20Mission Cerveza is an exciting brewery in Medellín that opened in September 2018. 20Mission Cerveza is a hidden gem of a brewery, hiding out in a nondescript warehouse down the alleyways of barrio Manila in El Poblado.

In addition, 20Mission Cerveza is not just a new brewery with six types of high-quality beer. It’s also a large venue with a restaurant, bar and a big space for events.

The above photo is from the grand opening of 20Mission Cerveza in September 2018. Also, the photos in the article are courtesy of 20Mission Cerveza.

This article was originally published in February 2018, before 20Mission Cerveza opened. So, this article has now been updated.

Ribbon-cutting at the grand opening of 20Mission Cerveza in September 2018

Visiting 20Mission Cerveza in February, Before Opening

In February, I wandered down the backstreets of Manila – a barrio in El Poblado – searching for the address I’d been given: Calle 16 #43F-66.

This edgy part of Medellín is slowing being gentrified with the addition of some new architectural spaces like the Medellín Modern Art Museum and the trendy Mercado Del Rio. Its warren of roads is filled with brick warehouses juxtaposed next to shiny new office buildings.

I was looking for a business sign that would indicate I’d arrived at 20Mission Cerveza, Medellín’s latest entrant into the growing craft beer scene.  At the time, there wasn’t one. On the spot Google Maps designated as the address, there was only an imposing grey, metal warehouse building with oversized doors.

Unsure if I was at the right place, I hesitantly asked a Colombian man coming out, ‘Excuse me, is this 20Mission?’. He nodded and gestured for me to go on in.

I stepped over the door frame into a cavernous space, empty bar two lonely picnic tables at the far end. The vaulted ceilings added to the expanse.

My first impression was ‘Wow!’ Although the interior hadn’t been transformed yet, I could see that the potential for what the owners had planned – a restaurant and bar attached to a brewery.

Craft beer really does make life better

The Craft Beer Scene in Colombia

Whilst the craft beer scene has been thriving in the U.S. for decades, Colombia only entered into the market in 2002, with the establishment of the now commercial Bogota Beer Company (BBC)

Medellín didn’t get its own large-scale craft brew house until 2008, with the arrival of 3 Cordilleras. Ten years on and the craft beer scene in Medellín is beginning to flourish with over 30 nano- and micro-breweries in the city. We also have looked at the five best nano- and micro-breweries in Medellín.

But don’t let that number fool you. Many of these producers are back of the garage operations. And the quality can be hit and miss, with contaminated bottles and inferior flavors a little too commonplace for my liking.

Very few establishments in town that have honed their process to provide consistently high-quality beers with taste profiles that would rival what you’d find in the United States.

The future of craft beer in Medellín is looking up though. Individuals are garnering more experience and the beers are improving. Soon the craft beer scene in Medellín will be solid.

And that future has started with the long-awaited opening of 20Mission Cerveza’s restaurant and brew house.

20Mission Cerveza: The Beginning

The idea for 20Mission Cerveza came from founder Todd Morrill, a former software developer and engineer.

I went to college in Colorado and there is just great beer there. Being in Medellin, I just missed it. I missed the product and the nostalgia that goes along with it. There is something quintessential about a beer, having a good time with your friends, and enjoying something nice.’

said Todd in an interview at 20Mission’s warehouse in Manila.

This undercurrent of longing was rumbling through Todd’s subconscious for some time when the inspiration to start doing his own brewing hit whilst watching an episode of Breaking Bad.

I’ve always liked science and engineering, and I thought, ‘What might be a way of doing something that involves science and making something.

So, in the midst of thinking about that and about missing good craft beer Todd’s aha moment came.

All the sudden I went ‘Oh!’ Why don’t I start making beer.’ So, then I started making beer on my stovetop. And that’s how it started, from beer from Colorado.

