New MKR KIT: La Cabrona Mexican Lager

Summer is almost here, where hot days in the sun are best paired with light sessionable beers. Our latest MKR KIT is the La Cabrona Mexican Lager, named specially for the summer of 2021, where we finally get to hang out with friends and family without the fear of the coronavirus. Our graphic features a sunset of the coronavirus with a couple bidding it farewell from beach chairs with a bucket of cold ones.

Mexican Lagers as a style are rather open in their guidelines. They're essentially just light lagers with a large percentage of corn. In La Cabrona, we've split the up malt base between Pilsen malt and flaked corn and added a touch of dextrin malt for head retention. For hops, we're using Vanguard-60 and Perle-20 Steam Hops. Vanguard is a US grown relative to Hallertauer Mittelfrueh and is known for it's floral and citrus characteristics. Perle give a noble spice character to the beer with a touch of floral.

Since this beer is a lager, it is fermented cold over a 12 day timeline. It's best to let this beer sit for around another week in the cold BEERTAP before trying any. That extra time gives the yeast ample time to drop out of suspension and produce a nicely clear beer and to allow any residual sulfur smell from the lager yeast to subside.

This beer works really well with an addition of lime and coarse salt. You can add these directly to the glass for a fun experience while serving, or you can add them during the brewing process. For lime, we'd recommend a whole lime squeezed and added with the grains and anywhere between 1tsp and 1tbsp of salt added at the same time. If you're not ready for a whole 12-pack of salted lime Mexican Lager, try a big pinch of salt at the bottom of your glass when you pour and a lime wedge to garnish.

Here's to a covid-free summer - cheers!