52 replies to this topic

[George Costanza]

website - www.tjbeer.com

Cerveceria Restaurant & bar
La Taberna TJ
Blvd Fundadores No. 2951
Col. Juarez ,TJ
Open from 1pm yo 2am Monday thru Saturday

Really nice restaurant and the brewery is gaining national recognition.

[Scribbles]

I think they have another location in Ensenada?

[tijuanalunchbunch]

I do not know if the Ensenada location is still open. I was there for its Grand Opening about year ago or so. when they had their big splash in Kensington, my pic was up on their website for awhile. May still be.

The TijuanaLunchBunch was there once - but that was before I started shooting vids.


j.

[sdc]

Tijuana beer is probably the single worst beer I have ever tasted....

[TJDave]

I'll second that....

[George Costanza]

As a guy that thinks Corona is a good beer I will be the judge of that
I went to a Microbrewery in Mexicali and did the micro sampler and it was very good with the exception of the dark beer.

What was wrong with it? From what I see they have different brews

[sdc]

From someone who like Corona I can understand your question....Any tqaste TJ brewery beer has is BAD...Just because a company has specialty brews doesn't mean that they are good.....I'll call you when the have strawberry Marg beer...

[George Costanza]

That would be a great idea and I would invest in any brwery that did make Strawberry Marg beers

I know our opinions differ on food and drink so I am sure i will like this place but you never know we could agree on this one

[BajaGringo]

Taste in beer is like taste in women.

Some like them fair, others dark. Some stout and still others prefer them light. Some want them cold and others like them warm with a head of foam. It's all personal taste and I have never found a single beer or a single woman that everyone could agree was perfect.

Thank God for that...

[sdc]

Personally I think all would agree that TJ Brewery is bad beer....Like they say in Olympia WA for Reiner Beer. "it's in the Water" I think that is the problem with TJ Beer it's in the water....yuck.....

[BajaGringo]

My dad was a chemical engineer born in Germany to a family with brewing roots that went back to the 1700's. He took up the craft here in the states and was a lifelong amateur brewer. He had his own private label and five or six really good recipes for beer ranging from dark to light. He never actually sold any of it but would always give away cases of it to friends, clients and family.

20 years after his passing I still have folks comment on how much they enjoyed his beer. My dad created his brews with Long Beach tap water which is one of the worst in the country. I asked him once about the Coors assertion that "its the water" and he laughed at that one. His belief was that temperature and timing of adding the hops were the two most crucial elements in brewing and the final taste. Based on the number of people who still ask about his beer I would guess that he knew what he was talking about. I still remember how he would "spike" batches of brew with extra sugar to increase the alcohol content for friends who requested it.

Three beers and you were a goner - ha!

[richsinc]

Jeezzz Baja;

Get out the suckie real estate markets for a while and start a real German brewery in Mexico! Everyone here will be happier and I will be your #1 customer? Dig out your Dad’s recipes. You’ve got a gold mine that you are just sitting on.

My first evening in Germany, my new CO took me to the O Club in the Kaserne (base) and ordered Kulmbachers; yes, 3 or 4 of those can knock you on your ass. 40/45% alcohol, I think.

Or German wine too? What is it with the “Imported” on the label and then it says “Hecho en Mexico“??? They were all really bad. Bought a bottle of Oppenheimer ( a Mosel, I think) from a neighbor and no “Hecho en Mexico” on it; but have yet to try it.

[BajaGringo]

You know Rich, I found his recipe book a few years back and I know I have it stored away somewhere around here. If I do find which box it is in I would love to show it to you because I know you would get a big kick out of it.

The first third of the book is notes my dad took from an uncle visiting from Stuttgart in the late 40's who was a brewmeister and shared several recipes and a lot of brewing tips with my dad. The notes are mostly in German but you can get the essence of them based on the recipe format and some basic German. The second section included my dad's brewing experiments with the recipes and his notes on each brew. The last section was where he recorded his final recipes with minor adjustments he made over the years and new recipes attempted. All of the entries in the book are dated and for me it offers an interesting insight into my father as well as bring back many wonderful memories of a man who I loved and respected dearly.

