Gypsy Jan - 7-26-2012 at 03:20 PM
by Derrik Chinn/Baja.com July 25 2012
"To understand beer culture in Mexico, you first have to understand its recent lack thereof
Mexico bows beneath the weight of a historical beer duopoly. Two companies, Grupo Modelo in Mexico City and Monterrey-based Grupo
Cuauhtemoc-Moctezuma, dominate the domestic market with a familiar cast, namely Corona, Tecate, Pacifico and Dos Equis. Thanks to these brands, the
general international consensus regarding Mexican beer is that it is meant to be consumed in large quantities, preferably in the sun alongside emerald
waves, and always requires shoving a lime wedge down the bottle to enhance its flavor.
But just across the border, San Diego is home to a highly concentrated amount of some of the world's favorite craft beers, so much that in 2009 Men's
Journal named the city the beer capital of the U.S. It was only a matter of time before that growing objection to the mass-produced likes of Budweiser
and friends would begin to seep its way under the border wall and into Baja.
Such a shift in the tide of colloquial beer tastes eventually gave rise to the Asociacion de Cerveza Artesanal de Baja California (the Baja California
Craft Beer Association), a group of 40 or so homebrewers that for the past two years has organized its annual Baja Beer Fest, usually held in Ensenada
in March. Last weekend the fest made its Tijuana debut, a two-day run of some 100 local craft brews in front of the historic Jai Alai building (one of
the city's oldest) between Seventh and Eighth streets on Avenida Revolucion in downtown Tijuana.
This was the Baja Beer Fest, mind you, which isn't to be confused with the TJ Beer Fest, a more commercialized ordeal orchestrated by Cerveceria
Tijuana and San Diego's Stone Brewing Co. that was happening a few miles east in the parking lot of the Caliente casino. What exactly led two major
beer fests to take place in the same city on the same weekend is a complicated tale, but the 20,000-peso stand rental (about $1,500) at the latter is
essentially what led ACABC to organize another round of its own fest, this time in Tijuana and simultaneously, deliberately right under the TJ Beer
Fest organizers' noses. The competition proved confusing for many but for craft beer devotees, this was without a doubt the place to be.
Seven in total turned out for Saturday's cross-border ride to the fest from Bottlecraft beer boutique in Little Italy; not surprisingly most were
seasoned cyclists looking to offset the impending cerveza buffet. (True bike folk rarely need a reason to ride but when it involves crossing an
international border, an excess of home-brew waiting on the other end is definitely an incentive.) It's not every day you embark upon a self-propelled
journey from one urban extremity such as San Diego - one of the world's most romanticized - to another that is arguably one of the world's most
misunderstood. Needless to say, the experience is as underrated as it is surreal.
The 20-mile route took us from downtown San Diego along Harbor Drive over to Main Street, through National City and Chula Vista along the eastern
stretch of the Bayshore Bikeway and into the sagebrush beyond Dairy Mart Road before finally arriving at the San Ysidro pedestrian border crossing.
There, the peloton dismounted and front tires pointed at the sky, awkwardly shuffled through the turnstiles and into Mexico. Minutes later and now
officially in Latin America, we were chaining up our rides at the fest alongside, appropriately, a zonkey named Monica. (Zonkey: a donkey painted to
look like a zebra, timeless Tijuana icons for better or for worse; also known as a burro rayado.)
Just on the other side of the gates was Francisco Talamante, ACABC president and founder of Ensenada-based Cerveceria Canneria, a Spanglish reference
to the port city's many fish canneries. Who better to ask where to begin the sampling marathon? Aside from the cup of Canneria's La Bombera red ale in
his hand, that is. For hoppy, Virgilio and Insurgente. For malty, Ramuri and Kudos. But more important, he recommended sticking to the 2-3 oz.
samplers that each brewer was offering for around 10 pesos (75 cents or so), saving full pours - priced at 35-50 pesos ($2.50-$4) - for personal
favorites.Aside from a one-off walk-up at Cerveceria Kili - makers of an oaky Irish red ale and a stout brewed with Turkish and Guerrero coffees - and
a random IPA at the Baja Craft Beers stand, a tasting room set to open in La Cacho in late July, that's exactly how the afternoon played out. The
strategy of asking each brewer where to head next in a sea of options proved productive, maybe even elitely curated, at least for an open-ended pallet
like mine."
Hook - 7-26-2012 at 04:10 PM
Really good writing.
I imagine the beer was just as good.