MXPDX festival brings together Oregon and Mexico cultural exchange through food, beer and music

This weekend marks the first MXPDX: Mexico/Oregon Collaboration Festival of Culture and Cerveza. The festival brings together 13 brewers from Oregon and 13 brewers from Mexico to collaborate on ciders and beers of their own creation using Mexican ingredients to showcase both regions working together. It is the newest creation from Beer Friends, the nonprofit behind Fuji to Hood. Ezra Johnson-Greenough is one of the organizers for the festival. Ricardo Antunez is the owner of Xicha Brewing, the first Latino-owned brewery in Oregon, and Diego Lara is the co-owner of Falling Piano Brewery in Mexico City. They all join us to share more on what to expect this weekend and the importance of the collaboration.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. This weekend marks the first ever MXPDX: Fiesta de la Cerveza. The festival will bring together 13 brewers from Oregon and 13 from Mexico who are collaborating on new beers and ciders using many Mexican ingredients. It is the newest creation from Beer Friends, the nonprofit behind the U.S.-Japan partnership Fuji to Hood and Hood to Fuji. The new festival kicks off with a party tomorrow night at the Redd in Southeast Portland. It’ll be all day on Saturday.

Ezra Johnson-Greenough is one of the organizers of the festival. Ricardo Antunez is the owner of Xicha Brewery. It’s the first Latino-owned brewery in Oregon. And Diego Lara is a co-owner of Falling Piano Brewery in Mexico City. They all join me now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.

Ezra Johnson-Greenough: Thank you for having us, Dave.

Ricardo Antunez: Thank you for having us.

Miller: Ezra, what’s the big idea behind this festival?

Johnson-Greenough: It’s all about cross cultural collaboration, getting to know other people in the community and starting long-term relationships to just kind of break down barriers, make friendships and better understanding.

Miller: Ricardo, how did you decide you want to start a brewery?

Antunez: Initially, it was a start with having kids, being able to go to these breweries and not being able to take them …

Miller: Oh, they were 21 and over.

Antunez: Yeah, a lot of them were, a lot of these pubs, a lot of these breweries. I liked drinking those beers and it just wasn’t a family-friendly environment. So I was like, OK, how do we change this scene a little bit. And Mexican culture is very family-oriented.

So yeah, we just kind of started to tinker and I was like, I also want some tacos. I want a burrito at these places.

Miller: As opposed to just a burger, Anglo pub food.

Antunez: Pretzel, right? Yeah, so it was a little different, so we wanted to kind of incorporate our culture into the beer scene and the craft scene. So yeah, just the idea started there.

Miller: What went through your mind when you heard about this particular festival?

Antunez: I was super excited. I had just been in Mexico and saw the craft scene really blowing up. And then as I started talking about it, I met Ezra a couple of years ago and I was like, hey, if you need any help, please let me know. I definitely would want to be a part if I could help curate some of the vendors or some of the experiences, I definitely want to be part of that. And fortunately for me, he called and he was like, hey, we need a little help. I’ll help you out. And so I was there.

Miller: Diego, you heard from Ricardo, he was recently in Mexico. He saw the beer scene there. He was excited about it. You are a part of that beer scene at Falling Piano Brewing in Mexico City. Can you describe the beer scene in Mexico City right now?

Diego Lara: Oh, hey, how are you, everyone? Hola todos in Oregon. Oh, yeah, I mean, Mexican, the brewing scene is growing. I mean, we are a little bit back, in comparing with the U.S. market and the U.S. brewery scene, but we are basically the same. We are looking to show what we are made of. And we love to share a beer with friends, with the family, and it’s just like the same thing that in the U.S. as far as I know, how it is working here. We are so excited to be here.

Miller: Why did you want to take part in this festival?

Lara: I mean, we’ve been working with the Oregon Brewers for maybe eight years now. We found out that everything is so great here that we wanted to keep in touch. And after Fuji to Hood and Hood to Fuji festivals, it was like something that we should be part of. So that’s why we are celebrating this first year together. And, well, we hope to have you guys joining on Saturday.

Miller: Ezra, so Diego there mentioned the Fuji to Hood and Hood to Fuji festivals. What are they?

Johnson-Greenough: They’re Japan and Oregon collaborations. We started the first one in 2018. It was a relatively small event where we paired up 10 different Oregon brewers with 10 different Japanese brewers to create new collaborations. The idea is the festival goes back and forth between each country every year. So it only happens in Oregon every other year and we’re kind of following that model with MXPDX.

Miller: So next year, MXPDX is going to be in Mexico City?

Johnson-Greenough: Yes, we’re circling a venue and a day in 2026. Then actually, Diego’s kind of in charge of lining that up for us because he’ll kind of be taking the reins when everyone goes to Mexico.

Miller: What do you think it is about beer that enables a cultural exchange, in addition to the alcohol that lowers social inhibitions?

Johnson-Greenough: Yeah, in addition to that, I mean, yeah, I always compare it to like breaking bread. And beer is kind of liquid bread. I mean, there’s just something about food and drink, and is just a way to relax and converse with somebody. Somebody that you might think on paper that you don’t know, you have nothing in common with or maybe don’t agree with them, but then when you get to know them in person, it just kind of breaks down those like preconceived notions. And I think it’s the best way to become friends with somebody.

