Magazines » May/June 2009 Issue » What's in a Name?: Cucapá Brewery
Thousands of years ago, a tribe known as the Cucapá settled into the Colorado River delta, a veritable oasis in the harsh desert landscape. Known for their love of water and nature, the tribe utilized the bounty of their surroundings and paved the way for a future settlement, Mexicali, which today houses around one million residents in the northern Mexican state of Baja California. They were pioneers of their time, and while a small population of direct ancestors exists today, a new generation of pioneers has emerged, also carrying the name Cucapá. They, however, are paving the way for Mexican beer.
“Everything [the Cucapá tribe] does is very craftlike,” explains Mario Garcia, CEO of Cucapá Brewery. “They work with all of the elements that are available to them locally, and that’s something we wanted to accomplish; something that’s native to the area.”
What began in 2002 as a modest brewpub in Mexicali, Mexico, Cucapá Brewery emerged five years later when Garcia and company decided to shift their focus from the food industry to packaging and marketing their beer full-time. And while its line of brews, which includes an amber ale, pale ale, wheat beer, and barleywine, has won accolades and raised awareness of Mexico’s awakening craft beer movement, convincing the locals has been something of an effort. After all, Cucapá is Mexicali’s first local brewery in roughly 25 years.
“We’ve experimented with a few recipes and designs of beer,” says Garcia. “For a Mexican brewery to do that, it’s a big risk, because 99.9 percent of your beer here is pale lager.”
Of particular contention with locals is the use of hops. While your average Stateside drinker may not have an intimate knowledge of hops, they’ve at least seen the commercials of Boston Beer Co., in which founder Jim Koch dives nose-first into a mound of the bitter flower. In Mexico, it’s still largely a foreign idea. Garcia notes that Cucapá’s pale ale has an IBU count around 45, “and that’s the hoppiest beer in Mexico.” For many, it’s too bitter, but Garcia pleasantly reminds customers that’s precisely the idea.
As the original Cucapá tribe struggled to sustain a living in territory that wasn’t always inviting, they still prevailed, and that’s what Garcia intends to do with his beer. Campaigning the notion that strong beer is good beer and “you don’t have to drink a 30-pack,” as Garcia puts it, Cucapá is catching on in not just the savvier metro areas, but throughout the country. Its beer has also broken into markets in California, Arizona, and Colorado.
“It’s been fun because people hear about a beer that’s 10 percent [alcohol] and they go, ‘What? That can’t be beer,” jokes Garcia. “Yeah, it’s an educational process.”
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This article originally appeared in the May/June 2009 Issue of DRAFT Magazine
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