DESTILADO DE PULQUE: Notes from Rodolfo de Razo (Maestro Pulquero) Rancho San Isidro is a collective of over 40 families that work together to produce 3000 liters of pulque per day. The ranch is 10 mins from the town of Nanacamilpa in the state of Tlaxcala (about an hour from CDMX). The Razo family heads up this collective. They are 5th generation pulque producers. Pulque from Rancho San Isidro is mostly sold in the traditional pulqueria market in CDMX. They supply pulque to these historical pulquerias: Las Duelistas, La Reforma de Carambolas, La Victoria and La Risa.
PULQUE LINGO: Tinacal: The traditional fiberglass fermenter/bath used to ferment pulque. Tlachiquero: The person who collect the agua miel. Castañitas: Fiber glass vessel (yellow colour) that the Tlachiquero uses in the field to collect the aguamiel.
LABOR INTENSIVE PROCESS: In Racho Isidris the Tlachiqueros collects the aguamiel two times a day -between 6am-9am and 3pm-6pm - 40 families carry out this work. Each Salmiana Manso agave will provide 20 liters per day (10L in the morning and 10L in the afternoon) for around 3-4 month. The collection of the aguamiel begins by removing the crown of the agave at the top creating a bowl shaped hole in the center. Each day after collecting the aguamiel, they use a shape scraping device to shave off a thin layer around the bowl which allows the aguamiel to seep out.
For each Salmiana-Manso agave, the process of harvesting the aguamiel begins when the agave is at the point of maturity (8-14 years). Just as it begins to flower (shoot up the Quiote), the Quiote is removed (this is called sterilization). Rodolfo explains that if the plant is allowed to flower, the inulin sugars in the plant will be reduced by up to 85%, as all the energy is put into flowering. So the ideal point is just as this process begins because the plant is at its sweetest in preparation of the final flowering. After the sterilization cut is made, the agave is left for 6-8 months to age so all the elements return from the leaves to the heart of the maguey.
After the aguamiel is collected and put into the tinacals, it takes 24-48 hours to ferment and transform from the sweet clear liquid into the viscous pulque (depending on the temperature/sugars).
This is the end of the Pulque process, but for Pulque distillate, this ferment is put into a copper column still and distilled twice. The puntas of the final distillate comes out at 70 % alc. vol. 100 liters of pulque makes around 10 liters of distillate so it's a super low yielding process.
