Slow Baja - Travel Talk With Slow Baja Meet Collin Corrigan Cerveceria Transpeninsular.

Episode Date: March 3, 2022

Today's Travel Talk with Slow Baja has me chatting with Collin Corrigan, the owner of Cerveceria Transpeninsular in Ensenada, Baja, California. I sat down with Collin to learn more about the craft beer scene in Baja, and he was delighted to educate me. Cerveceria Transpeninsular is the official beer sponsor of the National Off-Road Racing Association (NORRA) "The Happiest Race on Earth," and Corrigan hosted the awards ceremony for the NORRA 500 last October. We recorded this podcast in his office as the party was in full swing below. We had a few interruptions and worked through it all to bring you this fun and friendly conversation. Cerveceria Transpeninsular is located just off HWY1, on the North end of Ensenada, immediately following the Hotel Coral & Marina. Look for the road signs, and be ready to pull over after the turn. There's ample parking in front. Cerveceria Transpeninsular is family-friendly, and well-behaved dogs are welcome. 107+240 Carretera Tijuana-Ensenada 22870 Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico Visit Cerveceria Transpeninsular's Website Follow Cerveceria Transpeninsular on Instagram Follow Cerveceria Transpeninsular on Facebook

Hello, Slow Baja. Today I am recording this pre-roll, as we say, in the industry. Today I'm recording this pre-roll from the beautiful courtyard of the Adobe Guadalupe Vineyards and Inn. And I was going to find a quiet spot in the house to do this, but I thought it is so gorgeous here. You need to hear the birds chirping and the water gurgling in the background. So I'm going to torture a little bit with that. But hey, I want to get on to it. I need to express some gratitude here. Sheel Man, Toby Pond at Shield Man has changed my life.

I met Toby back in October at the Nora 500. We shared a little Fortaleza. We talked about seats. I had a broken, my seat had broken in the Slow Baja Land Cruiser. And I never wanted to fix anything in that truck until it broke. Or I couldn't go someplace that I wanted to go in it. And Toby and I started discussing seats. I jumped into Tim and Kelsey Huber's beautiful Maltec Toyota and sat in their shield man seats.

And I knew in my heart that was the right decision to make, but I was so obsessed with the character in Patina, my old truck, that I didn't want to change from the dumpy old bench seats. Anyways, Toby made me a deal. I could not refuse. Sent me some seats before I could say, no, I can't afford them. They were on my doorstep. in San Francisco. My good friend Dave Moore, Voodoo Cruisers from the Baja XL, got them installed.

And the next day, sort of two days later, I was driving 12 hours in them down to San Diego. And they are phenomenal. So huge shout out of gratitude to Toby Pond at Shieldman, USA. If you've got an overlander, if you've got a vehicle that you get out of every time after a long drive and say, oh, my back is killing me. I did that for a decade with that truck. And now I've got these amazing seats. I just drove a week around Baja in them, dirt roads everywhere. And they are phenomenal. And I'm sitting here today with a smile on my face, a cup of coffee in my hand.

The birds are chirping and my back is happy. All right, enough about my seats. I do want to acknowledge a few folks who have dropped a taco in the tank. and let's get on with that. So, Basil at Basil's Garage in Vista, California. Thank you, sir. If you've built an overland rig or a surf rig and you're in the San Diego area, Basil's up there in North County, you should see them.

Adam at Speed Deluxe in Tennessee, can't wait until we've got a bunch of old bikes here in Bahá doing fun things. Thanks for dropping some tacos in the tank, Adam. Zach Bart in San Francisco, Nick Butsy up there in North Dakota, my G-Wagon Mafia. I can't wait until you're here for the Nora 1000. But thank you for all your support. Dr. Andrew Cohen and Nancy Chu, proactive chiropractors in San Francisco.