I wish I could remember the German name my father gave to a special concoction he would prepare. It included a half glass of dark stout with a half cup of clamato, 2 raw eggs beaten and pepper. It was something I saw him drink ritually every Saturday morning until very shortly before he passed in 1988.

[richsinc]

Ich spreche Deustch bissen; not so good at reading or writing it though.

What part of Germany was your Dad from? I spent most of my time in Bamberg in Bayern/Bavaria and lived on the local economy in a small town nearby of Dippach; pronounced as if you were throwing up. My local favorite bier was Thein from Limbach and to ‘essen’, there was this GREAT! hunting lodge in Trossenfurth (sorry, no umlauts, (the dots) on my keyboard); best Veal Cordon Bleu in the world!!! Bar none!

What kind of recipes? Any rauchen/smoked, wiessen/wheat, Pils/Pilsner, etc.?

One day I was out in the front of the house taking some pictures of Hans’ roses and smelt bier and next thing I see is the Oma/Grandmother walking up the drive with two huge mugs of green bier with the hops, barley floating on top. And some mornings going to the post, road gangs would be having a bier and brot/bread for breakfast. And they sold bier from vending machines along the Autobahn; a way of life, I guess.

If you have not been there, I say you go and visit your Dad’s roots; just sorry that I can’t afford a vacation home there yet. You got any real estate listings for Dippach?

BTW, think I will pass on the clamato and raw eggs, but I did like your ‘head of foam’ comparison.

[tijuanalunchbunch]

Taste is taste, and I find Tijuana Beer to be better than ALL other Mexican beers. I do also like Ambar, Negra Modelo, Bohemia.

another micro-brewery that has good beer in Mexico is Cucapa from Mexicali. Keep in mind that the micro-beer revolution in Mexico is only about five years old. The first one was from Monterrey.

The unfiltered dark beer at Tijuana Beer is an excellent beer.

So, we agree to disagree.


jim

[George Costanza]

Jim that's the place I was mentioning in Mexicali it was decent and good food too

So we agree to agree

[tijuanalunchbunch]

Its the water? You should see all the crap water Coors uses runs through - cow pastures and the like. The stream featured in all their ads was from the opposite side of the Continental divide and is just north of Gunnison.

Interestingly enough, all the traditional beers of Mexico have a German heritage. That is where their brew masters were trained in or came from.

Bohemia was the first Mexican beer to achieve a gold medal in international beer competition and did it head up against some of those gold standard beers everyone likes to tout.

I find Guinness tastes like what I think athlete's foot would taste like. Having never tasted athlete's foot, I can't say for certain, but the two hook up nicely in my mind.


j.

[BajaGringo]

My great uncle (who I never actually had the pleasure of meeting) left Germany during the second world war as things went south. My dad told me that he had drifted across Europe and made his way onto an Atlantic steamer in Norway and arrived in New York in 1947 or 48. He showed up at my parents doorstep months later after working his way across the country and spent a few weeks with them in California.

My dad told me that one day he just got up, thanked my folks for their hospitality and left to go find work. My dad never saw him or heard from him again. He was in his early 50's at the time. I recall my dad telling me that he remembered his uncle telling him that he was heading to Mexico on a job offer. I didn't add it to the original story as it didn't seem logical at the time but after reading TJLB's post I wonder now.

Going to start doing a little investigating as the family name is not that common and if he did find work in Mexico I might be able to find a trail...

[sdc]

Coors? What you think that is a good beer....that is probably my least favorite beer there is....

[BajaGringo]

It could be Coors or any other beer you happen to choose. On the list of factors affecting beer taste the water itself ranks low on the list when compared to the recipe and process. It was a marketing ploy that obviously some of you have bought into.

It goes back to my original point that it is a matter of personal taste. There is no single beer that all will agree on - good or bad...