Agave Mexicana
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 10:50 am
A Navaho friend of mine helped me find/dig/and clean up the penas from several agave Mexicana's. They aren't as big as the commercially grown azuls.
I baked 'em in a pit like a pig at a luau.
I ground 'em and fermented 'em with wine yeast. A 20 gallon ferment after draining off the liquid and pressing the fiber in cheesecloth yielded 13 gallons at aprox 5.5% abv.
Twice through the pot stills (15.5 gal and 6 gallon for finishing) and watered down to 90 proof gave a mescal with much more flavor than tequila, yet oddly delicate and soft on the tongue.
I'm very happy with the results. Not so happy with my "Inca Rice" batch. I did the mash with 90/10 inca rice/2-row barley and the ferment stalled at only 2% abv. I added some amylase enzyme and the ferment re-started, but is still slowly fermenting.
I baked 'em in a pit like a pig at a luau.
I ground 'em and fermented 'em with wine yeast. A 20 gallon ferment after draining off the liquid and pressing the fiber in cheesecloth yielded 13 gallons at aprox 5.5% abv.
Twice through the pot stills (15.5 gal and 6 gallon for finishing) and watered down to 90 proof gave a mescal with much more flavor than tequila, yet oddly delicate and soft on the tongue.
I'm very happy with the results. Not so happy with my "Inca Rice" batch. I did the mash with 90/10 inca rice/2-row barley and the ferment stalled at only 2% abv. I added some amylase enzyme and the ferment re-started, but is still slowly fermenting.