The other night we tried Baja Brewing Company. We shared a couple of pints and a pizza. The one we went to was near the mall in the marina. I wasn’t aware there was another location right across the street from our resort. When I played golf, Eric raved about it. This location is on the roof of the Cabo Villas Beach Resort and Spa, and offers some incredible views of the mountains and the bay. The breeze was nice, and we settled in to try all of the beers they had to offer.
Baja Brewing has a daily happy hour with discounted pints from 4-6 PM, but I wanted to try all of their beers. I ordered a few pints, but I started with a sample of each brew for sake of this blog post. Below is a list of all the beers available as well as some restaurant provided tasting notes about these beers. Bottoms up!
Baja Blonde
Body – Light
Color – Light Gold
Hop Bitterness – Mild
Untappd – 3/5 It smells better than it tastes. It’s an easy drinking beer, but wasn’t served cold enough. I bet this would taste great from a bottle or can.
This is our most traditional Mexican style light beer. It has a light body and light color with a very delicate balance of hops and malt to create a complex, yet mild flavor.
Raspberry Lager
Body – Light
Color – Sparkling Gold
Hop Bitterness – Mild
Untappd – 4/5 Loaded with raspberry on the palate and is a very easy drinking beer. This beer could be dangerous depending on the ABV.
This light and easy drinking lager has just a hint of sweet raspberry in the aroma and the flavor. A perfectly refreshing beer on a hot Cabo day for both men and women.
Escorpion Negro
Body – Medium
Color – Black
Hop Bitterness – Mild
Untappd – 4/5 The beer smells like a glass of malt (think nitro), and tastes like a thick creamy stout. I love the name, too.
Our Schwartz beer is a black lager with plenty of malt flavor. Although this is our darkest colored beer, it has a light body and goes down surprisingly easy. So like the scorpion, this beer stings but does not bite.
Baja Belgium Wheat
Body – Medium Light
Color – Hazy Light Copper
Hop Bitterness – Mild Balanced
Untappd – 2/5 The beer smells amazing; loaded with citrus. However the flavor lacks complexity that you expect from such a powerful scent. The beer was served with an orange slice.
Brewed with traditional Belgian yeast, this unfiltered wheat beer boats delicious fruit overtones. A distinctively refreshing seasons brew perfect for the adventurous beer drinker.
Peliroja Red
Body – Medium
Color – Red
Hop Bitterness – Medium
Untappd – 4/5 Smells malty and has some burnt caramel notes. The flavor is the same, loaded with malt and leaving you with a subtle bitter malty finish. Not a typical red.
A well balanced combination of malts and hops come together to provide this red, full bodied beer. Aromatic at first, the malt soon dominates the flavor of this ale, finally giving way to a smooth hop finish. The brewmaster recommends enjoying this red ale with a red sauce pizza.
Peyote Pale Ale
Body – Medium Full
Color – Copper
Hop Bitterness – Aggressive
Untappd – 4/5 The nose doesn’t remind me of a pale, but the flavor and the aftertaste are familiar. Eric said they don’t serve the beers very cold here. He was right. Still one of the best they offer.
Our most flavorful ale. We use pale English malts during the brewing process. This rich, flavor intensive ale is not for the weak beer drinker. But if you like to challenge your palate, this hop extravaganza will satisfy.
Oatmeal Stout
Body – Full
Color – Black
Hop Bitterness – Balanced
Untappd – This beer smells incredible. It has rich chocolate notes and is packed with a promising sweetness. The flavors are dark, bitter, and loaded with chocolate flavors. Delicious beer, and better toward room temperature.
This stout has a lightly roasted character and a full creamy head. The almost black body produces heavy roasted coffee notes in the aroma. It is soft on the tongue and leaves a hint of chocolate in the aftertaste. A perfect beer to pair with dessert, or the beer itself can be dessert.
They had another beer he served with the sampler, but I can’t remember what it is called. He said it made with some Mexican fruit. They have a root beer listed on the menu, and I thought they would serve that one. But hey, I’ll try a beer made with fresh foreign fruit. (For the record, the beer is horrible. It is very sour, and has a terrible mouthfeel. I didn’t even finish my sample.)
Out of all the beers at Baja Brewing, the pale and the oatmeal stout were the best. The bitter aftertaste on the pale and the creamy texture of the stout are most memorable.
Baja Brewing was started by three guys from Colorado who wanted to bring craft beer to Cabo San Lucas. It’s nice, as a beer snob and a beer blogger, to see good craft beer in such a tourist destination. There is a lot of tequila and cheap crappy beer available on the beach, but nothing can compete to a good craft beer. These beers aren’t the best in the world, but it’s Cabo. If you are ever down here, make sure to try the rooftop location. You won’t regret it, if nothing else but the views.