Dr. Cohen has been taken care of my back for a long time. You know, I've had the Land Cruiser for a decade now, and he's kept me driving it. Nancy Chu is a recent addition to the team, and she is phenomenal. She's phenomenal. She has kept my... baseball playing son on the field and we ran into them up in Oregon for the elite track meet there at University of Oregon and Nancy and Dr. Cohen were working on athletes and they worked my son Rob over. So they're terrific. If you're anywhere up there in the Bay Area, you should see them proactive

chiropractic. You know, you don't have to be an elite athlete or an intrepid four by four driver to have a happy back. Anyhow, check them out. Joshua, Joseph, thanks to all. All right, Today's show is with Colin Corrigan at Serviceria Trans-Pencillar, just on the north end of Ensenada. I sat down with Colin during the award ceremony of the Nora 500 way back in October. This show's rattled around a little bit, and I apologize for not getting it up sooner, and it even has just kicked around for the last week because of my travel in Baja. But anyways, I'm here in Baja. I've been Trans-Peninsula a couple times on this trip already,

and I want to tell you how great it is. It really, it's, I love it. And the reason I love it is I'm not a sophisticated beer drinker. You know, I love my tequila fortaleza. I've been enjoying some Mexican wine here at Adobe Guadalupe, and I'm just an easy-going logger drinker. And, you know, I've walked into some microbrews over the last couple of decades, and you look for a logger and you get this server sneer like,

what's wrong with you, buddy? Don't you know what kind of a place where we are, what we do here and you want a logger. Anyways, there's none of that at Serviceria Transpennsalar. They've got their Clara on tap. I'm going to get calling to rename it Slow Baja someday. The place is family-friendly. If you've got a well-behaved dog, you can come in there.

I was in with Tom Bing and his beautiful wife, Sally, on her birthday, and their crazy four-year-old beautiful Billy was hanging out, running around, playing with matchbox cars. And it's that kind of place. and it was really a lovely night for us in there. So Serviceria Trans-Peninsula, it's clean as a whistle, and dang it, that security guard in the front yard always recognizes me and puts me in the VIP parking spot right in front.

So Serviceria Trans-Peninsula. Slow Baja approved. On with the show. Enjoy it, and I'll be back with something fun next week. Hey, this is Michael Emory. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches and hands down my favorite tequila. Hey, I want to tell you about your new must-have accessory for your next Baja trip.

Benchmark Maps has released a beautiful, beautiful Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas. It's a 72-page large format book of detailed maps and recreation guides that makes the perfect planning tool for exploring Baja. Pick yours up at Benchmarkmaps.com. Colin? Yes. Welcome to Slow Baja. Well, thank you. Welcome to Cervisserie at TransPenensular.

Yeah, what a delight to be here. I'm a little froggy folks. You can hear it in my voice. I've just driven the Nora 500. Open vehicle. We had a fuel leak that filled up the bottom of my side of the car with gasoline a couple inches deep. And I sucked up gasoline smells all day yesterday. So I'm a little froggy on that side.

But Collins's giving me a beer. And it's a beautiful day. And I'm delighted to be here. So we're going to get right down to it. Wonderful. Tell me about your brewery. Well, first off, thanks for being here. I'm glad to have all of our visitors here from Nora

and from different parts of the States and Mexico. Canada. Oh, Canada. The Canadians are back. I think we have some Canucks in the house. Yeah, yeah, they're back. They're here? Okay, the crazy Canucks.

What about the two-seated motorcycle team? They're not here. Oh, man. No wonder why I don't hear any screaming in the bar. Love them. They are amazing people. It's not the first time they've been mentioned on the podcast. DOS Locos 2 Up, shout out to you to. I don't know how you can do it, but you do it and you're fast. They literally get down here. They ride. They live together. They work together. They laugh together and live together. They're a beautiful couple. I hope that they're enjoying themselves today and sorry they're not here.

All right. Now back to you, folks. Tell me about your brewery. Well, so Cerviceria Transpeninsular. kind of came out of a career shift decision. I'm 51 and going backwards, hopefully 50 tomorrow and then 49 next year. Basically, long story short, I started this project after being 30 years in the textile business down here in Baja California, long story short, selling inks to T-shirt printers. And when the craft beer boom started to take place, I saw an neat. opportunity for the market of Mexico to have what we consider like brew pub, family brew pub experience

in Baja. And I met this beautiful woman sitting right next to me here about a year and a half before the project really started. She's blushing only a little bit. Yep. So that's Gabby, the patrona we call her. So she's really the boss here. I just kind of own the joint and smile and do podcasts. But she actually runs the whole business. But yeah, so Transpenterza was formed and why? we love Baja. My wife's from Insenada. I'm a San Diego boy like most of us, travel to Baja most of my life.

And all the experiences that I've had and other people's had, listening to their stories, stimulated the name, Transpennsalar, which is the highway, Interstate. And then all the names of the beers are derived from different experiences

found along the highway, on and off the highway, surfing, off-road, and fun little snippets and pieces. and parts of the highway coin all of our names for the brewery names. Yeah, so you started coming here. Did you come as a kid or did you start coming as a teen and older to surf? No, I overheard the conversation with Jeff Hill from Baja Bound where you were talking about surfing earlier.

