World beer culture in the middle of Mexico

Restaurant and brewery concept | In the middle of Mexico one private brewery is proving that sophisticated beer culture isn’t simply a matter of brewing high-quality beers. BRAUWELT author Sylvia Kopp visited Compañía Cervecera Hércules in Querétaro and discovered a great beer venue with an inviting beer garden and a company that understands brewing, beer culture and the restaurant trade.

It’s three hours by car from Mexico City, battling through extremely heavy traffic that gradually thins out, to the city of Querétaro, which feels liberating with its pretty houses and churches from the colonial period, its well-kept parks and pedestrian zone that meanders from square to square, lined with shops, restaurants and cafés. In 1996 its historical centre was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The capital of the state of the same name numbers around a million inhabitants, has its own airport and is one of Mexico’s boom towns – thanks to the region’s growing automobile, aviation and aerospace industry.

Unique beer culture

It’s thus no coincidence that Querétaro is also home to one of the most ambitious craft breweries in Mexico: Compañía Cervecera Hércules, an independent private brewery founded in 2011, that has made it its goal to brew the best beers in the country, no less, and enable people to experience a unique, high-class beer culture. The brewery is housed in the historic walls of an old textiles factory, idyllically set in a valley within the urban area.

The drive takes us past workshops now used by jewellery and natural soap manufacturers and draws us into the former factory complex. Walking from the car park across an area used for open-air concerts, cinema and dance events, we finally reach the heart of the brewery: the Jardin de Cerveza (beer garden), laid out in a spacious courtyard with trees and awnings, flanked by arcades that accommodate the brewery’s reception, its modern multitap bar and other facilities. Wood, natural stone, stone flooring and white linen reminiscent of the former weaving mill next to halls constructed from steel and concrete create a clean yet warm atmosphere. There’s room for 800 guests here: the Jardin de Cerveza is an attraction visitors often queue to get into at the weekends.

International cuisine, international beers

The food is a mixture of Mexican, European and German cuisine: Bavarian white sausages, carne en su jugo (meat in its own juice) Jalisco style or telera (rolls) filled with Hungarian goulash and cheese produced locally. Everything the brewery makes is served here, from European lagers, pale ales and saisons to experimental brews with local ingredients, such as a Mexican porter with black corn or a saison with flor de Jamaica (hibiscus flowers). Although many of Hércules’ beers are tipple for connoisseurs, the beer garden isn’t simply for those who want to talk shop but rather a place for everyone to enjoy a relaxed beer or two. “Most of our service personnel have a Cicerone certificate, but we nevertheless don’t expect any guest to talk beer if they don’t want to,” says head brewer Josh Brengle. At the bar they work not just with cooled kegs and CO₂ but also with nitrogen, English casks and the associated hand pumps and with pitched Bavarian wooden barrels for tapping. On a good weekend, he claims, up to 2000 litres of beer are sold in the beer garden.

Expansion of the output

This wasn’t always the case. In the first few years of the brewery’s existence, beer sales were stable but low. The beer garden hadn’t yet been opened. The owners, descendants of the textiles factory founder, had a classy beer and restaurant concept in mind that would reflect the glory of the former factory. The brewery’s output and orientation were to be expanded. They thus hired Brengle as head brewer in 2016. He had previously spent six years working for Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, Florida, as their production manager, among other posts, and had followed his future wife to Mexico City. He and his family moved to Querétaro for his new job. Brengle likes living here. “The city has a lot to offer in the way of culture and cuisine. There are even vintners and cheesemakers here.”

Capturing the Mexican market…

Brengle and his team have developed a vast portfolio of 70 to 100 different beers. “My aim is to test the Mexican market with this variety and understand it better,” he says. He explains that the trends in Mexico are confusing and vary from region to region. The company’s bestseller in Querétaro is their Macanuda brown ale, whereas in Mexico City their Súper Lupe IPA is the biggest hit. “We’ll gradually cut down to a smaller, high-quality portfolio of 35 beers,” he states. In doing so, the head brewer observes traditional values: the use of natural ingredients and raw materials and brewing handicraft. “We try to preserve the authenticity and origin of each and every style as best we can,” Brengle explains. “Even when we create something new, we make sure that the basic style is still recognisable.”

Máquina Schwarzbier has gentle toast-like flavours, a fine herby hop aroma and a balanced bitterness – dark yet light. The sun-gold Bolsita de Aire saison is dry and yeasty, refreshingly refined with woody-herby and citrusy aromas of lemon grass. Ráfaga, an unfiltered pale ale, has a pronounced yet polished bitterness and surprises with flavours of yellow fruit and citrus. Irish dry stout, Czech pilsener, smoked porter – there’s hardly a style Brengle hasn’t mastered.

