Jorge Meraz: On this episode of "Crossing South," we visit an off-road museum that pays homage to Baja racing and we visit a local beer brewery in San Felipe and it's all coming to you now.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jorge: We find ourselves south of San Felipe, making a stop at a place that honors the region's racing history.

Jorge: The off-road racing scene in Baja is world famous.

There's all types of vehicles that engage in these races, which the vehicles are worth a lot more than even some of the prize money.

And people do it for the enjoyment, for the pleasure, for the adventure.

I'm in a museum that pays homage to that, you know, kind of like the history of the off-roading racing scene in Baja.

And I'm standing right next to the man himself, Lynn Chenowth.

How you doing, my friend?

Lynn Chenowth: Perfect.

Jorge: What's the story behind your incredibly distinguished museum here with really incredible pieces?

Lynn: This used to be my neighbor's and I have a house a couple doors down, four doors down, and he moved and I bought it from him and I just had a few cars and then I just started collecting them, old cars that they were coming up, that were unique for some reason or another, you know, one of a kind.

Like this car here, this is Roger and Rick Mears's car.

Jorge: This is the oldest one you got?

Lynn: Yeah, built and driven by Drino Miller.

Jorge: Oh wow, 1969.

Lynn: Baja 500.

That yellow one over there, right?

Won the race in 1973.

And that car also won its class in 2019.

Jorge: Oh, really?

Lynn: So there's five of those classes.

So I had one car in each class and I had all my old drivers that used to drive them in the old day, drive them.

Jorge: Really?

Old timers, like, got in their old wheels and raced and they're still competing in that category?

Oh my goodness.

Jorge: This place is a racer's dream.

Anyone who's grown up following the sport will be able to appreciate the evolution of the tech, the gear, and the vehicles all showcased here under one roof.

The more I look at the photos around here, the more I realize I'm in the company of a legend.

I get the feeling that Lynn has built more race cars than yours truly has eaten tacos.

Lynn: Well, in my career, we've built some 25,000 dune buggies.

We're the largest buggy manufacturer in the world.

Matter of fact, we're bigger than all the rest of them put together, but we mass produced them, and our first kits we sold for 100 bucks, you know?

A little tubing notch, bent and color-coded so you could put it together and weld it up yourself.

Well, we had a factory in Oklahoma was Chenowth Racing Products.

And we built all those cars there.

This is the earliest designs, but only built about 11 of this design.

And my buddies teased me about it, calling it a phone booth because it was so tall, you know?

Jorge: You built this?

Lynn: Yeah, I built all of these, designed and built all of them.

Yeah, that's what I did for a living.

Jorge: What's your--what's your background, then?

How are you--how do you have the skills to build stuff like this?

Did you study anything?

Lynn: A little shop in high school.

Jorge: That's it?

That's it, literally?

Just handy--just handy and creativity.

Lynn: I knew how to weld.

I knew about cars and I met Johnny Johnson in high school and he got me interested in dune buggies.

You know, he's won 112 wins and 17 Baja 1000s in eight different classes.

Jorge: Racing your cars?

Lynn: Not just--all kinds of cars.

All kinds of cars.

Dune buggies were fun, man.

You're out in the desert and slide around and all but, I mean, it was great fun and-- Jorge: Well, they look cool, man.

They look--they look like more than something--somebody who knew shop in high school would know how to put together.

But if you say so, yeah.

Jorge: I would have honestly thought he was an engineer but some people are just gifted.

Lynn has innate skill as well as a life pursuing something he is passionate about.

This vehicle armory is an ode to that powerful combination.

Lynn: We won both the Baja the NORRA 1000 and the 500 in '19, the last time I ran this car, 2019.

It won both.

The only thing that beat us, and we were in a vintage class, was a trophy truck and another--and a vintage truck.

Jorge: Overall?

Those are the only ones that beat you?

Lynn: One beat us by a minute, the cops truck, which is, you know, a million dollar deal, and this other vintage truck by five minutes.

