What springs to mind when you think of a Mexican lager? Sinking your toes into gorgeous smooth white sand as you recline on a beach in Cancun or Puerto Vallarta with a Dos Equis or Pacifico? Stuffing a lime down the neck of a Corona or Sol in a student bar? Or sipping a Modelo or Victoria over plates of sizzling fajitas? In the UK, Mexican lagers might lack the enormous popularity and ubiquity they enjoy Stateside but it’s likely that most beer drinkers will have encountered them sufficiently to have their own idea of what to expect when ordering one.
Illustrations by Christine Jopling
… the majority of beer drinkers will have their first experience of Mexican lager from a macro brand – most likely one of those listed above, although there are many other incarnations. What they might not know is that most of these brands are owned by just two of the major international beer conglomerates: AB Inbev, who own all Corona, Modelo, Pacifico and Victoria beers (distributed in the US by Constellation Brands), and Heineken, who own Dos Equis, Tecate, Sol, Indio, Bohemia and Kloster. What they also might not know is that the history of commercial Mexican lager as we know it, or just lager if you are from or in Mexico, was dominated by a small number of large brands who shaped the way the lager is perceived internationally to this day, whose roots are a mix of colonial invasion and myth-making and local adaptation and innovation.
The history of Mexican lager is as disputed as its definition: a source of conflicting information, differing cultural perceptions and a lack of documentation and consistency. Whether you are delving into the contested and oft-misinformed origins of Mexican lager (or lager in Mexico, if you will) or debating contemporary classification of a style that is currently not a style (and many people believe should remain so), this is one of the most gnarly beer categorisations a brewer or drinker may encounter, and is still so open to interpretation, personal preference and experience that there are very few right or wrong answers. There are a few of both though, and also the extremely important contextual issue of cultural appropriation and how to brew, brand and market a Mexican lager in a way that is respectful and collaborative rather than insensitive and offensive, although of course there are differences of opinion on this subject too.
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