{"id":19,"date":"2010-10-11T04:23:30","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T04:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westcoastersd.dreamhosters.com\/?p=19"},"modified":"2010-10-13T23:09:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-13T23:09:00","slug":"pour-favor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2010\/10\/11\/pour-favor\/","title":{"rendered":"Pour Favor – TJ Beer Fest Pt. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a soft spot in my heart for anyone who inspires fond memories of my youth. While my grandmother gave me drumsticks and ginger-ale, Tijuana provided me with grain alcohol and fireworks. When I first got wind of the TJ Beer Fest \u00a0I had an image of tacos and beer, \u00a0a solid combination for any Saturday. \u00a0The decision was made to attend.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n
\"Still<\/dt>\n
waiting for the opening with Coronas <\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

\n

There were three of us: Ryan, partner in crime at West Coaster, Vlad, trusted associate from college days past, and myself. \u00a0We crossed the border and arrived at the entrance of the event at around 11:30. The guy at the entrance said it would be open soon, so we ventured down La Revu in search of my favorite beer pairing combo of tacos & Coronas.<\/p>\n

We found ourselves perched up on the balcony of restaurant\/disco El Torito. With a view of the entrance of the festival, we waited. One hour turned into two as one corona turned into three. No pasa nada. <\/em>Eventually, we noticed a line of people forming. We \u00a0made our entrance.<\/p>\n

100 pesos later I was armed with a wristband, 3 tasters, and a very cool shaker glass. Soon after, the distinct handle-bar mustache of San Diego Beer Blog<\/a> \/ West Coaster writer Jeff Hammett caught my eye , as did the eccentric hair of the Linkery\u2019s<\/a> Jay Porter.\u00a0 Their crew had ridden bicycles from North Park to the festival, and I was impressed \u2013 it was hot as hell. We began our assault.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n
\"Overview<\/dt>\n
Overview of the TJ Beer Fest 2010<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

\n

My first beer was Cucap\u00e1\u2019s <\/a>Imperial Stout.\u00a0 Perhaps it was a bad starting beer, but I was so surprised to find a local Imperial Stout in Tijuana that I did not care. It was a\u00a0delicious effort that was smooth, lightly carbonated with subtle hints of burnt chocolate. After a taster I opted for a pint, which, at $3, was a steal.<\/p>\n

Cerveza Tijuana\u2019s<\/a> G\u00fcera<\/em> (blond) , which is touted as a \u201cBohemian Pilsener,\u201d \u00a0hit the spot with a lightly bitter flavor, hints of yeast, medium carbonation, and \u00a04.6% ABU.<\/p>\n

My favorite beer, and last taster ticket, was brought to me by a guy that\u2019s known as Chubuki in the TJ beer circle. He said he\u2019d driven his beer up from somewhere south, and wanted me to try it because it was delicious. I love a good salesman. He took me over to the Zona Norte tent where he had his jockey box and poured me a pint of his Chubrewski<\/em>. \u00a0From behind \u00a0a broken pair of euro-stunna shades he continued: \u201cYeah man it\u2019s like a really good beer\u00a0 for being in the sun, drinking on the beach ,stuff like that you know?\u201d Totally. The taste was weird, but fantastic. I called it an amber\u2013sour. \u201cYeah, I\u2019ll use that from now on I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n
\"Cucap\u00e1<\/a>Cucap\u00e1 @ TJ Beer Fest 2010<\/span><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

I also stopped by The Beer Box<\/a> tent, which is Mexico\u2019s premiere shop for craft beer. They sold taster flight holders, had a beer on tap (which I didn\u2019t get to try), and were stand-up dudes. Their website is fantastically 90\u2019s in hilarious Spanglish, and it also totes an eclectic mix of beer that you can order on-line.<\/p>\n

My tickets and pesos spent, I kicked back while taking in the scene. \u00a0On the stage, the relaxed Tijuana version of Rage Against the Machine played while I was munching on (another) taco. Soon, the sun began to set on the festival and our time in Tijuana. Well-fed and slightly buzzed, we made our way to the border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a soft spot in my heart for anyone who inspires fond memories of my youth. While my grandmother gave me drumsticks and ginger-ale, Tijuana provided me with grain alcohol and fireworks. When I first got wind of the TJ Beer Fest \u00a0I had an image of tacos and beer, \u00a0a solid combination for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,15,13,14,6,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-19","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","7":"tag-cucapa","8":"tag-north-park","9":"tag-san-diego-beer-blog","10":"tag-the-linkery","11":"tag-tijuana","12":"tag-tijuana-craft-beer","13":"tag-tj","14":"tag-tj-beer-fest","15":"entry","16":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-j","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}