Jorge: What?

That's quite the accomplishment, if only one out of many multi-- Lynn: --five days.

We led all the way until the last wave where the racecourse was real fast, high speed.

A lot of 130 mile an hour stuff.

And this car's only go 100, 103 is about top speed.

But we were ahead of them.

So they know we were fast.

I mean, we led them for four days until they got around us.

So there wasn't any question about the car's capabilities.

It just didn't have the top end to run with them down there.

But anything up to 100 miles an hour, we kicked their--because we're just... Jorge: Do Baja races get a little competitive there, man?

I mean, like, escape from Thunderdome, Mad Max?

What's going on here?

Lynn: We built these for the Navy SEALs for the Kuwait War.

Jorge: So this vehicle was actually used by Navy SEALs, this type of vehicle?

Lynn: This very vehicle was.

Jorge: This very vehicle?

Oh man.

Was it mounted with guns up there?

Lynn: Yep, 50 caliber, like that, up there and a smaller gun here and then a smaller one on the back.

They could--the seat would swing around and they could shoot the smaller gun at anybody chasing them.

The government gave me the spec.

They wanted it to go 85 miles an hour in the desert so they could sneak in.

That would outrun anybody.

Nobody could go that fast in the desert.

This is a later version.

Jorge: A later version of the same one?

Lynn: Of this one, to do the same job.

The difference with this one is it's got a diesel motor in it, and it's four wheel drive.

Jorge: That's a--that's quite the turret there.

Lynn: And you can swing all the way around with this and shoot at the people chasing you with the 50 cal.

Jorge: Oh my goodness.

So this is where the guy would be sitting and, like, "Don't you chase us or we'll blast you to smithereens."

I mean, look at the hardware.

This literally just swings super smoothly, right?

And then he could probably turn this, right?

It rotates--the gun itself rotates so he could probably, like, swing it.

It's super nimble, you know?

Jorge: So Lynn knows his stuff.

If he was getting commission for special ops hardware, that proves top skill in my book.

We took a final spin around the facility to go back in time through photographs as well as see a few plaques and awards.

But the warm San Felipe weather was making us a bit parched and it was time to go back north of town for some sights.

There's so many things happening in San Felipe, you know, as they cater to both the local population, like, passing through tourists, expats that live here.

And one of them as we saw up here is beer.

Beer's a major thing going in Baja right now.

The artisanal craft beer movement is here to stay and San Felipe is gonna be a part of it, as you can see this place right here, right now.

And the guy in charge of that place is standing right next to me.

How you doing, my friend?

Jorge Libreros: How you doing?

How are you?

Thank you, guys.

So we've been open for five years, been in through two locations, went through pandemic.

Jorge Meraz: So you opened it in 2018?

Jorge Libreros: 2018.

We started the whole process in 2016.

But yeah, paperwork and everything.

You know, it was the first brewery in San Felipe--in San Felipe.

You know, I mean, I work around here for El Dorado Ranch.

They brought me from Cancun and then I stay here.

I love San Felipe.

San Felipe is home for me.

You know, I've been here for many years.

They brought me down in 2006.

So I've been here, you know, I'm a San Felipian already.

Seven years ago, I started traveling a lot to San Diego, Tijuana, Ensenada, Mexicali, and I started--I realize about craft beer and I became a fan of it, you know?

I wanted to learn a little bit about it.

Jorge Meraz: And you saw that it was missing in San Felipe?

Jorge Libreros: I did saw that.

I say we needed it-- and guess what?

Then suddenly I find out, you know, when I was talking to someone about craft beer or something, I realized or I find out that there was a home brewing club here in San Felipe, home brewers.

And, you know, it was a group of about 15 people, all Americans, Canadians, all foreign people, retired.

Jorge Meraz: Did you join it?

Jorge Libreros: Yes, yes.