So, in 2014, without formal training or prior experience working for a brewery, Todd began ordering supplies from the U.S. and googling the Internet on how to brew beer. He started out barefoot in his kitchen, until it drove his wife crazy and he was kicked out, forced to set up a larger operation in this garage.

Todd went on to tell me the story.

I then started brewing in a co-working space at Adam House in 2015. And then I think it was in 2016 I wrote a Facebook post saying ‘Would anyone else like to make beer with me?’ because it is a lot of money and work and everything is more fun to me to do it with someone else.

By a stroke of luck, Jered Kenna – whom Todd had never met before – answered the post offering a substantial investment, saying ‘Here’s some money. Let’s make a ton of it!’

Perfecting the Process and the Beers

Turning that initial kitchen set-up of a few bottles into an 800,000 liter a year enterprise though was a big leap for Todd and 20Mission Cerveza.

However, both Todd and the head brewer are committed to developing the highest quality of craft beer to be found in the Medellín marketplace.

In their first year of production, 20Mission Cerveza plans to focus on six main classic beer types: Blonde, Pale Ale, IPA, Porter, Witbier and Saison.

Six classic beers will initially be available at 20Mission Cerveza

I have a lot of friends that are artists and when you start art class the first thing you do is to copy something. You don’t want to start innovating until you’ve learned the basics. So, what I want to do is to spend the first year or two just implementing classic styles and bringing classic beer styles from all over the world to Colombia.

Todd’s aspirations for the future though include layering in some Amazonian plants into the beer in a sustainable way to create something extraordinarily unique. Of what type, Todd didn’t know yet. I sensed he had a lot of ambitious ideas for 20Mission Cerveza he’d like to explore in the years to come, but he openly admits that he is often having to restrain his own creativity and plans.

20Mission Cerveza: Bring on the Food

And Todd had some exciting, innovative – and grand – ideas for 20Mission Cerveza including an on-site restaurant.

Building on the format of successful craft breweries in the States, Todd knew from the beginning that he wanted 20Mission Cerveza to include a restaurant on the premise.

For this component of the operation, Todd flew in his friend Darby, who has over 20 years’ experience as a chef in the U.S.

20Mission’s Head Chef, Darby, slices up barbecued meat

Todd elaborated:

For me it is about having the technical capacity to do very fine food, with paying attention to refinement and detail but contextualizing it in a more casual brewery setting. I want to do live fire, meat based, barbecue stuff.

This restaurant addition next to the brewery makes 20Mission Cerveza unique amongst the other established craft breweries in town.

A Tour of the 20Mission Cerveza Brew-House

When I visited 20Mission Cerveza in February, I was given a tour of the brewery by Head Brewer William Myers. The inside of the factory floor looked like a three-dimensional, real-life, process flow diagram.

The main room of the brewery was dominated by six enormous stainless steel vessels. Connected to them where dozens of PVC pipes, red dangling hoses, and pumps jutting out at right and parallel angles.

The main brewing equipment inside 20Mission Cerveza’s new warehouse in Medellín

If you really want to know how the brewing process works along with all the technical jargon then Google it.

In short, these vessels are responsible for mixing the water with the ingredients that will go into the beer, boiling it up, separating out the waste particles, cooling down the mixture, allowing the mixture to ferment to become alcohol and eventually storing the now alcoholic beer until it is ready to drink.

In a separate, sealed off room were four serving tanks that William said would hold 2,200 liters of cold beer ready to be pumped directly into taps that will be installed in the bar area to allow for draft beer.

William Myers, head brewer at 20Mission Cerveza, inspects the new brewing equipment

William started home brewing when he was about 19 and now has 9 years of experience under his belt.  He insisted that I didn’t label him a master brewer – as that is a qualification given only to brewers with extensive brewing time experience.

But as William led me around the factory, I felt that he was extremely knowledgeable about brewing. More importantly I sensed his passion for what he does. He certainly had a lot of enthusiasm for the equipment that was in its final stages of being installed.

