New World beer styles

When I want to waste time writing about Andalusada, I don't write about wars, or countries, or heroes; I write about food, guns, and theology. This particular article, about New World beer, is one that I've been meaning to write for quite some time.

Beer isn't beer isn't beer. Czech beer is different from Austrian beer is different from German beer is different from Dutch beer is different from English beer. And those styles are going to
As a basic rule of thumb, the taxonomy looks something like this:

• Latin American beer styles (and this includes those of Hispano-Baltic Texas) are based primarily on north German/Polish beer styles, with some later adjustments in Mexico and Brazil based on royal marriages and the like.
• North American beer styles are based primarily on Scottish styles, with some crossovers from Scandinavia and other parts of the British Isles (due in no small part to the presence of New Ireland.)
• Atlantic coastal beer styles are primarily Anglo-Dutch, with a bit of crossover from Scottish and Irish styles from North America.
• The UCNA's beer styles are a melting pot of its neighbors, with the exact details varying by region.

Having said that, let's unpack how this stuff plays out.

The beers of Latin America

IRL, Mexico's brewing industry dates back to the Second Mexican Empire:

The industry truly began to develop in the latter half of the 19th century, due to an influx of German immigrants to Mexico and the short-lived Second Mexican Empire headed by emperor Maximilian I of Mexico of the House of Habsburg, an Austro-Germanic ruling family. The emperor had his own brewer, who produced Vienna-style dark beers.

Brazilian beer started a little bit earlier, but note the timeframe as well: 1830s? 1853? This is during the reign of Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil.

The tradition of brewing in Brazil dates back to German immigration in the early nineteenth century. The first breweries date from the 1830s, although the brand Bohemia is claimed to be the first Brazilian beer, with production starting in 1853 in the city of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro.

Andalusada being what it is, both Mexico and Cabralia are still empires. (Both of them rather ostentatiously call themselves "Grand Principalities" instead, because they originally had no claim to royal blood.) In fact, the beer culture is even stronger, because neither Mexico nor Cabralia has an Iberian ruling dynasty.

But it's also enormously different, because unlike IRL that beer culture is primarily drawing on northern German styles. We think of Mexican beers as Pilsner styles, gold and fairly light; in Andalusada the classic Mexican beer is a strong black stout.

This is a work in progress. It will be expanded upon.