I was the first Mexican in the club, you know, and every--once a month, we used to have a meeting, you know, and try different beers from everywhere and the ones that people used to brew and whatever, but it was a good meeting, you know, like we ended up drinking-- Jorge Meraz: How could it be wrong, drinking beer?

Jorge Libreros: So by the end of the meetings, every meeting, I was like, "Guys, we need to do something.

We need to have something here."

I didn't want to see somebody from other place coming and opening a brewery.

A few months later, Joe, which is now my other partners, Joe and Scott, you get to see him and you get to meet him sometime.

After a meeting the next day, he reach out to me and he say, "Hey, let's do it."

And he had a bigger plan.

He has--I mean, like, the guy is a genius.

He's so, so smart.

So we're, "Okay, let's do it," right?

Jorge Meraz: That is how great things happen.

Someone has an idea.

Another has the means.

They happen to coincide.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

I'm excited to see what they've got.

Jorge: I don't know if I've been this excited for a beer tasting ever or maybe in a while.

I chose all these and I'm ready to try them.

Okay, so the first one I'm gonna try is, from what I see here, an award-winning beer, 2020 award-winning beer.

This is a White Wheat beer, White Wheat, Los Arcos, White Wheat.

Los Arcos, if you've seen the entrance of San Felipe, there's an arch monument which is the Arcos, the arches.

So we're gonna try the Arcos White Wheat beer.

Oh, wow.

It's got just a little bit of bitterness, just enough because I don't like--I'm not a big fan of really, you know, stringent, bitter beers, but this one's just got that little touch.

It's almost like a--like an introduction.

Like a little starter.

Like your starter drug, your intro into wheat beers.

This one is a--has a little bit--a little bit higher percentage alcohol.

It's the Pilsner de la Playa.

Pilsner beer, of course, named after the style after the city of Pilsner, and I think it's in the Czech Republic and their-- it's their beach Pilsner.

So it should be refreshing, right?

Whenever you're gonna have a beer on the beach, it should be a very refreshing beer.

And, oh yeah, it is.

It is.

Man, these are not boring beers.

I mean, these are--I think these are some of the lighter ones that I'm gonna have and they are full of flavor.

Very, very refreshing, stringent.

And, yeah, I'm having fun here.

This is a ginger beer.

I love ginger ale.

I love ginger soft drink.

It's probably the only type of soft drink that I drink.

Now, this is a ginger beer.

I've had ginger, kind of like, you know, Seltzers.

You know, there's some non-alcoholic beverages that you can buy at the supermarket that say "ginger beer," but it's not really beer, right?

This may be the same thing.

I don't know.

We're gonna find out together.

Yeah, this is--this has alcohol?

Wow, it's a 6% alcohol.

Ah, this is really good.

I wouldn't categorize it as a, kind of like if you're--your run-of-the-mill beer, you know, you're not feeling you're drinking like a sud when you're drinking it.

But it's a incredibly refreshing drink.

Let's have this one, that's a San Felipe Light.

Now I'm gonna try the Rolling Man, the red ale.

Interesting name.

A little bit--a little more bitterness.

Oh, nice.

We're entering now into the beers that I personally like to have, like, on a cold chilly evening.

A little bit harder.

A little bit more stringent, a little bit more bitter, a little bit more flavorful, you know.

Maybe not as refreshing as the lighter ones that I was having at the beginning, which I would love to have, like, on a sunny day, you know, like a barbecue, being out, you know, in the sun with friends, vacationing out in the woods.

That's those types of beers.

I'm entering the beers now that I like to have as a meal, you know, in a cold chilly night, you're still having a beer.

This is what I get.

This type of beer is what I get.

Jorge: These guys are going all out.

This is not a boring experience.

They're mixing beer potions here and it's not by chance.

It takes serious brewing skill to make this happen.

Jorge Libreros: We wanted Scott, which is the third partner.

He's--we call him the wizard, the mago, because he creates amazing beer.

He knows a lot about beer and he's a fantastic--so then, that's it.

That's when we started.

