The Craft Beer Market
Figueroa Mountain Brewing is a craft brewer located in Southern California that brews Agua Santa Beer. The craft beer market has grown rapidly over the last 40 years after Congress legalized homebrewing in 1978. As a result, this inspired many beer enthusiasts to start their own small breweries. However, today the overall beer market is flat and possibly in slight decline. While many small breweries are still opening, about as many are shutting down. Some industry analysts predict a “beer apocalypse.”
Figueroa Mountain Brewing
Figueroa Mountain Brewing has four tasting rooms in Southern California in Buellton, Los Olivos, Westlake Village and Santa Barbara. I have been to the one in Santa Barbara several times, which is located in the “Funk Zone” downtown and is a great place to try their beers. It has an outdoor covered area and live bands and is adjacent to Lucky Penny, which has great pizzas. You can order from Lucky Penny right there and they will deliver it to you.
Figueroa Mountain Brewing was founded by a father and son team, Jim and Jaime Dietenhofer, in 2010. With a passion for craft beer, they set out to pay homage to the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley with handcrafted beer and hand-drawn artwork depicting the local landscape on their labels.
Figueroa Mountain has a large selection of beers, including several IPAs, Agua Santa Mexican Lager, Danish Red Lager, Davy Brown Ale, several non alcoholic beers and more.
Agua Santa Beer
Figueroa Mountain not only has Agua Santa Beer listed on its main website; it also has a separate website totally devoted to Agua Santa. The brewery describes the beer as “This Mexican-Inspired Lager is best defined by the word “crisp.” Both dry and refreshing, Agua Santa is made from high quality pilsner malt, flaked maize, and noble hops. Agua Santa is a brilliant pale straw color with the subtle aroma of floral meadows and a hint of sweet corn. So call up your friends, get the barbeque fired up, Y ¡Prepárate para relajarte, Salud!” Agua Santa a 4.8% ABV and a 9 IBU. Calories, carbs, fat and protein info are not available. It has a 3.6 rating out of 5 based on 6 reviews on Beer Advocate. There are not enough reviews for an overall recommendation. Untappd gives it the same 3.6 rating based on 1888 reviews.
Our Review of Agua Santa Beer
I was at the Figueroa Mountain taproom in Santa Barbara and wanted to try more of their beers. I asked what beer singles they had to take home. Strangely, the only one was the Agua Santa in tall 19.2 ounce cans. So I bought one and took it home to have with a meal. I may sound like a broken record on many of these beers, but my reaction was similar to several other Mexican style lagers as well as some pilsners. The Agua Santa was a drinkable lager that “tastes like beer” but nothing really special. It was pretty indistinguishable from several others I have tried.
By comparison, among other Mexican lagers I have tried, the Dos Topas Lager was a standout and the El Sully Lager was not good. I didn’t like the Mas Macho Mexican Amber Lager from Draughtsmen Aleworks, but it may be because I rushed it after a red ale. The El Pato Loco and El Mero Mero Mexican Lager were similarly nothing special like Agua Santa. I won’t insult any of these beers by considering Modelo Especial or Corona Extra as comparable. Next time I am in the Santa Barbara “Funk Zone” I will skip the Agua Santa and walk a few blocks to Topa Topa Brewing to have a Dos Topas.
For beer nutritional information of all beers we have reviewed see Beer Nutritional Information.