Sure, sure, no. My first trip down here I was four years old, in 1974. And my family used to come down here in a combi and a Baja bus, or excuse me not a Baja bus, a bus, a bus, yeah. And we used to travel different parts. And I got bit early, man. I mean, I was just super stoked on Baja and what it did. And I was always just wondering what it was like farther down the highway.

And then as I got older, I started to travel more with my pals. And made my first, me driving my first trip in 1987, I made the first drive south. In a Caprice Classic four-door station wagon, one of those ones that you hit a speed bump in the thing, just keeps like moving forever. Can we just stop for a second? I think with Instagram, people have gotten so serious

about their Baja vehicles. Right. They've got lockers. They've got 40-inch tires. They've got this. They've got that. You know, it's, uh,

I joke a little bit that it's for Instagram use only. People used to drive all sorts of junky cars down here. And you'd just be thrilled when you got across the border on the way home. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Especially my, yeah,

you see guys with like anti-stice getting stuck. plates and gas tank screw to the wall. And we just had a station wagon full of like old metal coolers and sleeping bags and whatever we could rattle and steal from each other's houses and strapboards on top with the foam straps and, you know, some diving masks that the straps would break, you know, when you got in the water. But we found, we found peace down here and it was long before cell phones and in the pager era. Then we had to figure out, oh, I got a page. I got to go to a town that's got a pay phone and look for the Laotelle and make the phone call. And actually, Pager's work down here, which is kind of scary.

They do. They do. Mine went off in 1992 and got me a big job. Oh, I got to pull over and find a phone. Let me look at that number. But yeah, no, it was a neat experience. And for me, the place that I find, like, tranquility is, and I love my Entonata. I live here now.

I'm a proud, you know, insinada resident. Just can't say enough. how rad Ensenada is, but when I leave in Sanada and I get like over the hill towards Urwapan and dropping down into Santa Tomas into that valley, to me that's when it's like, okay, it's real. You know what I mean? It's happening. And then, of course, San Vicente and San San Quentin's grown because of Driscolls and all the berry growers there, but that whole part of Baja after that, you know, Arrosario and Zigan and Zagan

and even over on the new five over there, you know, you take that road through Gonzaga Bay. that's what people need to see. That's Baja, not Tijuana, even though Tijuana's rad. Not just come down, do the Rosarito thing, but actually find what the road's all about. You know, and enjoy the road and it's experience. And that's what we do, and we talk about it through our beers. And so when you open the brewery, what was the vision?

I mean, this is, in my opinion, a big place, I mean, with a huge investment. So what was the vision? When you said, you know what, I'm going to open a microbrewer here. Well, I was sitting with my once partner now investor. We were sitting in Carl Strauss, which is my sting for the first taste of craft. That's another story. But 1990 was my first splash, red trolley.

Kudos to Carl Strauss. I was sitting there with my partner, and we were watching our industry dwindle because Target and Walmart really started to hurt the textile industry in the SoCal and Mexico market. and I was joking with him. I go, you know what, we should open a brewery. We're sitting in one and look at all this business. People eating hamburgers, drinking pints. And he goes, write a business plan.

I was like, what? He's like, yeah, this industry is getting a little weird and, you know, maybe we can shift. So 2014 is when the idea sparked. Then I went through separation and divorce and all that and was down here solo cholo and pondering the idea, kind of iced the idea for a while. And then it just kicked in. And then I met, like I said, I met my beautiful wife, Gabby, and the project just accelerated from there. I mean, she gave me that extra push over the hill to, like, convince my partner Rich to, let's do it.

And our first challenge was the right location. And we had an envisioned first location a little farther up the road in El Salzal, which is halfway between here in San Miguel. We started building out a unit, but it was so small that we realized, you know, know what we should probably just part ways with this location. And thanks to the family, John and Walter Hussong, who are the last remaining sons of John Hussong, who came here in the late 1800s. And we had this opportunity to move into this beautiful shack. It literally was a shack. And what this was was Porto Hussong. It was an office building, a warehouse converted to an office building to be a showroom for what was in the 2005-6 era to be three towers, 30 stories high

for timeshare, super yachts out front, and they crashed the project with the economy and crime and all that. So this building basically was just a little L-shaped in front where you walk in, the foyer. All of what you're in now, Mike, it's all, we built the whole thing from the ground up. and I wanted to create a old California feel, like that bodega feel, highway roadhouse kind of experience was the term I would use. And it went well from there on. So it just accelerated in the construction. And next thing you know, we have 50 foot high ceilings.