The three of us, we started thinking about everything, you know, everything and then find out about the paperwork, the idea of the brewery.

Obviously, they didn't want to get involved in something big and, you know, obviously, you know, it's an adventure, for sure.

Jorge Meraz: So what kind of clients are you mostly getting?

Is it--is it the expats, is it tourists?

Is it local Mexicans?

Who's the bulk, the majority of your consumer right now?

Jorge Libreros: It is a mix.

But I would say the neighborhood, you know, which is like the community around here, a lot of snowbirds or expats or whatever, you know.

I work and I live here in El Dorado and my partners live in Pete's Camp, so.

Jorge Meraz: Which is right adjacent to this?

Jorge Libreros: It's just right around.

That's why I call it the neighborhood, you know?

But, you know, people that come down and they find out just like you say, you used to come and suddenly there is a craft brewery--brewer here.

The local people, you know, they come down, they like the atmosphere, I guess, and, you know, yeah.

Jorge Meraz: Kind of trying to wean them off of the cat beer, right?

Jorge Libreros: Yeah, you know, we'll never--we're not trying to compete.

We're just trying to give-- Jorge Meraz: It's a different niche.

Jorge Libreros: It's a different-- Jorge Meraz: We're gonna try their Skinny Blonde award-winning beer, 2018 award winner.

It looks very similar to the San Felipe beer.

Very refreshing.

This is one of those beers that you have, you know, on a hot-- on a hot day, but it's more flavorful than any commercial beer that you'll have which is like a blonde ale.

It's--you can see the artisanal factor because it's not made for mass consumption, right?

That's what artisanal mean.

It's an artisan, you know, doing something quality work with quality products, and you can taste it.

You can definitely taste it.

We're gonna have this hibiscus beer.

If you have any of the Mexican sweet drinks, the beverages, the aguas frescas, as they call it, one of the flavors that's very predominant in Mexico is the Agua de Jamaica.

The Jamaica is the hibiscus and this is a hibiscus beer.

So, it's probably based out of one of the beers that they already have and they're infusing it with hibiscus.

So you could call it a Jamaica beer.

But that's--it's the Hibiscus beer.

Let's see what they got.

Let's see what it is...

Very nice.

Yeah, you can taste the Jamaica.

It's completely--it's almost like it's a--I don't know if it's like a Pilsner base, you know?

I don't know if it's like the San Felipe light infused with hibiscus, but it's such a good combination.

I can see someone just going through the gauntlet.

It almost has the sprinkleness, the aftertaste, of a Seltzer, so it might be that, right?

It might be a Seltzer, but it's a Hibiscus beer.

That's how they have it.

Going along with that, we're gonna continue now with this hard root beer, which is probably also like a--like a sweeter beverage, a sweeter brew.

Jorge: Phenomenal.

But then again, I love root beer.

This is really good.

I mean, just a root beer with a kick.

I wonder if you can do that, right?

I mean, it gives me an idea of just having at home, you know, your Barq's root beer and just slam down some--spiking it a little bit, and I wonder if that's all it takes.

But no, they do their stuff here.

Okay, so we've gone through the sweet.

It's time to move back towards the stringent, towards the bitterness.

So this is a--this is a, I guess, a German-style beer, because it's a Kolner Dom Kolsch.

All right, let's see what it is.

Jorge: Hm, it's a little drier taste.

Even though it's not hard on alcohol, it's 6%, but you can taste it.

It's almost--it's a hard beer.

It's a little bit of a drier taste.

A very good taste, but it's a drier taste than the other ones.

You can feel it.

You can taste it.

So, this is a Tops Off ale.

You see that?

That's an ale.

It's more filtered.

It's not as clear as some of the others, but it is clear.

Jorge: Mm, yeah.

Very light, very refreshing.

This one has the least bitterness probably.

I wonder--I wonder why they call it Tops Off.

The people get so lit up that by the second, third, of that one, their top just flies off?

I don't know, because I'm only having tasters of it.

