Valentines Day Beer? Here is a brewer's guide for curing a heartbreak.

Alas, Valentine's Day is near.  Some love it.  Some loathe it.  Whatever your opinion, everyone admits that chocolate is good; and there's lots of it on Valentine's.

Although wine tends to be the socially accepted festive drink of this unofficial holiday, why not do things a little differently this time?  After all, variety is the spice of life.  Therefore, do yourself--and of course, your significant other--a favor, and drink a STOUT this time around.

However, as mentioned previously, Valentine's is not favored by everyone.  In that case, if you're heartbroken and you feel that your life is not worth living, you have ever MORE of a reason to drink yourself silly with a stout.  It's good for you, and it will make you feel better.  The doctor says so.

Here's why:

Reason #1.  The chocolate.  If you don't like chocolate, you don't like life.

Reason #2.  The coffee.  If you don't like coffee, you probably eat puppies.

Chocolate and roasty, coffee goodness.  Enough said.

RECOMMENDED STOUTS:

1 -Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout.  This beer is addictive, and is therefore well worth the price.  Who can refuse the name? 

2 -Brooklyn Dark Chocolate Stout.  Very, very roasty with large hints of coffee and dark chocolate.  Its namepulls no punches. If you are newly single and heartbroken, cry no more. This great offering has got you covered. 

3 -Founder's Breakfast Stout.  Widely considered to be not only one of the best stouts, but one of the best beers in the world, Breakfast Stout is rich with Kona and Sumatra coffee and genuine cacao. Try this one and you will end up like a baby who drank his breakfast too fast.

4 -Young's Double Chocolate Stout.  A world-class favorite, although naysayers scorn the overly sweet and Nestle-esque quality of the chocolate . Try this in a bottle and then the canned version and see if you taste any difference.

5 -Left Hand Milk Stout.  Smooth, creamy, and complex, it's hard to resist the subtlety on the palette provided by the lactose in this one. You may actually fool yourself into thinking there is in fact a trace of milk in your beer. 

In a holiday steeped in often pointless traditions and gimmicks (because we all know that giant teddy bears = true love), Valentine's has been done to death.  You owe it to your partner to add a darker, tastier, dreamier, more complex and ultimately more fulfilling side to your relationship:  Go with a stout.

-Marc & Dan

Dark Beer vs. Light-Colored Beer: Does Color Matter?

These days in the United States, the craft beer industry is booming.  Ales and lagers of various tints and hues find their ways into the bars, taverns, and store shelves of even the smallest, less involved communities.  But what’s with the color?  After all, everything that the U.S. has grown up with for the past 30 years has been the inoffensively light-complected offerings of Bud, Miller, and Coors.  Surely the light-colored stuff is the real deal.  Surely REAL beer cannot possibly be red, brown, or even black.

With so many questions racing through the minds of those less acquainted with craft beer, one of the questions always remains the same—“Why is THAT beer so DARK?” (*look of disgust).  The answer is simple:  it’s all in the grains.

As it turns out, different beer styles call for different types of grains.  Different types of grains yield different flavors.  And different flavors create a fascinating world of brews that require your attention…NOW.

However, there’s still that soul-searching dilemma that confounds those new to craft beer:  “Why would anyone want to drink a beer with so much alcohol?  That’s what dark beers are, right?”  Simply put:  No.  Not necessarily.  The color of the beer does not determine the alcohol content; the amount of sugars extracted from the grains determine the alcohol content.

For example, Bud Light Platinum at 6% ABV contains more alcohol by volume than Guinness Draught at a mere ~4.1% ABV.  Heck, Bud Light, Miller Lite, and Coors Light all have higher alcohol content than the O-so-dark beer, Guinness Draught.

That said, color isn’t so important.  The color of the beer really doesn’t make much difference in overall heaviness or taste of the beer.  Though the color of the beer could be used as an indicator of how the beer will most likely taste, that’s not always clear cut, either.  Perhaps the real importance of a beer’s color just depends on someone’s personal preference.

