Best Craft Beer Bars in Guadalajara

In the past few years, Mexico has exploded with craft breweries.  Guadalajara has a whole heap of breweries and more and more keep popping up everywhere.  Minerva is the most famous craft beer on the market here and they produce a good range of quality beers and special editions which thanks to a change in Mexican exclusivity laws are becoming more commonly served in your average bars. Which is a great thing.  Here are some great pit stops for craft beer in the city: 

Malta 33 (Calle Hospital 1557, Col. Santa Teresa, GDL)

For me this is probably the best beer bar in town. Located in the fascinating area of Santa Teresa, this very local looking place (it is situated on a residential street) is a real gem. They stock a HUGE range of different beers from Jalisco and they are all sorted by the style or type. The staff are hugely friendly and welcoming. The first time we visited was on Halloween and it was rammed to the gunnels with people and the manager insisted on shaking our hands before serving us. Then they went out of their way to ensure we had seats to sit down on and finally we managed to win a crate of beer! Awesome, awesome, awesome place.

La Blanca (Lope de Vega 127, GDL) This is a super lil place close to Centro Magno shopping mall. It is a modern stylish wooden bar with a nice balcony to relax while sampling the various different beers that they have to offer.  They do flights so you can try them all and then when you are done you can get an ice cream made with the beer!  Hurrah for that!  

San Lúpulo (Calle Prisciliano Sánchez 807, Col. Americana, Americana, 44160)

Grillo!

Down a side street near the most beautiful church in the city, this little bar is funky, strange and stocks a great range of different beers you can't find anywhere else. We thank them for that. You can sit on benches and drink beers off old broken TVs and the staff are super friendly. This is a very local bar, but they are nice and when you pick one of their favourites they seem to be geniunely impressed by your selection. They stock the rare Fauna brewery beers which are made in collaboration with great US breweries. So yay for them! And for us!

Grillo (Chapultepec 215, 44160 GDL)

Grillo is a great find on Chapultepec. The bar itself is teeny tiny but there is great seating outside and upstairs. Additionally you can order beers from the bar in the restaurant El Nacional right next door! The staff are generally very friendly and the beer range is extensive and arranged by style. They sell mainly Mexican beers but they also have a good range from the US (including Coronada Brewing Company from San Diego which is one of my favourites). AND they give you spicy mixed nuts for free!

El Deposito (Av. Chapultepec Sur 129 or Avenida Adolfo Lopez Mateos Sur 805, Jardines del Bosque, 44520)

The beer doesn't last long

Welll there are several of these across the city. Some are good with friendly staff and enough room to really look around and see the beers. Others are really quite crap (Chapultepec) with really pretentious and unfriendly staff – last time we went there they had run out of glasses. IN A BEER BAR???? hahahaa. The kind of do this thing where the don't offer any alternatives just stare at you. Hmmm. They stock beers from Europe, Mexico and some from the US too. They also have local brewery Minerva on tap which is worth a visit on its own.

El Faquir (Lopez Cotilla 1531 -close to Chapultepec, GDL)
This place isn't strictly speaking only a craft beer bar, it is a pulqueria which serves pulque, a pre-hispanic drink made from agave.  The pulque is varied in various flavours - I strongly recommend the rompope and the mint one!  So good!  The pyscadelic colours make and guest DJs make it a modern pulqueria and the fact that they stock a range of artesenal beers - including a pulque infused one which is good make it worth while to visit.

Pinto Negra (Av. Justo Sierra 1982, Ladrón de Guevara, 44600)

Located on a side street off Chapultepec, it is unlikely you would notice this little gem. Specializing in stone cooked? Pizzas, this upstairs balcony bar stocks a good range of Mexican beers that are hard to find in other places. The pizzas are really impressive too. Saturday nights they have DJs and you can dine and drink under the stars! Awesome place but you often need ID to enter.

A day trip to...Colón, Querétaro

Colón is a religious town and most of the tourism around it is based on pilgrimages. Around an hour from Queretaro city.  This town is worthy of a stop into for its beautiful churches and market whether you are religious or not. The only town in Mexico to be named after Christopher Colombus (well it was originally an indigenous town and then later renamed)

I have become obsessed with the idea of visiting towns that are associated with different catholic virgins.  In Jalisco we had the virgin of Zapopan and the virgin of San Juan de los Lagos, both of which I have visited to catch a glimpse of the doll like statue at the front of the churches.  Each virgin although an extension of the general concept of the virgin Mary is often connected with miracles or holy experiences and although they look similar in their appearances, embody and represent different qualities.  I additionally enjoy collecting souvenirs of these virgins and they appear on a special shelf in my house.

Colón's significance as a religious site is based around its virgin, The Virgin of Sorrows. The main church here is dedictaed to the Virgin of Sorrows - a styling of the virgin Mary who is reflected in a state of intense sorrow or suffering.

Nunzilla!

Pretty chapel

The whole importance of the town seems to emulate from the church and on the Sunday I visited that was what most people here wanted to experience.  The church itself was packed and everyone was singing away.  The smaller chapels in to the sides of the church are worth visiting for their over the top decoration which is not unlike a holiday villa in Spain at times, but very colourful and good to look at for a bit.  On the far side of the church is a small museum of paintings and material related to visions of the virgin around Mexico.  One of my favourites made it look like the virgin was an attacking godzilla like figure, nunzilla, if you will.

Between the bus station and the main part of town there is a really beautiful little chapel which when I visited was stunningly decorated in fresh flowers and completely deserted.  Was really atmospheric and peaceful, so be sure to keep an eye out for it!