And I don't know how it just happened. All of a sudden my wife and I'm like, what happened? We have a gigantic building now. And we're filling it up with happy people from all over the world. world. Yeah, the food's great. Beer's great. Thank you. Yeah. So that's, and I think Ensenada is one of those magic climates, magic locations in the world where you've got fabulous seafood right here. Yeah. And you've got fabulous produce right there. And you've got people who really now I think, you know, appreciate making something magnificent, even if it's simple out of those magnificent ingredients. Yeah,

we're really blessed because we're in a region where if you cut the jet streamline, we're actually inland from like San Diego, it can be socked in with fog, even Rosarito and Tijuana. But Intanado is this beautiful cove that seems to be like protected. Yeah, we get our coastal fog and all that, but nowhere near like where you're from, San Francisco Bay Area. It's nothing compared. But long story short, is that along with the produce you said in Maniadero and south in San Quintin, the beautiful vineyards of Valle and the culture of, again, the binational culture, tourism, Mexican nationals that appreciate Southern California, American citizens and Canadians that respect the Mexican culture. It's a real neat melting pot, and the seafood is second to none. I mean, you know, we go to other places of Mexico, even in Cabo,

and my wife's like, we're on the coast, and why is the seafood no good? I mean, we go to Mercado Negro, and it's just a dime a dozen for shrimps, and scallops and you go down there. It's like, that'll be $19.99 for four little pieces of scallops. Yeah, it's like, wow. So, yeah, it's not as rad. Yeah, it really is. And so explain, be a cheerleader for your city.

I mean, it is a city. It's not a town anymore. It's a city. So be a cheerleader. And tell me about what's happened with the Valle and what's happened with the craft beer scene. And now that you have coffee. Sure.

So why do people? People still live in San Diego? I don't know. I don't know either, but you know what? Hey, if you're cool, come on down. If you're a fool, stay up there. That's just what I say. It's just the way it is.

You know what I mean? But, no, I promote Intanada well because I think it's a rad place. And like I said, Valle has really gone through some changes. And there's some current blowback. That's a whole other conversation. But they're going through a feeling of change where it's going to stay beautiful and rustic, but there's investment and movement. You know, there's more people coming here

that want to enjoy the experience of what Baja offers. And as long as you can control sustainability, it's all good, you know what I mean? So wineries, yes, amazing. Craft breweries, there's a lot of nano and small guys. I can't put a number on it, but there's about six to seven of us that are during semi-commercial production.

I would say by leaderage, we're third or fourth largest in Baja now, which I'm very proud of. We're not the biggest with equipment, but our leaderage, I mean, our production. And I'd say we're the only binational tap room that really embraces tourism, off-road, surfers, Mexican nationals, and families.

We're huge on family. We love families. We love people knowing that their children and their dogs, you know, manner dogs can come in. I was just going to mention it is dog friendly. Pet friendly. We say kid friendly, pet friendly, and mother-in-law friendly sometimes on Monday.

So it's kind of a little joke. But yeah, and then obviously the coffee roasting deal, that's coming a lot from Mexico City. A lot of the guys that have already been accustomed to that are making their way up here. And kombucha is also coming up. And then just a general, like, artisanal vibe. You know, Encinitas got this neat little artisanal thing going with, you know, salsa and jams and different little packaging candles. You know, there's a lot of people doing things.

And yes, it's apparent in other parts of Mexico, but it seems to have more value here and the packaging and the way that people present it. And people want that keepsake to take home. And remember their trip to Baja, let alone, you know, just a memory that can actually bring something back. Yeah, handmade. It's no joke here. Yeah. Echo Amano. Yeah, people are into it. Yeah. So can you share some secrets with me about what's your ideal weekend? Coming down or maybe what's your ideal three-day weekend if you were, if you had a friend coming in and you're going to say, you know what, we're going to stop by, we're going to have a beer, but then we're going to. Sure.

Give me the the. Then we're going to. Perfect. Well, first off, yeah, you know, make sure. they get through safe. They know how to drive and make sure they always get insurance. I always tell my friends that come down here. It's a great segue for just a moment. And if you're going to get insurance. Baja Bound insurance. When in doubt, call Baja Bound.

