Cervecería Tijuana - Although we were expecting a rainy day in TJ and also a trip around town on the Mexicoach city tour, neither came to fruition. The sun started peeling through just as we crossed the border around 10:30am and the rest of the day was beautiful with a few gusts of wind to wake us up. We were given some wrong information about the time the next tour bus would arrive and how often it completed the entire loop so we didn’t end up paying the $10 to get on. The first bus left at 10:00am and goes around every 2 hours. It would definitely be an all day tour for someone looking to get to know Tijuana. I had been to most of the stops already and since my two goals for the day were to get out to L.A. Cetto and Cervecería Tijuana it didn’t make sense to pay $10 each for a tour bus when a taxi would only cost $5 total. L.A. Cetto winery ended up being closed for the holiday weekend and we arrived at Tijuana Brewery 5 minutes before they opened so we just waited outside and were lucky to be there first customers of the day.
Being the first customer let us socialize with Rene from the brewery and learn a little about the beer. Tijuana Brewery has been around for nine years and has established themselves as the leading micro-brewery in Baja Norte. The actual brewery is a large building with plenty of seating for dining/drinking/dancing or whatever you prefer. The inside is lined with amazing stained glass and photos of old Tijuana. They stay open until 2am to provide a good clean party atmosphere in the area where people can sip on quality cerveza. Out of the 6 different beers, our two favorites were Güera and Bufadora. Güera was a lighter Mexican style beer with a little
more flavor than you would expect from a Corona, Pacifico, Tecate and Modelo. A great beer to keep the party going and not fill you up with massive carbs. Bufadora was their strongest beer available both in terms of hops and alcohol content. In San Diego standards it would still fall short of what we call a strong beer, maybe comparable to Stone Pale Ale. We ended up taking home the Germany made growler full of Bufadora and I look forward to drinking it in the next couple of days.Overall Tijuana Brewery is a must visit for first time tourists and regular visitors of the area. We walked back to Ave. Revolución but at night I would recommend taking a taxi libre for a couple of dollars. If you do take the walk back, stop by the Calimax grocery store for the best prices on tequila. I found a $35 bottle of Don Julio blanco for less than $20 and a bottle of Havanna Club Cuban Rum (añejo) for less than $10. We took the rum down to Casa Del Habano and smoked a Cuban cigar while sipping on a Cuba Libre. Overall, a great trip with Karen!