-Marc & Dan

By the way, these are our beers ;)

2014 Border Beerfest

A diverse and congenial group of people showed up to support the growing craft beer movement in Laredo. From Clown Shoes in Massachusetts, to Big Sky in Montana, to Sierra Nevada in California a pretty good representation of craft brew was available.

The South Texas Border Beerfest is a rather new tradition to the city of Laredo. It is a showcase to the rapidly growing phenomenon of the Craft Beer movement. It is wonderful to see a growing number of people going out and seeking out beer for the craft that it is.

Getting to meet the many beer enthusiasts from around town was the best part of the night. The sizeable crowd and the excitement they had for sampling the gamut of beers available was inspiring and refreshing.

Being able to finally meet local homebrewers and people interested in homebrewing was equally exciting. I was impressed with the willingness of other homebrewers to share their collective knowledge with everyone. That kind of passion motivates me to keep brewing and is what will help Laredo to emerge into a craft beer locale in the near future.

My experience at the Border Beer Fest was a great one, and I'm more certain than ever that this town of 250,000 residents is ready for the first craft brewery. Prost!

-Marcus

Superbowl CraftDay 2014

After seventeen weeks of regular season, a couple of play off games, and a revived pro-bowl game; the big game is upon us. By now all the grief of your fantasy football season should be over -- the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks face-off to crown the next NFL Champion.  This is a time where housewives know more about football than your favorite ESPN analyst,  but only a few of us know how to pair craft beer with snacks, meals and other savory treats. So let's take a quick look at which brews you can drink while watching the big  game.

Vienna Lager--Our Pick: Sam Adams Boston Lager

There is really nothing more American than eating a hamburger while watching the Superbowl. We suggest you pair your hamburger delight with a Vienna lager. Well balanced carmel/toffee notes and crisp drinkability in this style will compliment your hamburger well and keep you coming for more.

American IPA--Our Pick: Stone IPA

If you prefer to indulge in savory hot wings then our suggestion is to pair your wings with an American IPA. The spicy flavors in hot wings blend very well with the intense citrus flavor of hop goodness creating a balance that you will enjoy; enough balance that will have the approval of Peyton Manning.

Hefeweizen--Our Pick: Weihenstephaner Hefe Weiss Bier

What if you plan on eating pizza on game day? A great pairing with pizza is a Hefeweizen. The refreshing German wheat beer is an excellent choice with pizza. The subtle notes of banana and clove are bound to satisfy your Superbowl hunger.  

Richard Sherman may have more picks than these, but what say you? Comment below with your food/craft beer pairings...

Dan & Marc: A Quick Look

Welcome ladies and gents! We are the brewers Dan Garcia and Marcus Guerra. We are currently home brewers with a lot of passion! Our greatest mission is to open Laredo’s first brewery. As brewers, we aim at starting a revolution in our hometown the best way we know. We want to brew great beer that our community can enjoy. We want to build something our town can call its own and be proud of.

Our story is still young, but it is growing every day.  It has been a year since we started brewing beer at our homes. Marc and I were not yet partners but we both experimented with brewing beer independent of one another. Our original goal was simply to brew beer that we personally liked and not have to go to the store to buy good beer. Let us be clear in saying, brewing quality beer is NOT easy. It takes many trials and setbacks to fully understand how to brew and do it correctly. This is especially true when some of our early beer smelled and tasted like a donkey’s rear end (but never mind that). Eventually, after a lot of practice it became clear to both Marc and I that we had come up with delicious beer on our own. This beer we thought, was tasty enough that it might be able to compete with some established beer brands. That was how our idea manifested itself, and as partners, we could combine both our passion and resources together and open up our town’s first craft brewery.

We see ourselves as ordinary men who still believe the American dream can be achieved if your want it bad enough. We are not technicians who spent years at a brewing academy. No, we are your everyday gentlemen craft beer connoisseurs who decided to take our love of great beer to the next level. And we are both ready and willing to do all that is necessary to make our dream a reality.