Jeff Hill and the boys are over there ready to take care of you. This is a plug for love because... Seriously. They really do it better. No one makes it easier. They really do it better. I mean, gosh, you could do it in the line on the way across the border. I mean, Jeff and his team over there are super accommodating for all walks of

life. We carry Baja Baja Baja Bound insurance. It's funny. My wife drives a U.S. plated Tundra, and I drive a Mexican-plated Hylux. Nice. So she's on the, she's on the big, big monster truck, and I'm in a little zippity-dudaw truck. But we have Baja Bound for both our vehicles. So Jeff actually helps me with my policies. And first, that's the first thing. All right. So we've got the insurance handled, and thanks for that segue, but now back to you. Now back to me. After a sponsorship of Baja Bound Insurance. And then we like to... Collins Wardrobe is provided by Botany 500.

Yes. I have plenty of Baja Bound shirts. Thank you, Jeff. Haiti, wish you had joined us on the Nora 500. Well, here is your chance. It's double the mileage, double the fun, double the parties, double the dirt. It is the Nora Mexican 1000. We're going to drive by day. We're going to party by night.

I'm pouring Fortaleez of tequila. April 30th through May 6th, 2020. We're driving the entire peninsula. You don't want to miss out on this one. Again, if I can do it in my 1971 Toyota Land Cruiser, totally stock, you can do it in any modern 4x4. The Nora Mexican 1000 is the happiest race on earth.

Check it out at nora.com, n-r-r-r-a-com or on Slow Baja. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja bound insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Baja. Bajabound.com. That's Bajaubound.com serving Mexico travelers since 1994.

But yeah, after that, you know, usually I tell people to pop into T.J. T.J. is completely cool. The food scene in T.J. is just rocking. It really is. Yeah. It really is. Great things. And not just tacos L. Frank. I mean, that's a rad place, but there's a neat pop-up culture of these younger chefs that are coming up now. And Tijuana is the spot I think where you can get a little taste of that culture and you're okay I'm done with that let's split so get up back on the Transpenter Highway you know some of my friends stop in La Fonda it's kind of you know just like I did and probably you did when you're younger La Fonda's kind of like that stop it's so beautiful and get to Insanada come here meet here for a beer and we usually circle in

if Gabby's involved in the in the package which she always is we usually go to Primo Nava which is a great like German beerhouse style Marisco place. So long tables, open ceilings, loud, clanky, but beautiful, fresh seafood for very, very reasonable price. It's off the tourism area. Or we go to Punta Morrow. We love Puntamoro.

It's more for the fancy people. And that'll be usually a Friday night. You know, we'll do that. And then Saturday, most of my pals will want to stop here first again for a beer. and then do the Valle, you know, they like to do the Valle, go up there, two or three wineries, have a couple laughs, circle back, and either stay here or do dinner, or we'll go to Sanoz or Umo and Sal, which we like that, Sano Hussong, who is a young chef, you know, son of John Hussong.

There's many John Hussongs, but the one that owns Sano's. Great food there. And then Sunday, my wife always says, Biria. Got to be it. The visitors to Biryam. Biryaria, Walajara. Another open hall, fast, you know, carne and Suhugo or plancha.

And really tasty. And all good stuff. We got a visitor here. Yeah. Come on in. Juan Carlos. Come on in. Juan Carlos.

Hey. Oh, there goes Juan Carlos. All right. So the guy that just stuck his head in here is Juan Carlos Miranda. he is the owner of Larson Irrigation and Juan Carlos is responsible for he's an off-road guy he would be your typical

Mexican national super fan of off-road him and his pals are all the Pekanaam Polaris guys their sons are all fast racers like his son is Carlos Miranda he's won the Baja 1,000 Ivan Ramirez they all grew up together Ricardo Munoz that whole crew

they're the dads of those super kids but anyways Larson irrigation, he is wholly responsible for about 98% of all the wine tanks and all the wine equipment in Viya. And he's probably the 40 to 50% of all the aggrovers in Maniadero, San Quintin, all the drip systems. He's Levi Strauss. He sold the jeans to the miners. Exactly. Exactly. That's what he is. So he just stuck his head in there. So kudos to him. And then part of the tour would be hanging out with that guy on Sunday and probably going back to the Valley, right, baby? Yeah. Let's get on to the, I can never get my tongue loose enough to say it,