I'm not having a whole lot of it.

Let's do another reset before we move on to the dark side of the competition, to the Porter stouts, all right?

Jorge: So Jorge, tell me about it.

I mean, I've seen these type of brewing machines before but, you know, I wanna know what you got going.

So, is there anything you can tell me about your operation?

Jorge Libreros: So, basically, that's the keychain.

That's where the brews happen, you know?

The brewing team make this happen, you know.

After brewing, you transfer the beer to a fermenter.

So we have three right here.

Jorge Meraz: Those are your fermenters?

Jorge Libreros: Yeah, these are the fermenters.

Jorge Meraz: I see you have a ton of selection of beers and beverages.

How do you, like, schedule which ones you're gonna do?

Jorge Libreros: We really, really have a fantastic brewing team, you know?

And my partner, Joe, he was--he started this rotation pretty much, you know, we-- Jorge Meraz: So you never run out of a particular one?

Jorge Libreros: No, exactly.

Out of all these beers, we have base beers, you know, like for example, the Jalapeño beer.

Jorge Meraz: What's the base of that?

Jorge Libreros: The Skinny Blonde, that's the blonde ale.

Jorge Meraz: You got a blonde ale.

Jorge Libreros: You have the blonde ale.

Jorge Meraz: Infused with jalapeño.

You could have multiple infusions of different flavors?

Jorge Libreros: Exactly.

And you know what is so interesting, is the people.

Sometimes they come and they, you know, because they like this, they like the industry.

So they say, "Why don't you try this or that or something?"

So we try.

A lot of the things we have actually on board is because we try that or because it's people's idea or they say, "Why don't you guys do this or that?"

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So yeah, we like to try different things.

Jorge Meraz: I should offer my own suggestion.

I am, after all, partial to peanut butter, but as it turns out they already have it.

We're gonna start with the Matomi stout.

I think that's the strongest one they got.

Jorge: Yeah, very, very--that little burnt taste, aftertaste.

It's strong, it's chocolatey, you know.

To a degree it's like coffee, coffee-ish, coffee-ish.

Okay, this is the Piloncillo stout.

So I should encounter a bit of a sweet flavor because they use that crystallized, you know, brown sugar brick that Mexicans use to sweeten.

They shave it, they boil it, and they use it to sweeten different types of coffees, de la Olla, cafe de la Olla.

Different desserts are sweetened with piloncillo and this is a piloncillo stout.

So this is--this is a very Irish Mexican combination.

Oh boy.

This is really good.

But oddly enough, you're not gonna believe it.

It's not sweet.

So even though it's a Piloncillo porter, it's almost like it softens the flavor of, you know, a porter, a porter stout.

Very nice, a very nice combination where they use each other to bring balance to the force.

And we're gonna go with the last one.

Believe it or not, we're about to reach the end, and I love peanut butter.

So the last one that I'm gonna have is your peanut butter porter.

So I don't know how you can infuse peanut butter in a porter, but they did it.

I love peanut butter, I love porters, I love stouts, so.

Phenomenal.

Yeah, fantastic.

It's almost like the aftertaste of the peanut butter.

It's very back there and it's after.

You're not really tasting it while you're drinking it, but it's like the aftertaste.

I am still tasting it right now.

Could I get some, like, Welches, put it in there, just some--Jorge's got a good thing going here.

The tocayo knows his stuff and he's got this awesome variety for the people here in San Felipe to enjoy, and visitors, of course, which you're welcome to do.

So we're gonna continue.

I, right now, just you know, went halfway, but I need to actually deplete these cups.

So, if you don't mind, more "Crossing South" coming your way.

Don't go anywhere.

Let me just start with this one, this hard root beer, which was good.

Jorge: So after getting to see the historic pieces of Baja's racing legacy and taking a swan dive into San Felipe's Brewery pantheon of flavors, we leave replenished and wonder what other adventures will come our way the next time we cross south.

Jorge: Root beer float, hard root beer float.

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