We also mustn’t forget the beers created by spontaneous, mixed fermentation and those matured in wooden barrels. Slightly aside from the beer garden and brewhouse but still in one of the many factory halls is the production plant for Hércules’ spontaneous and mixed-fermentation beers. There are two foeders in the hall, a copper coolship and over 200 wooden barrels. “Our beer production process is still something of a practical experiment,” admits Brengle, “and involves listening to advice from colleagues!” He thus works with Jester King founder and wild fermentation expert Jeffery Stuffings from Texas to this end, for example.

…with German brewhouse technology

Brengle confesses that his passion is classic lager, however. He therefore chose a German systems manufacturer for the new, larger brewing plant. I did indeed almost bump into Thomas Neckermann, project manager for Kaspar Schulz, when I visited the brewery. He was in Querétaro just before me to discuss the details. In a brief phone call, he enthused about the cooperation with his Mexican customers. “Next spring we’ll supply Hércules with a six-vessel brewhouse with a capacity of 35 hectolitres.”

Brengle doesn’t just find traditional techniques important but also functions that improve the stability and shelf life of his beer. This starts with the pre-masher: Kaspar Schulz will supply their Optimasher that allows the agitator to work more slowly and gently, meaning that less oxygen enters the wort and lautering can also be completed faster. The new lauter tun is extra-large so that strong beers also pass through this process step quickly. Hércules will also take delivery of a second smaller mash pan for decoction and mash boiling.

Own yeast and sour wort propagation

Brengle swears by Sauergut or sour wort, something he’s familiar with from Bavarian brewing. Using Sauergut encourages protein precipitation and boosts fermentation and foam in a traditional manner without using auxiliary agents such as enzymes. Hércules will thus procure two reactors (vessels), in which the brewers can make their own Sauergut. Two yeast propagators will also be supplied so that the brewers can independently grow the many strains of yeast they work with. The scope of supply also includes a wort pre-cooler, if required, and a single-stage wort cooler with extra space between the plates for fast and efficient cooling to bottom-fermentation temperatures. “We’ll be working with deaerated water throughout the entire system,” says Brengle. “Besides the CCVs in the fermenting room, we’ll also have two open fermentation tanks for traditional lagers, wheat beers and British ales and a row of horizontal storage tanks for refermentation and maturation. We’re already really looking forward to our new setup.”

The flotation tank ordered is interesting as this piece of equipment is otherwise now seldom used. The Bamberg systems manufacturer also had to trawl its archives for suitable construction plans. A flotation tank is used to remove the cold trub from the wort. For this purpose, compressed air is injected into the wort at the start of primary fermentation to aerate it and provide the yeast with additional oxygen so that it can get to work. At the same time, tiny bubbles form that drag unwanted trub up to the surface where it can be skimmed off. As soon as primary fermentation starts, the wort is pumped into a fermentation tank. All things considered, this is an extra, not inconsiderable step in the process that serves to remove fatty acids, polyphenols, undegraded carbohydrates and proteins and heavy metals which can take part in oxidation reactions. Reducing these residues can lengthen the beer’s shelf life.

Long shelf life a must

A brewing process that ensures stability and long shelf lives is especially important in Mexico. “We don’t have any cold stores or a cold chain in beverage logistics. This makes it very hard for craft breweries like us who don’t pasteurise to distribute our beers to a wider area,” states Brengle. This year, Hércules will produce about 9500 hectolitres, filled in equal measure into kegs and cans, of which 95% will be sold in Querétaro and Mexico City, according to Brengle. “If we want to sell our beer in all 32 states, we need longer shelf lives,” he emphasises.

Procuring raw ingredients and recruiting specialist personnel are also a challenge in Mexico. “We’re not as close to the USA as you might think and imports are a tricky and expensive matter,” Brengle explains. And as far as human resources is concerned, he continues, “the Mexican craft beer scene is still relatively new; it’s thus hard to find qualified people with experience.”

In this context, it should be pointed out that Querétaro’s lively city centre isn’t a major tourist destination – most visitors are day-trippers from the state capital and, first and foremost, local citizens who work in the state’s numerous industrial parks and come into town to enjoy themselves. A lot of them are from outside Mexico, for the infrastructure, schools and educational institutions – not forgetting the perfect climate – attract foreign investors. – Why not also experienced brewers from Mexico or abroad?

We shouldn’t fail to mention that Hércules not only operates a brewery and beer garden but also runs an elegant hotel on the factory premises. In the centre of Querétaro there’s also the Almacén Hércules, a sales centre with a refrigerated warehouse (!), bottle shop and restaurant. And in Mexico City Lagerbar Hércules with its patina green tiles in the Condesa quarter is one of the pubs you absolutely must visit. For this is beer culture at its finest!