Biria. Let's get on. Briaria, or Bia, I can't do it. I need two fortalezes to loosen my tongue. Biria. Can we talk about that for a little bit? Mm-hmm. So, Biria is well-known. It's a, it's a thing. It is a thing. And to find it done right. Unbelievable. It mean originally, it originated from, from Guadalajara, if I'm correct. And, And it's everywhere now. It's the typical hangover food, but also very delicious. And you can get goat, you can get lamb, you can get beef, and we got another visitor. And it's really tasty. You know, you get your cilantro and onions and salsa and your limes and your kawamas with the tomato juice, the Klamato. It's super good. The long story short is Bia is kind of like a Sunday thing. And you either go get menudo or

and you bring the family or a lot of people go after church. If you're church-going people, that's kind of like the after-church deal. And then you turn the crank back up. You rest for a little while and then you finish it off with a carne asada. You know, we have a carnia sada. We don't eat carnia sada. That's a difference. In the East Coast, you have barbecue or in the West Coast you have a barbecue.

It's kind of the same thing here. We have a carneasada, which is basically a grill. It's a paria. It's a party on the grill. and there's all kinds of stuff. Obviously, we eat carnitasada, but usually we'll have a carnitasada, and if my friends are staying one more day, which I try to convince them, then we do that, and then they get up early in the next day and head back.

But that's another thing, a very typical Sunday is after a race, after whatever, a carnia sada with friends and family is very typical for us to enjoy and laugh and bullshit about whatever happened for that weekend. And is there a market equivalent? Is there a Mercado Negro equivalent for getting the right beef? Oh, yeah. I would say there's a couple of them, right? Gabby's not talking on this one.

I'm going to put the mic in front of her face. She's going to have no choice. She's shaking your head, folks. She's not going to do it. No. She's staying focused. She is. She's doing Facturas right now.

Facturas is a Mexican invoice. So where are you going for your beef? Lacanasta. Lacanasta is probably my go-to for the visitors. here, it's across street from Smart and Final and Caddy Corner to the new Holiday and Express. That place is legit, and the guy prepares the Carney for you right there on the spot. All of the markets have good Carniosa, but I think Lacanasta does it right with the orange slices and the spices and all that.

They'd be my go-to. There's a couple other ones, my Swagro, my father-in-law would argue that his is better in his Pueblo. but every Pueblo has its specialty, like the battle of the Pueblo, you know what I mean? Like my carnia sada or my seafood place or my salsa's, it's really neat. And it's all for the love of it. Everyone wants to enjoy their sazon, their flavor. Sazon's a big deal.

And Mexico has a sazone that's just going in San Diego and getting carneasada at Primo or Valley Farms or any of these places. It's good, but it doesn't have the sazone of Mexico. Mexico has, they just do it. There's something to do with the meat and the right spices and the tortillas. That's another battle. My wife and I battle about which tortillas we're going to have. You know, I mean, that's like tortillas is a big deal, you know. But they're so important.

And when they're done poorly, it's such a letdown. It is. They crumble in your hands. It's like bad bread. Yeah, it is. Good point. Coming from San Francisco, you know, there's that sourdough thing and, you know, that's part of our blood. Yeah.

It's in our soul. So a poorly done. tortilla is a crime against humanity. It is. And I'm sure like in San Francisco, if you make a clam chowder bowl with the wrong bread, game over, right? All right, well, we're going to, we're going to change gears here a little bit. When you're in other parts of Baja, if you're going to say, Gabby, let's get out of Ensonata, let's go kick it in. Where are you going first? What spots do you, and again, this is the lightning round. Yeah, I'm just going to wrap up. Sure, sure. No, for for us, we like to go to El Salto.

El Salto is a neat little hiking place halfway between La Mision and Encinada, which is on the free road, which is where the Encinada to Rosarito bike rice goes. That's really cool. It's a neat hiking area. I recommend everyone go there, do a day trip. It's like hiking in Hacomba or Julian, I guess.

We like to go to Ojos Negros. You know, when we have time, we're one of those families that will pull over and to set up shop, you know, under a tree. Sometimes I miss those events, but I know my family loves that, and it means a lot to them just to be able to have a carnia sada. We like to go to Parque, Jersey, which is in Valley Guadalupe, but it's a beautiful zoo that's owned by Jersey Milk,

and they work directly with the San Diego Zoo, and they have a lot of the younger or older animals being moved back and forth from San Diego Zoo. It's a great family place, swimming pools. So that's what we would go, but we don't, we don't jump out to Mexicali. I go to La Paz a lot. We love La Paz. La Paz to me is like, like amazing. And Toto Santos, that part of Baja.