The six house beers at 20Mission Cerveza

20Mission Cerveza: Las Cervezas (The Beers)

It was no doubt impressive equipment, but what I really wanted to know about was the final product. The beer. I pressed William more about what ingredients will be going into 20Mission beers and what drinkers can expect from their starting lineup.

William explained that beer is made from four basic ingredients: barley or malt, water, hops and yeast. In the raw material storage unit were mounds of 40 pound bags of malts of differing varieties including base malts along with ale yeast and pilsner yeast.

In the laboratory, he showed me the imported American hops which he had stored in the freezer. All eagerly waiting to be put to good use.

A member of 20Mission Cerveza’s production team is hard at work

Combined together though what will all these ingredients produce?  I was most curious about their planned 5.5% ABV IPA, which is my favorite style of beer. I pressed William to describe it to me:

Our IPA uses a combination of pale malt, caramel malts and a variety of hops. We use four different hops in our IPA with extensive dry hopping which makes it a more expensive beer, but I think it’s worth it. We are never going to compromise a beer and its quality and making exactly what we want to make because something costs a little bit more.

[The IPA] took a lot of versions to get to where it is now. It is very mellow on the bitterness and its really tropical, because we wanted to make something easy drinking for the climate here.  It’s not like where you have a cold New England winter in the United States where you want to drink something that is really either bitter or heavy to offset that weather. We wanted to have something more easy drinking with extensive dry hopping to leave that fresh, fruity finish to it. We are all super excited about it.

20Mission will be offering six classic beers styles to start with when they open

One of my least favorite beer styles that will be on their standard offering is their 5%ABV Witbier.  William challenged me to try it.

The Witbier that I make is a really traditional Belgian style wheat beer with raw wheat, oats, malt and coriander. It’s got a fluffy mouth feel. I know that a lot of people associate witbier with Hefeweizen which is a significantly heavier style. Ours is really light. I think you’ll like it.

William reassured me that once the restaurant is open they will be offering flights of beers to let people experiment with styles that they may not be familiar with and to try what’s available without an initial significant outlay. Something I definitely welcome.

Domicilio Beer – Beer for Home Delivery

20Mission Cerveza also has beer available via home delivery (domicilio). There are three options:

• Option A – 6 beers, one of each style for 40,000 pesos.
• Option B – 6 special beers combined – Blonde, Witbier, Pale Ale and Porter for 38,000 pesos.
• Option C – 6 premium beers combined – IPA and Saison for 44,000 pesos.

Orders for domicilio beer must be made the day before. And delivery will be made on the next day in the afternoon. The price includes delivery in Medellín, Envigado, Sabaneta, Bello and the central part of Itagüí.

Orders on Monday to Friday will be delivered Tuesday to Saturday. Orders can be made via WhatsApp to 311 635 0776 or 310 388 9418.

Inside 20Mission Cerveza

The Menu at 20Mission Cerveza

20Mission Cerveza currently has six house beers available on tap. The six house beers were made for beer lovers and include Blonde, Pale Ale, IPA, Porter, Witbier and Saison, which are priced at 10,000 pesos each. The also have flights of beers available, where you have the chance to try small samples of all six of the beers for 14,000 pesos.

In addition, to the beers on the menu, 20Mission Cerveza has several house cocktails and beer cocktails priced at 15,000 to 18,000 pesos. Also, there are non-alcoholic drinks available for 6,000 pesos each.

The food on the menu is really good and contains the highest quality ingredients sourced from local providers with sauces made from scratch. The outcome is gastronomic fare without a pretentious environment.

The Chicharron appetizer at 20Mission Cerveza

There are six appetizers on the menu priced at 14,000 to 22,000 pesos. I went to 20Mission Cerveza recently with some friends and we tried two appetizers: the Chicharrones and the cheese platter appetizers. And both appetizers were excellent.

Also, there are three salads on the menu priced at 15,000 pesos each.

