Mexican Beer

While at first, most modern brewers were small operations, by 1890, the first substantial, industrial brewing facility in the country was built in Monterrey . Four years later another large brewery opened in Orizaba . The industrialization of the Mexican beer business was on.

Most Mexican beers are produced by the two beer giants, FEMSA and Grupo Modelo . FEMSA is a general beverage corporation whose roots date to back to 1890 and the first large Mexican brewery, Cervecería Cuauhtémoc in Monterrey. With their brands – Tecate , Sol , Dos Equis , Carta Blanca , Superior , Indio , Bohemia and Noche Buena – FEMSA is a major international brewer.
Grupo Modelo has fewer brands but a larger part of the Mexican beer export market with
(a recent advertising campaign for this brand was centered around the fact that it is unavailable abroad); Estrella (a local beer found only in the west of the country; and León and Montejo (originally local to Yucatán but nowadays available nationwide). Grupo Modelo is 51 per cent owned by Anheuser-Busch but, due to a special arrangement, control of the company remains with Modelo's Mexcian shareholders.

Corona is the flagship beer of Grupo Modelo. It is a very light lager, and the number one imported beer in the world. Corona is the best-selling non-domestic beer in both the U.S. and U.K. Many say the brand's marketing and easy drinkability account for its success, as most beer aficionados agree that other Mexican lagers such as Dos Equis, Bohemia, Victoria, and Negra Modelo are far superior. What some do not realize, however, is that most consumers are simply looking for a beer that suits their tastes. While most aficionados seek a beer of "superior" quality, the majority of consumers are simply looking for a beer that they can enjoy. They would argue Corona offers a very fresh drinkable beer.

No discussion of Mexican beer would be complete without mentioning the Lime . Serving Mexican beers, especially the light lagers such as Corona, with a slice of lime, is mostly a marketing gimmick and has no real basis in tradition. In Mexico, the only people who drink beer with a lime are tourists. Outside the tourist areas and among native Mexicans, it is not at all prevalent, at least not in the form that it is used abroad. In mexico, the only instance of this is the Michelada , which is a drink composed of mostly light beer with a lot of lime juice (the equivalent of several chunks of lime).

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Mexican Beer