And when we, we love to go to San Diego, but unfortunately, the border is still closed for B1 visas, which is stupid because my wife can get on a plane and fly, but they can't just simply go across the border to target. And so when we do do staycations, we like to go to staycations. San Diego and we bought SeaWorld Passes so we're we're into that but yeah um yeah and let's talk just a little bit about the uh the map that was created uh the brew pub the brewery craft brew map and excuse me to get the vernacular correct root de so that's such a slow baha subject that i think i need to get my land cruiser and drive the whole drive the whole map and sit down and have a beer with each brewery owner or brewmaster and check that out.

But how did that come about? It was paid for by Corona or something, wasn't it? Yeah. So we all think Grupo Modelo did it to kind of have, stay in good graces of a craft market, because obviously they do their analytics. They realize we're starting to take a bite out of that pie that they're sharing with the group of Heineken, which is Jakati. It's twofold for me.

Anything that a big corporation is involved in, I walk with kid gloves. This is why I'm asking. Yeah. So they had a symposium in Tijuana a couple years ago, and us and a few other, the bigger breweries, refused to participate because it was basically a brain pick session to figure out what they could do to create a brand to compete with us or to start slowly buying some of us off to make us go away. But in the end, there are not just their group of Modela one, we have a couple other Ruta de Cervisa maps, and it will take you for, from Tejana, through Rosarito, Plas,

insinada, Valle, and even down to Jordan's place, down of Baja brewing and Cabo. He's the end of the line. And shout out to Jordan,

good guy. Near Cabo, go visit him. Maybe one of the best logos that I've ever seen out of Baja. Yeah, the donkey tastes in Carrary. I love it.

Yeah, him and Rob are good people, good peeps. And they are also accommodating to the tourism. But, yeah, the map is neat.

And it gives you a little update on the parking, what they have in there, whether it's food or if it's pet friendly or family friendly or whatever. And we have great breweries to the north and the south of us here, you know. All of us here play fairly. We all get along to some extent. And we like that. We like that the industry is evolving to maturity now. It took a little while. And some of these guys have finally woken up and realized, hey, we got to strengthen numbers. You know, what's the thing? Floating tides, all boats, flow or somebody with rising tides?

The rising tide lifts all boats, yes, exactly. Yeah, but that wasn't the case two or three years ago, but it seems like it's finally marinating to that point where we're all getting on board. So it's cool. The other fellow brewers, female brewers, male brewers, kid brewers, home brewers, we're all kind of clicking. Awesome.

Well, we didn't really talk a lot about your craft here and your style of beers. So give me a little bit on your offerings and where they come from and what the style is here. So being a San Diego, you would think I would be like super heavy on IPAs and hazies and whatever is going on in, you know, the Bay Area or San Francisco, L.A. We're quite the contrary. We focus really on lighter styles to accommodate the Mexican market. Loggers. We're really big on crisp loggers, Vienna-style logger, one of Jeff's favorites, the strummers.

named after Joe Strummer from the Clash. Love it. It's a good beer, solid beer. It's got a story about driving the highway, but loggers, blondes, and then we have a good series of IPAs, and we touch a little bit on the hazies. But when you come in,

a lot of our customers that are first-timers, the Mexican Nationals, they always say, clad obscura, because they're a little uncomfortable to ask. They maybe think, way, I'm imitated, and we make sure those people don't feel intimidated. We want someone to come in that's like, hey, I'm going to go try a craft beer, you know, and we embrace that. I'm not like, oh, come on, man, you should know what this is.

It's more like, yeah, this is a light beer, and here's our obscura. So that's how we segue people into our styles. Tietta clata, blonde ale, which is our go-to, which is also the Nora. Just had one. Thank you. That's also the Nora, Nora Serviclata. And then we've got go up from there to pale ales. numbers, IPAs, stouts, all the above.

And usually you'll find nine to 16 styles of our beers on tap. Very seldom we have invitationals because we have our own beer line. And when we have one style it sells a lot like the Tierra Clata, we keep it on two or three lines so the bartenders can get to it fast. And it goes great with our pub food. We're not trying to be fancy. We want people to enjoy a hamburger, Chile wings.

