My plan of attack was that if this thing didn’t wake up and it was Sunday … I was going to brew Sunday and pitch Baja. At some point I realized that asking the board to tell me if Baja was indeed 940/113 was a long reach. Many brewers don’t make lagers and when they do, how many brew with 940? It’s possible that no one really knows. I have brewed with 940 many, many times and I also drink Victoria and Modelo on a regular basis so I know the character. If I had brewed with Baja, I would be able to tell if it was 940 or not. I already have SIX recipes drawn up for this 113 so … it’ll be awhile. 
Older thread. I brewed today and planned to ferment with some harvested S-04 but when I took the blob out of the fridge (3 weeks old maybe?) I didn’t care for the smell of it so I checked the fridge. A pack of Omega West Coast ale but that would need a starter, IMO .. a pack of Omega 113 Mexican but again with the starter and then .. 2 packs of Baja. I remembered this thread and I remembered BB’s comments and I winced but I had no choice. I ran some wort into a sanitized flask, cooled it and added both packs just to give it a head start and I just pitched it about 30 minutes ago. I can let it sit cold for awhile if that’s what’s necessary but the biggest issue is that I would want to brew with it again relatively soon because it’s “new yeast”. But I can’t .. in good faith .. brew with it until I know I like it. Cellar Science makes NOVA as well, right? I seem to remember a bad experience with that yeast. I suppose I’ll ferment it, let it warm up, keg it and carb it and then sample it and see what happens. If it seems like a problem, I’d rather dump the harvested yeast and begin a new series with the Omega 113 .. which I know makes great beer. I’ll update this when I have something to share. Cheers Beerheads.
As I look at other reviews it’s very mixed. Many people report a lag time to start fermentation. Many describe the beer as tasting unusual when the beer is young (sulphury, a phenolic spiciness, etc) and others talk about how good their beer came out, the keg just kicked and they need to brew with Baja again.
I have positive activity here about 18 hours after pitching which is good news. Some things I read mentioned 24, 36, 48 hour lag times. Now, hopefully the yeast will make good beer.
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Let us know how you like it. I think 940 is my favourite liquid lager yeast, but a dry option would be handy. My fermentation fridge is dying and struggles to go below 15c. For S189, or ales, no problem, but 940 i like to ferment at traditional temps
I really like 940 and I can say with confidence that Omega 113 is the same strain as 940. It’s distinct but I can’t describe it. I know Denny asked earlier in the thread “how is it Mexican?”. You can’t really define it .. you can only know it based on how the beer tastes. I have read a number of things about BAJA and how it does NOT taste like a beer brewed with 940. That doesn’t necessarily bother me. I don’t need this yeast to ferment beer the same way as 940/113 but I would like the beer to come out great. Please? Thank you.
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I’m trying to understand the difference between a Mexican “lager" (and if that’s as close as we can define the style) and German “lager" in terms of yeast. The recipe is likely different, sure, but given the same recipe, what will be the difference between using a Mexican yeast vs. a German yeast. Have you ever done a comparison like that?
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Julia Child used to discuss things like this with regard to food. She would say, “You can’t define these flavors in a recipe .. you can only know them by understanding how the food should taste”. Not sure if that’s the best analogy or not. Yes, I have done that comparison because I use 940, 2124 and Omega Bayern as my main lager yeast strains and I make A LOT of lagers. I am sometimes in the mood for a helles when I have 940 up and running and so I make a “Mexican Helles”. For me it’s just the character that the beer gets from the yeast itself. If you routinely drink a beer made with 940/113, it has a distinct character just like 2124 and Omega Bayern have. Bayern screams GERMAN to me. Mortal beer drinkers come over and sample a Bayern beer and say, “This smells German”. A person may not ID the 940 beer as much but it does have a distinct character that I look for in a Mexican beer. Mexican-style beers are pretty common at brewpubs especially in the spring and summer and often I do NOT pick up the 940 character and other times I will. Otherwise the recipes would probably be different as you say .. lighter, fewer hops in the Mexican version. Remember that Maximillian came over to Mexico and declared himself emperor of Mexico in the 1860s and he brought his brewers with him. That’s why there are so many dark Mexican lagers .. they were derived from Vienna Lagers from Europe but they use the lager yeast from Mexico City.
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940 gives off a distinct flavor that, to my palate, is identical to that made by certain English strains, e.g. US04, Irish ale. Is it an ester? No idea. But I know it when I taste it. It is very noticeable in, for instance, Modelo. Also, 940 leaves behind zero sulfur.
I’ve been to some breweries that offer a Mexican lager but they use 34/70 as a cheat instead of 940. They get away with calling it a Mexican lager simply because they use corn as the adjunct. After a few delicious pints, my puritan outrage subsides.
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Yep. It’s a Mexican Lager so it’s pale and crisp and maybe served with a lime but it’s probably not fermented with 940, IMO. I’m the same .. happy to have it and not necessarily criticizing it because I know that when I make my own version it will be made with 940.
See, that I can understand! 
I’ve been wracking my feeble brain trying to think of a Mexican lager I’ve had that was much different than any other similar lager.
The best way is to just get some 940 or 113 and make a pale lager and/or a dark lager in the style of a Mexican beer. Low-to-moderate hopping, use some flaked corn, use neutral hops, etc.
Join the club. I see no difference in the flavor profile of a Corona, Modelo, Pacifico or Tecate that would differentiate those beers from a group of American lagers, say PBR, Rolling Rock, Yuengling and Coors. Yet Mexican lagers are all the craze around here…four of our six craft breweries here in town have them in their permanent lineups.
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This sounds like a good excuse for some blind taste tests at the next homebrew club meeting.
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It’s a good idea. But remember it’s just a yeast like anything else. It would be like the difference between S-04 and 1056. Or the difference between an American Lager yeast and a Czech Lager yeast, etc. Sometimes I can pick it out and sometimes I can’t. I was fishing up in Wisconsin and had some New Glarus and I swear I picked up 2308/838. I literally popped the top, took a sip and said, “Mmm! 2308!”. I know that’s weird. I was in Costa Rica and had a beer called Pilsen and I swear I picked up 2124. In many cases I can’t tell what the yeast is. In the case of 940 I can almost always pick it up.
I will have to do some taste comparisons of commercial brands head to head to see what this Mexican yeast flavor is all about. From an ingredient perspective to make a Mexican Lager, it sounds like a Cream Ale wort would be the starting point to compare between a couple of these yeasts or maybe split into 3 batches….Funny, but I didn’t know that I was this far behind in appreciating the nuances of this style.
If I want to make a pale “Mexican” lager, I do something like 70% pilsner, 20% Vienna and 10% flaked corn. Some kind of neutral hop (Hallertau, Liberty, Sterling, Loral, Spalt) to start and get the IBUs around 20 or so and then maybe a half ounce of similar or the same hop with five minutes left. Use 940 or Omega 113. If you want to taste the 940 in a commercial example, try some Modelo Especial but for me it’s often Victoria that brings the yeast character home. Sample when you haven’t had any other beer prior.
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Here about 6 days from pitching and the Baja is still slowly chugging. I can’t call it sluggish but I also can’t call it vigorous. Maybe if it was harvested and repitched into another batch it would be a little stronger .. or maybe not. The fermenting fridge temp is set at 52°. I might take it out today and put it in a warmer spot to finish up.
I think 940 definately has a specific character to it that is distinctive. I can’t say if it’s mexican to me or not, but it is definately noticeable to me. Which is strange because i would describe it as quite clean.