Beer Saturday - Minerva IPA: Artisanal Mexican with a West Coast Taste

And once again I am back for another #BeerSaturday. For those who don't know, it's a weekly contest that's in its 354th week. Does that make it the longest running challenge on Hive? I don't know for sure, but it would not surprise me one bit. Take a look at this week's prompt post and if you know a good beer you want to share, publish a post about it. There are also some cool prizes you can win...

Another Craft Brew from Mexico

The beer I would like to introduce today is made by the Minerva brewing company, located in Zapopan, Jalisco, which is a town within the metropolitan zone of Guadalajara. They offer a number of varieties, but the one I found, which I was quite happy about, is their IPA.

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The Minerva website informs us that they are indeed a craft brewery, by checking three important criteria: Most importantly, they are independent from the huge beer conglomerates, which every commercial brewery is part of here in Mexico. Secondly, they are considered small, which sounds as relative as can be, but they define it by producing less than 1% of the amount of beer consumed in Mexico, estimated to be about 125,000,000 hl in 2019. Finally, and this is where things become interesting, they are traditional. This means, that allegedly they follow the Bavarian purity laws of 1516, according to which the only ingredients that can possibly be used are water, yeast, hops, and barley malt.

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I admit, I am not an expert in the matter, but the reason it's so hard to find a nice IPA in Germany is precisely their adherence to said purity laws. But hold on, wasn't there a beer I featured in one of my own BeerSaturday posts last year where I raised the same question? So clearly, either I misunderstood something, or this purity law is not taken that strictly after all...

All the Qualities of a West Coast IPA

Minerva describes its IPA as brilliant golden colored West Coast IPA with a fruity and citric aroma. In spite of its very colorful description, the beer's actual taste reminded me a lot of the very delicious IPAs I got to sample in Vancouver and Victoria, as well as all the way down the coast through Oregon and California. So West Coast is spot on! The brewery also recommends it to be served between 10 and 12 ˚C to accompany mature cheeses, hamburgers, or BBQ ribs. It sounds as delicious as it was for me. Too bad this beer is not being sold in the corner stores around the place where I live!