Miller: Ricardo, can you tell us about the collaborations that you’ve done for this festival?

Antunez: Yeah, so our collaboration was with Morenos Brewing, they’re in Mexico City, we made an al pastor taco inspired beer.

Miller: A beer inspired by a pork taco, or I guess there’s different versions of al pastor.

Antunez: No, but that’s exactly it.

Miller: So what is it? What does it taste like?

Antunez: It tastes like a beer, so don’t be scared. There’s no pork in the beer.

Miller: Is there a pineapple on top?

Antunez: There is some pineapple in the beer. We slow-roasted some pineapple. We added some morita peppers to add a little bit of the smoke. When you are seeing this piece of pork, turn around in this, the spit, you get this fire roasted feel, right? So that’s what we wanted to bring to the beer. And we added a good amount of corn as well, because you have a tortilla as well. So we just wanted to bring the kind of inspiration from that and we’ll be doing like a little chicharron as well with the beer.

Miller: So little pork rind that comes with it, so like a seasoned chaser.

Antunez: Yeah, seasoned with some pineapple salt and some chili salt.

Miller: How did that collaboration work? I mean, is this all just on the phone and on Zoom, or were you sending samples back and forth? I guess I’m wondering how you collaborate thousands of miles away.

Antunez: So Zoom obviously is a big tool that we all use.

Miller: But there’s no taste division.

Antunez: There’s no division. So everybody obviously makes beer. So that’s the one aspect that we’re all really good at and able to understand each other on that, on that level, right? And so talking about hops, talking about malts, being able to talk ingredients. And the beautiful thing about us at Xicha, we already do a lot of these adjuncts into our beers. And so having that conversation about like, hey, we’re gonna add this pepper, what do you think? Or this pepper, what do you think?

So, going back and forth on some of those things is really unique and cool. Then the pineapple, for us on this side, that’s something we already do a lot. We just made a beer with Alesong recently and we used the same technique – turned out great. So we were very comfortable about doing something that way. And yeah, we’re really proud and excited about this beer coming out on Saturday.

Miller: Diego, what about you? Can you tell us about both the beer you ended up with, but also what it was like to do the collaboration itself?

Lara: Well, yeah, with brewer collaboration with Fort George Brewing and when we took this prickly pear inspired Berliner Weisse spritz beer in Mexico, it’s like daily fruit we eat and that’s like a common thing. So that’s why we wanted to move it to a beer. So, that would be a really refreshing beer you will be able to try. And yeah, I mean, it was like a totally virtual collaboration. We weren’t able to attend before, but we are here now, just representing our culture and our friendship with the United States.

Miller: Well, speaking of friendship with the United States, I’m curious how you feel coming to the U.S. at a time when the U.S. has become, with tariffs and with blustery talk, a lot more antagonistic against our neighbors and trading partners than I can ever remember in my lifetime?

Lara: I mean, it should be a little bit tough for the social media stuff. But in the backstage, I guess we are all people loving something – in this case, beer. We’ve been growing with our culture, our food. I guess we are beyond of whatever happens, like in the situation nowadays we all know. But I mean, we’re people, we are just trying to share a good moment and trying to share our culture. So I think we don’t really care about what is happening now. We’re just about having a good time and just care about each other like humans.

Miller: Ricardo, that makes perfect sense, but I’m curious what it’s been like for you to work on this U.S.-Mexico partnership at a time when the U.S. government has been greatly ramping up immigration enforcement and there’s a ton of fear among many immigrant groups in this country?

Antunez: Yeah, definitely, it’s a little hard to see, a little hard to watch everything that is happening on a day to day basis, especially not knowing where the line is on any given day. But this is a beautiful opportunity to show the love for the craft, the love for your neighbor, to throw a party and really showcase the beautiful thing that our neighbors and us can do together. And it’s not all about hate or anything of the sort. We could work together and to show that we love each other. And that’s a beautiful thing that we could do together.

Miller: Ezra, what are you most hoping people are gonna take away from this weekend?

Johnson-Greenough: That we can rise above politics and divisiveness that’s really hurting this country and other countries as well in the world. And yeah, it’s really fraught time and it’s really difficult for us to grapple with. I mean, even more so for all the immigrant community here. So we just believe that we’re gonna look beyond all that stuff. I have not seen any of that coming from either the Oregon brewers or the Mexico brewers, because I think they can see past these divisions. It’s in the back of everyone’s head, but this is a way to show that like, hey, we still have a lot of love and respect for each other.

Miller: Ezra, Ricardo and Diego, thanks very much.

All: Thank you.

Miller: Diego Lara is a co-owner of Falling Piano Brewing in Mexico City. Ricardo Antunez is the owner of Xicha Brewery. And Ezra Johnson-Greenough is one of the organizers of the inaugural, the first ever MXPDX: Fiesta de la Cerveza. It’s going to bring together 13 brewers from Oregon and 13 from Mexico this Saturday at the Redd in Southeast Portland.

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