Experience like, you know, again, like a gringo-style food meets Mexican food. So, yeah, it's fun. It goes with the beer as well. Well, Colin, you've been a delight to accommodate Slow Baja on no notice at all. The beer was fabulous. The vibe is great. I highly recommend. Slow Baja approved, and you have to say it for me.

Cerviceria Transpeninsular. Cerviceria Transpeninsular. Yeah, sorry. My tongue is still tied from. No, just practice with cigaro. That's the best, or baril. But thanks to Slow Baja, thanks to Nora. Thank you for, I'm glad Jeff introduced us to each other.

I've been a fan of you guys for a long time. He's been so good to us. Hey, and one more time on the canning opportunities here. Like you do a special can, special design, everything packaged for Nora. Is that something you do for others? No, this is very special for Nora. We have one other program that it's not a private label like we do for Nora. It's actually a co-branded product for Mr. Tempo, King and Queen Cantina, really good guy.

But Nora, to me, is a passion project. It's something that Mike, Pepe, and LSA, and I started. I think we're going on our fourth race, so three and a half years. And proudly Transpenter pioneered DeKan movement in Baja. We were bringing mobile canning down from San Diego, and it was very difficult. It's like bringing a trophy truck in. It's a lot of importing to take something in and take it back out for temporary use. So we made it happen, and Nora has been alongside with me with this project, and it's helped

transplants or go into cans, being confident we could do it. And this year was very unique. I'm not going to lie. Bill Brindle over there in South Carolina, he's the artist for, a lot of the Nora designs, Bill's rad. They couldn't really get a design figured out, and we literally got this design approved Tuesday night, had the stickers made in Mexico in less than 24 hours, and we produced the beer in basically less than 36 hours. Norah had their cans, which honestly I didn't think we could pull it off, and we did thanks to everyone being

patient, and Transpenter and Nora made it happen, and thanks to Bill Brendel. Awesome. Well, hopefully we can get to work a little earlier on the Slow Baja can for the Nora 1,000 in April. Awesome. I would love to do that. I'm happy to do that. And we can run off a special batch for you for giveaways for your fans

along the road. Better than stickers. Almost, almost better than stickers. Stickers. Stickers last so much longer. Yeah, you guys will drink half the beer, but yeah, handing a can a beer with a sticker on it might be nice in the middle of Baja.

You never know. All right. Well, Colin, you've been terrific. Thank you so much. Cheers. Cheers, my man. Hey, Slow Baja approved. You really got to come down to Surveisaria Transpennistular.

I'm going to get another beer and something to eat, and it's just been a delight to meet you and Gabby, and again, can't say it highly enough. Stop here. Have a beer. Thank you. Cheers, everybody. Cheers. That was great. Thanks. Thank you.

Fun. Well, that was fun, getting a no calling a little bit. Transpeninsular, Serviceria Transpenincentalar, is 100% Slow Baja approved. It's right there on the northern end of town in Ensonata coming in or going out. Easy Park. food, great scene, meet some locals, meet some motoh heads. Clara, the Mexican-style loggers, great for people like me who just like a light, regular old, easy drinking beer, but they've got all the hoppy stuff, all the reds, all the hazies, all the darks, it's all there. Come on down,

tell them Slow Baja sent you. And I just want to say back into the Slow Baja store, we've got the new gray and white modern trucker hat is back in stock the green and white old school trucker hat is finally back and i've got a bumper crop of knit caps in various styles and colors so if it's still cold where you are i'm recording this in the middle of february it's already spring is sprung here out in san francisco um so i don't know it's snowing in baha maybe i'm going to take all those knit caps with me um and hand them out to kids who are shivering on the side of the road so i'll be back with a new show next week. Headen to the Valle to get the slow Baja spin on that. Can't wait to figure all that out. Good food, good people, good scene. And stay tuned because I'll be talking about

it next week. Cheers. Have I told you about my friend True Miller? You've probably heard the podcast, but let me tell you, her vineyard, adobe Guadalupe winery is spectacular. From the breakfast at her communal table, bookended to an intimate dinner at night. your house bred Azteca horses, Solomon, the horseman will get you on a ride that'll just change your life. The food, the setting, the pool, it's all spectacular. Adobe Guadalupe.com. For appearing on Slow Baja today, our guests will receive the beautiful benchmark map 72-page Baja Road and Recreation Atlas. Do not go to Baja without this, folks.

You never know when your GPS is going to crap out, and you're going to want a great map in your lap. Trust me.