Mission: Ground Zero

We seek to establish the first craft brewery south of San Antonio.  There are currently no craft breweries in South Texas, and we would like to ensure that this changes.  Along with crafting beer in a manner that blends Old World and New World techniques, we will create recipes that define who we are as we explore the heritage and culture with which we are most familiar.

Beer is not simply a drink to us.  Beer is what we do.  We believe that beer helps make the world go round—that a well-crafted beer can do so much more than occupy a few minutes.  Quite simply, we believe that beer can change the world.

In the next 5 years, we believe we will be playing a pivotal role within the state of Texas.  Beer enthusiasts and casual drinkers alike will find much to love about our brews and our take on the growing craft beer culture.

All- Grain Brewing Day

Mashing the Grains

So what is All-Grain brewing? What is the mystery behind using grains to produce beer? Lets review the basics of what happens in a typical all-grain brewing day. Making the switch to All-grain brewing will require a brewer to purchase some additional equipment that can go from a simple to an elaborate system. Each system is suited to the individual needs or wants of the brewer.

But now lets skip to a typical brewing day and how a brewer will go about it. The All-grain brewing process will require a brewer to have three vessels that will each have different jobs. These vessels are the Hot Liquor tank, Mash/Lauter tun, and finally the brew kettle. The first vessel is Hot Liquor tank or HLT. LIQUOR TANK?? Hold on now? Are you saying you add liquor to beer? Now, wait a second, the brewer is not storing Whiskey or Tequila in here so do not panic! The HLT is where all the water that will be required for a brew day will be stored and heated for use. The second vessel Mash/Lauter tun is where grains are mixed with hot water that is supplied by the HLT and at the right temperatures to extract sugars from the grains that will eventually become beer.  Finally, the sugary substance (now called WORT) that has been extracted in the Mash tun is Lautered (drained/removed from grains) into the brew kettle. Almost simultaneously, as Wort is exiting the Mash tun vessel, brewers begin what is called a Sparge. A Sparge is when additional hot water is added into the Mash tun as hot wort will be exiting into the brew kettle. This is called Continuous sparging where water is moving into the Mash tun as wort is exiting.  Once the last of the sparge water has rinsed through the grain bed and picked up the last of the fermentable sugars and has exited into the brew kettle then the final step will begin.

Are you lost? Don’t worry I used to think it was confusing to be moving so much fluid everywhere. But I will show you some illustrations and videos to help you understand this process better (It is really quite easy). Anyway back to the brew day. The wort is now separated from the grains and in the brew kettle. At this point the wort is brought to boiling temperature for 60 minutes to complete the brewing process and to kill any contaminants that may have gotten in the beer. During the 60 minute boil is the time when brewers normally add hops, spices, sugars and just about anything that comes to mind. Believe me this is why it is called craft beer because you can add just about anything to the beer at this stage brewers can get quite creative. The boil is now over and the beer must be brought from boiling to a temperature that is suitable for yeast to thrive and ferment. Once the beer has been cooled to a nice cool temperature and the brew is transferred into a fermentation vessel, the brewer will add the final ingredient; yes you know it, THE YEAST! The yeast is what will convert all the fermentable sugars the brewer extracted into CO2 and Alcohol. Most beers are ready to be either kegged or bottled within 2-4 weeks.  

            This is the basic process that any brewer of any scale must do in order to produce beer. The beauty as I said before is how a brewer goes about brewing their beer, or what they add to the beer?  Craft beer is partly a science but a big part of it is just plain art.

A brewer is the artist, his equipment is his blank canvass, his ingredients are his paint, and his knowledge is his brush. Now he has an infinite amount of possibilities that he can create. It really is a wonderful and rewarding experience to brew and learn from every mistake that is made. A brewer must persevere and never give up no matter how many times things do not go his way.

-Cheers!

Dan Garcia