Whenever I travel I like to seek out new beers to try. And even though I wasn’t expecting to find much while in Mexico last week, on a trip to climb Citlaltépetl, Mexico’s highest mountain and the third-highest mountain in North America, my beer quest was still on.

Unfortunately, Mexico isn’t a very exciting country when it comes to beer. Beyond the omnipresent Coronas, however, I was still able to collect a handful of random beers to try — and retry — such as Indio, Sol, Victoria, Tecate, Dos Equis and Bohemia Obscura. Sadly, most of the beers I found are readily available in the United States, and they’re all unexciting and similar-tasting pale lagers or Vienna-style lagers. The worst part is that most of these beers are part of the same company, FEMSA, a Latin American beverage company, which only contributes to the boring homogeny.

Ironically, the best Mexican-made beer that I’ve ever had seems to be impossible to find in Mexico. It is, however, available in some liquor stores in Colorado.

The brewery is called Cucapá (pronounced coo-cah-PAW), after the native American tribe of the Mexican state of Baja California.

Cucapá began in 2002 as a small brewpub in Mexicali, Mexico, and since then it has become a major production brewery with eight different styles of beer, from a light lager to an imperial stout, plus a barley wine. Most of its beers have won awards.

At least three Cucapá beers are available in Colorado.

Honey (4.5% ABV) is a smooth and rich beer with malt flavors that exude notes of toast and sweet bread. It’s balanced by a sizeable dosing of hops that makes me think of a grassy meadow filled with wildflowers. Soothing and earthy notes of wood and honey follow in the background, leaving behind a mild sweetness.

Obscura (4.5% ABV) is a burgundy-hued brown ale that has a very curious fruitiness to it. It’s roasty and robust, but with a light and rounded softness. Its complex sweetness gives off eyebrow-raising notes of black licorice, brown sugar, toffee, cooked caramel and chocolate.

Chupacabras Pale Ale (5.8% ABV) could find itself comfortably at home in any American brewpub. Very rich malt flavors provide big notes of toasted bread, caramel, chocolate-covered toffee and roasted nuts. A healthy amount of hops follow, bringing elements of pine, grass, grapefruit juice and orange rind. This tasty beer is by far the most flavorful — and certainly the hoppiest — Mexican beer I’ve ever had.

Mario Garcia, CEO of Cucapá Brewing, and his brewers are true pioneers in the Mexican craft beer movement, and I can’t help but equate them to the first microbrewers in America, circa 30 to 40 years ago. For that reason, this is definitely one Mexican craft brewer to keep your eyes on.

Almost halfway up Citlaltépetl’s Jamapa Glacier, with only 1,200 feet to go to the top of the 18,490-foot mountain, fiercely relentless winds slowed our upward progress to a crawl. A sandstorm of ice and pumice peppered our faces, and standing was impossible. So we had no choice but to turn back.

On our descent my mind naturally switched to thoughts of post-climb beers.

Usually, everything in life is sweeter after big climbs. Food and beer especially tastes richer and more flavorful — even your average, bland and watery Mexican beer. But on this day, no matter what beer I drank, I just didn’t feel satisfied.

I believe Citlaltépetl stopped us just short of its summit so that we would return someday. And I’m sure we will, to finish those last steps to the summit. But I think I’ll bring some Cucapá beer from home next time, so that we can drink some real Mexican beer at the post-climb celebration.

Follow Aubrey on Twitter at @AubreyLaurence.