as long as we were able to find the corn. Thomas looked around and found this company called Masienda that have loads of different heirloom whole corn from Oaxaca.
How did you decide on Oaxaca corn?
Pretty easily actually. Once we were set on how we could incorporate the corn, we got 6 samples from Masienda to choose from. We all decided unanimously on the Bolita Azul and Bolita Belatove, a blue and purple/red corn with really wonderful floral sweet corn aroma. We actually bought a little mill to grind it all up. We then used a cereal mash for the corn, cooled it down and added the malt, and treated it like one of our regular beers. Single decoction house yeast and fermented at 48F. I think it turned out great. Light, subtle corn aroma and sweetness, and balanced bitterness. Add a lime!
Any additional insights to the beer itself?
We loved this beer so much that we will probably make it every year as our spring seasonal. Not many collaborations or one-offs ever make it into the regular rotation but this was a really special and fun beer.
ABOUT BIERSTADT LAGERHAUS
At Bierstadt we craft lagers the traditional way, and nothing more. Discover what we believe at bierstadtlager.com.