The BBQ ribs at 20Mission Cerveza

The main entree dishes on the menu are priced at 25,000 with to 45,000 pesos. Two of the favorites of the group of friends I went with were the BBQ ribs and the Jerk chicken. And I highly recommend the ribs, which come in two sizes for 29,000 pesos with 4-ribs or 49,000 pesos with 8-ribs. In addition, there are two sandwiches on the menu for 29,000 pesos each.

Also, they have free Wi-Fi available. So, you can surf the Internet while there. Furthermore, 20Mission Cerveza sometimes has concerts.

20Mission Cerveza

What’s Behind the Name: 20Mission Cerveza

Whilst the overall scale of the operation was awe-inspiring, and William’s descriptions of the beers had ignited my taste buds, there was one thing that impressed me even more about 20Mission Cerveza.

And that was the sense of a family-like atmosphere where everyone employed there is encouraged to add their creativity to the process.

In fact, the name 20Mission Cerveza itself is a spin-off of a co-living space in San Francisco called 20Mission which is situated on the corner of 20th Street and Mission.

Incidentally it is also owned by the primary investor Jered. Todd liked the essence of what Jered’s already established brand evoked – a sense of community and a place where individuals from different backgrounds could mingle and potentially collaborate.

And I could see this collaboration and sense of community and the bringing together of different nationalities at the core of the operation of 20Mission Cerveza.

William himself had told me how he had been teaching the production guys on how to brew small batches of beer to help them fundamentally understand what was happening on the big system so that they could really get their hands into it. He added:

I want them to keep learning. I want the guys on the production team to start giving me ideas. I want them to express themselves creatively. I may be the brewer, but I want to listen to them. I want to get inspiration from them. One thing that is really important to us is that everyone is participating in the creative process.’

This family-like atmosphere of everyone involved and the inclusive nature of innovating together across cultures is what will set 20Mission Cerveza part from its competitors.

20Mission Cerveza is a hidden gem of a brewery – initially known to only a few insiders – but I can assure you, that won’t be for long! 

How to Get to 20Mission Cerveza

20Mission Cerveza is located at Calle 16, 43F-66 in the Manila barrio of El Poblado in Medellín. The nearest metro station is Poblado on Line A, which is about a 10-minute walk.

But we don’t recommend walking after dark unless you are in a group, as the route is though a warehouse/commercial area without many people after dark. To be safe, it’s better to take a taxi from the metro station and it’s only a 5,600-peso minimum fare taxi ride.

Taxis are another option to get 20Mission Cerveza from your location in the metro area. Just provide the driver the address below.

Address: Calle 16 # 43F-66, El Pobaldo, Medellín

Website: http://20missioncerveza.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/20missioncerveza/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20missioncerveza/

Phone: (+57) 4 204 1960

Hours: Tuesday to Thursday: 5 pm to midnight, Friday and Saturday: 5 pm to 2 am, Sunday and Monday: closed.

The Bottom Line: 20Mission Cerveza

20Mission Cerveza is a hidden gem of a brewery, hiding out in a nondescript warehouse down the alleyways of barrio Manila. But it’s a very nice place with a brewery, bar, restaurant and space for events that we expect will be popular.

For our October 2019 Medellin Guru meetup we are meeting at 20Mission Cerveza, which is a large brewery located in El Poblado with lots of space for our meetup including a large bar and high tables for mingling.

Join us and meet other expats in the city while trying out the six craft beers brewed here, unique cocktails and good food including what some expats have called the “best ribs in Medellín”.

Sign up for the Free Medellin Guru Newsletter – You can see all of the previous Medellin Guru weekly email newsletters and sign up here.

Editors note: updated on October 22, 2018 with new information, since this article was originally published before 20Mission Cerveza opened.

Editors note: updated on May 14, 2019 with information about 20Mission’s domicilio beer available for home delivery.

Editors note: updated on October 13, 2019 with updated menu options and prices.