Tijuana Morena

Brewed by Consorcio Cervecero de Baja California
Style: Vienna
Tijuana, BC, Mexico

This poured a dark orange/brown with a beige head that didn’t last too long. Nice aroma of caramel and slightly burnt toast. That burnt toast picks up perhaps a notch too much in the flavor, but this remains an enjoyable, sessionable Vienna.

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Bottle: Dark amber mahogany color, light head and lacing. Nose of sweet plum and toffee, light roast and rye. The flavor is very nutty and toasty, a bit of plum and cherry. The finish is sweet, a bit husky and decently plain in the mouthfeel and body.

Deep aroma of malt with chocolate. Deep ruby mahogany color with a head that came and quickly went. Starts darkly sweet, a bit of chocolate arrives, and it finishes with minimal bitter. I could imagine a bit of darkish fruit. Mouthfeel a bit light. Really quite nice. Has some Porter chacteristic.

Poured an amber color with a large, light tan head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of nuts, dark grains, and caramel malts. Taste of sweet caramel malts, nuts, toffee malts, and toasted dough. Certainly one of the more solid Mexican beers.

Bottle, presumably fresh, at the Liar’s Club on 3/23/07
These guys have so much potential with their obvious brewing skills and lagering practices. It was disappointing, albeit not surprising in the least, to see this rather heavily filtered, force carbonated (and maybe pasteurized?) beer, that is otherwise quite well-made. The head retention is moderate to poor, with a chalky-beige head leaving little/no lacing. High clarity in a dark chestnut body, with plenty of large bubbles bursting on the surface.
Sweet, rather sluggish I thought, caramel malts in the nose certainly signify that this is not going to be some undermalted fake attempt at a dark German lager. A little bit of buttercream-like toffee maltiness adds a slight touch of thickness, while some light coffee/roast notes sit on the finish, rather plainly. The aroma tapers off in to a bit of bready/toastiness that is quite dull/bland. Some yeast notes evident throughout, attempting to add dryness/crispness, but the overly sweet mats seem to rob the yeast of most of its elegance that was seen in the pils. Medium to medium-low strength overall, with no alcohol or flaws noted.
Rather simple, somewhat insipidly sweet flavor balances light vanilla-flavored coffee with a touch of cocoa and prunes. Yeast notes almost accentuate the slightly vinousness prune notes, but fail to really take a foothold against the sweetness and extremely loose carbonation. The filtration/carbonation leads to a very wet, rather soggy texture and the flavors just fall in to each other, without any distinct transitions or real brightness/crispness of flavors. No doubt on draught this stuff would be much better. I don’t expect a Mexican brewery to bottle condition a 4.5abv lager, but man if they did.......Still, a good beer, free from flaws, that just suffers from the texture/mouthfeel.

Bottle. Dark brown beer with a light tan head. Light caramel aroma. Caramel flavor with a bit of earthiness. Medium-light body. Easy drinkings. LIngering light caramel. A bit of residual sweetness.

Malty with notes of chocolate and toffee. A little earthy hops too. Light bodied with not a ton of flavor. Just subtle sweetness and a lightly crisp finish.

08-Sep-08 (12 oz bottle: Purchased 08-Aug-07 at Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA) I’ve let this one sit a bit longer than I planned, but with great results. This beer is wonderfully malty, very toasty, and mildly earthy, but the roastiness exhibits a slightly burnt character. Of particular note is the fact that the finishes with a flurry of corn flavors, but the roastiness helps to mask it. There is some perceived sweetness because the beer is so malt-focused and throws hints of brown sugar at you, but it’s actually rather dry on the palate. Medium bodied with light-medium carbonation. Aside from the obvious malty character of the nose, the beer smells like roasted pecans and fairly dark toast, but note of corn and dough lurk in the background. The clear, medium-brown body is capped by a small, tan head that settles to a thin ring. A touch too much corn in the flavor and the roastiness is a bit charred, but otherwise, this is an enjoyable beer and obviously one of the better beers made in Mexico.