Q&A WITH CERVECERIA INSURGENTE


BROTHERS INBREW


By Ryan Lamb A


fter falling in love with craft beer in San Diego, brothers Ivan and Damian Morales jumped at the opportunity to start brewing their own for the Tijuana market. 18 months later, they’re now leading


a flavor insurgency south of the border. West Coaster found a low-lit, beer-filled table at Hamilton’s to ask them more about the boundless thirst for artisanal beer they’ve helped inspire.


Tell us a little about your philosophy as a brewery.


Our slogan says it all about our attitude - “Sé un Insurgente, toma artesenal” - which is translated as “Be an insurgent, drink craft.” We want people to try something different than anything they’ve ever had, and we want that idea of being a revolutionary beer drinker to go beyond us. Many people in Mexico have never had anything but the macro brews, so we want them to experiment.


When did you start brewing?


We bought our first homebrewing kit in February 2010, and at first we used a plastic bucket instead of a glass carboy for fermentation. The first beer we brewed was an American Amber Ale, which wasn’t too good. After that we started doing more research. It was all about getting the beer to a level that met our standards. Our biggest hurdle starting out, really, was satisfying our own palates, and that didn’t happen until 6 or 8 months in. We knew our beer would be an extension of the fact that we grew up both in San Diego and in Mexico, and that’s why our flagship La Lupulosa has such a West Coast hop profile.


So, when did you decide you wanted to make a business out of it?


A few brews into it, actually. We knew we weren’t even that good at brewing yet, but we just saw this gaping hole in the market in Mexico. There’s all this amazing craft beer in San Diego, and we wondered, ‘Why can’t we have this in Mexico?’


Tell us the story behind your name and logo.


We wanted something that represented the philosophy of what we wanted to do with beer. There’s a lack of good beer in Mexico, so we decided to become a rebel figure. Achieving that in San Diego would be tough because of how many breweries there are, but in Mexico we’re really in uncharted territory. And the owl logo? We wanted a mascot, something visual that represents us. We didn’t want something cliché. The owl’s a predator with a certain elegance and mysteriousness to it, which is something we want to transmit with our beer.


Speaking of beer, what styles do you produce?


Right now we make three beers. Tiniebla (translated ironically as “Darkness”) is our witbier, La Lupulosa (meaning “The Hoppy One”) is our IPA, and we also brew an American Brown Ale called Brown. La Lupulosa is the beer that won Best in Show at the Baja Beer Fest, Brown took second place, and we entered a Chocolate Stout that took third. And by category, all four beers we entered won gold. That was really cool because John Palmer was there judging our beers.


Do you get any brewing ingredients from Mexico?


No, we get all our ingredients from the US. You pretty much can’t get malt in Mexico because the barley growers have a contract with the two big breweries (Grupo Modelo and Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma). As for hops, we use mostly American varieties.


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