Route 1- Mexico

      As I continue my journey sampling the best brews the world has to offer, I recently headed down Mexico Route 1 and thought I would see what Ensenada and Tijuana had to offer. It was a beautiful sunny weekend with cool ocean breezes which was a welcome break from the rare humidity that I was experiencing in my Orange County hub. The plan was to find breweries in Tijuana first, stay the night in Ensenada and check out their local scene on Monday. Unfortunately, most of TJ's breweries were closed on Sunday and so with the winds on our backs we headed south. This is the beginning of a series of entries of my visit to craft breweries in Baja,Mexico. Stay tuned as I review each of my experiences.

Trying to find the breweries in TJ and Enseneada was initially a chore. Even with my Spanish speaking companion, and GPS, we were still being lead to one deadend after another. I have no problem if a brewery is hard to find:: its the way I like it. But I was starting to have doubts whether I would taste craft beers any time soon. Problem number one was Mexico isn't exactly into posting street signs or street numbers. Problem number two was many of the people we asked didn't know what a craft brewery was. Another issue was the breweries opens on Mexican time. It may say the brewery opens at 11am but that can actually mean 4 pm. Finally, some breweries don't list their phone numbers which really can make things difficult.

       On the way from TJ, we took a drive through of the resort town of Rosarito and continued on to the restaurant, bar area called Puerto Nuevo for lunch. After arriving in Ensenada, we found ourselves on another wild goose chase as we had been initially in TJ. Finally, when we got a hold of one Craft brewery, the worker told us he didn't know his address but gave us some landmarks to help guide our way. I felt like I was back in the Navy again doing some Dead Reckoning to ascertain my position so I figured I had a shot at finding the place.

The first brewery we made to was Cerveceria Transpeninsular. The brews were solid but most of all I was thirsty. The brewery had a nice casual interior with multiple reminders on the walls of the journey many travelers taken down down Mexico through the years. It would somewhat like if a brewery in the states had a Route 66 theme. I was a modern tasting room with  palm trees that penetrated the building and then left the room through the roof which was kinda cool. It had an upstairs loft with an inside patio and a small area for outside seating with a beautiful view of the Ensenada harbor. The staff was awesome, who described in detail the brews in the flight we ordered and then they provided a map of all the craft breweries in Ensenada. Exactly what we were looking for and we were on our way. Cerveceria was one of the most spacious and comfortable tasting rooms on the journey and I highly recommend it with its location slightly North of Ensenada Proper.

Stay tuned for the next entry on Baja Craft Breweries