New craft beers are appearing across Guadalajara as local brewers have begun cooking up bubbly options beyond the ubiquitous cerveza clara or cerveza oscura.
The beers made in small batches carry a higher price tag than mass produced ones. Even so, they’ve been selling, especially in bars and restaurants along Avenida Chapultepec, where they add a unique flavor to the area’s vibrant night life.
Local brewers wouldn’t even have a chance to succeed if people in Guadalajara weren’t open to learning more about the sudsy drink, said Christian Reyna, a brewer with Cerveceria Reyna.“They are giving themselves the opportunity to try new beers,” Reyna said “That’s something that wasn’t happening years ago.”
Reyna started brewing out of an interest and appreciation for beer. He started sharing his concoction with friends who told him it was good enough that he should try and sell it. In 2011, he entered his American brown ale, which he calls Rock, into the Beer Judge Certification Program in Mexico City and it brought him a gold medal for being the best in that style.
Now he’s selling his brews in nine locations here in Guadalajara. He’s also distributing to Puerto Vallarta and two other Mexican states.
Reyna said he tries to add personality to his beers. One of his more recent brews is a seasonal he plans to make available in September in honor of Mexican Independence Day. That beer, which he calls Septiembre, is an IPA, or India Pale Ale, aged for eight months in tequila barrels.
Reyna likened brewing to selling tacos. People can buy tacos on almost any corner of Guadalajara and pretty much every stand uses the same ingredients, so what drives a person to any one in particular? Reyna answered that it’s often the personality behind the taco, and he tries to add that to his brews.
Another set of local beer makers, José Antonio Valdivia Avila, Pedro González Centeno and Pedro Trujillo, are working to perfect the quality and consistency of the Diógenes pale ale they brew.
The trio has only been cooking their ale since January and they’ve had to deal with some challenges as they come up, but with time the quality has improved, Trujillo said.
“Each time making the beer, it’s getting better,” he said.
Diógenes is available in alternative bars and restaurants, primarily along Avenida Chapultepec and other locations in Colonia Americana, largely because Trujillo already knows business owners in the area. Personal connections, he said, can go a long way in helping brewers distribute their beer.
The three do have plans to grow their operation to other parts of the city and to brew in other styles, but not until they can maintain a high enough level of quality, Trujillo said. After all, consistency in the product is a major challenge for small brewers.
Trujillo said he’s interested in having his beer more widely available in restaurants so people can learn that craft brews can be paired with food. Also, he wants to broaden appreciation of the drink to people outside of the bar scene.
Indeed, the desire and interest for craft beers in Guadalajara has progressed to a point where Valdivia Avila teaches a course on brewing.
To that extent, he’s spreading his knowledge throughout the city and Reyna himself is included as one of his students. While there’s some natural competitiveness among brewers and some boast about their own concoctions, the overall sentiment is that it’s best to support a local brewer and experiment with a new flavor.