Baja's Best Brewer on Beer, Brotherhood & Taking a Break

Laura Garcia of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.

In fall 2019, I received an email with the subject line: “Laura Estela Garcia - the best brewer in Baja California.” The sender, Master BJCP judge Oleg Shpyrko, is a genius in all things beer (and physics), so when he says I should write about an “awesome person” who is an “amazing brewer,” I can pretty safely take his word for it. (Sorry it took me a little while, Oleg!)

Laura Garcia hails from Mexicali, the capital of Baja California in western Mexico. The agriculturally-heavy region lies just south of Calexico, California—about two hours east of San Diego—and is home to the La Chinesca neighborhood, which, until recently, contained the largest population of Chinese people in the country. This longstanding and deeply embedded Chinese-Mexican cultural fusion renders itself most prominently through the high concentration of mostly Cantonese-inspired restaurants across Mexicali, but has also influenced the burgeoning beer scene as well.

“On the flavor side, I think we’re not afraid to mix and match because of influences from our Chinese community, but also from American friends,” says Garcia. While multicultural influences from both sides of the border, as well as easy access to unique ingredients like Chinese teas and candy, have helped shape Garcia’s own award-winning recipes, she also credits Mexicali’s pervasive and punishingly harsh heat as motivation to enjoy activities that cool people down—like drinking beer. “There’s this terrible heat, four months a year, it’s super hot. There’s not a lot to do. So people go out to drink,” she says. “Craft beer has become a part of Mexicali culture.”

Side note: it’s supposed to reach 117° Fahrenheit (47° Celsius) in Mexicali today, August 3, 2021. “Super hot” is right!!

Compared to other Baja beer hubs like Tijuana or Ensenada, Mexicali might seem like an afterthought to those unfamiliar with the country’s brew scene. But Garcia has been an integral part of the region’s craft beer boom from the start, moving from enthusiast to novice brewer (at the now-closed Cervecería Tres B) to beer judge and ultimately head brewer at Amante Brew Company. Though she’s currently unattached to a brewery, she’s holding out for the right role. “[I’m] just waiting for the right opportunity,” she explains. “It’s been really slow post-pandemic and [there are] not a lot of job openings in brewing yet, but we’ll see.”

Her optimism coupled with a strong sense of self-worth is what’s driven her to become the best. With seemingly endless praise for her years at Amante, I had to ask: why did she leave?

“I was thinking of better opportunities, bigger, learning more. I was hitting a place in that brewery where we were no longer growing,” Garcia says. “I wanted to learn more and see what else is outside of Mexicali.”

She took a brewing position at a large brewery in Ensenada in early 2020, a coastal town on the Pacific side of northern Baja. But she quickly realized the transition wasn’t right for her. “It wasn’t what I expected,” she explains, citing difficulties like the pandemic as well as the the comparatively more competitive craft brewing scene as reasons to return to Mexicali soon after. (As it turns out, there really is no place like home.) Plus, craft beer is still red-hot in Mexicali, with celebrated breweries like Fauna, Cervecería Ícono, Cervecería Averno, and Cervecería Urbana among some of Garcia’s favorites. It’s not just the quality of beer pouring out of the region, either. It’s an unusually accepting atmosphere, something not universally found across Mexico, she says.

“Mexico is really machista, misogynist in English,” Garcia says. “But I never had any really bad experiences as a brewer in the industry here in Mexicali. As a woman, of course. Men harass me in the streets, that’s every woman in the world.” But compared to the “horror stories” she says she’s heard about the U.S. craft beer industry and what she’s seen elsewhere in Mexico, Mexicali is far ahead in terms of acceptance and inclusion. “There’s a brotherhood—friendships that are built from years of brewing… other places aren’t like that at all,” she says, describing Mexicali’s brew scene as extremely supportive of one another. If you ask the brewer at one brewery where else they like to drink, you’re likely to get a list of recommendations for nearby places without hesitation or worry about competitiveness.

Considering Garcia holds a degree in psychology, it’s no surprise that she’s as tapped into the people making the beer as much as she is the beer itself. But despite that formal training, she has no plans to leave craft beer. “I want to stay in this industry because I love the job, the people, everything surrounding the beer industry,” she says.

Still, after her experience in Ensenada and COVID’s massive disruption, she’s taking it slow. “I’m just resting my head, my emotions, and falling in love with beer again,” she says. Knowing her worth and waiting for the right opportunity? To that, I say “¡salud!”

Prohibitchin' is made possible by a sponsorship from Hopsbauer, a woman-owned hops brokerage company based in San Diego. Hopsbauer brings the best hops from around the world to craft breweries. Find out more by visiting Hopsbauer.com, and thanks to Liz Bauer for her generous support!