A Short Review of Beer: Pacifico

Hello readers!

Sorry things have been dead around here for the past few months. There's been alot going on in my life. I'll get the details written out at some point when I have the time and energy.

Since today was my birthday (yes, it really is), one of the goodies I got was a mix-n-match six pack of beers. I picked out a few that I'd seen and wanted to try out, including this classic Mexican beer, Pacifico. My husband had told me about this beer as he'd drank it in Mexico when he was working there in the early '90s as part of a group that built night clubs (discotecas, as they're called in Spanish) along the eastern shores of the Sea of Cortez (AKA Gulf of California) in Sonora and Sinaloa. It was not his favorite beer, but it was better than drinking the water when something was needed to wash down the bags of boiled shrimp purchased from roadside vendors.

Got a new phone for my birthday. This is one of the ways I tested out the new camera on it

Like many Mexican beers, Pacifico goes back to the beginning of the 20th Century. Based out of the city of Mazatlan, the brewery, like many others from around this time period, was started by German immigrants who brought beer making skills and techniques with them from Europe. Their brewery, Cerveceria del Pacifico, got its name from Mazatlan's location as a Pacific port city and bears the city's lighthouse rock as part of its logo. The style of the beer is classified as a pilsner-style lager, according to the company's website.

What makes Pacifico stand out among the many Mexican beers that made their way into American bars and liquor stores was that it was introduced to the US by a group of surfers from southern California who took a surfing trip to Mexico in the 1970s and upon discovering the local brew in Mazatlan, they brought several cases with them back to California. Needless to say, it was a different time and Pacifico beer was well received in this country.

As for the beer itself, Pacifico has a light taste and a clear gold color. It's not watery, however. There is some body to it. The alcohol content is also pretty low, around 4.5%. It's a good hot-weather beer and something you can enjoy with boiled shrimp, tacos, barbecue, etc because of its mild taste.

Even though my husband didn't care much for it, I rather enjoyed Pacifico. While Grupo Modelo is not my favorite brewing company in Mexico (they make the infamous Coronas and Negro Modelo beers), they did alright when they consolidated and got Cerveceria del Pacifico. I will definitely be buying this again.

As always, please enjoy responsibly.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

A Short Review of Beer: Dos Equis Ambar

Another week, another beer to try.

A local favorite. Pic found here

Having finished Negra Modelo, it was time to move on to another buffer beer. A sale at one of our regularly frequented Mexican grocery stores featured another classic Mexican brew to sample, Dos Equis Ambar. Unlike Negra Modelo which is brewed by Grupo Modelo, the largest brewer in Mexico, Dos Equis is brewed by its lone rival, Ceveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma.

Like many Mexican beers, Dos Equis was a product of German immigration in the 19th Century (in this case, a specific immigrant named Wilhelm Hasse). Dos Equis was brewed specifically to celebrate the coming of the 20th Century ("dos equis" means "two Xs", a reference to the Roman Numerals XX on the bottle to denote the coming century). It was so popular that it remains in production to the present day.

Ambar ("amber") is the original brew of the Dos Equis label. According to the label's website, Ambar is "A robust, classic Vienna-style lager with a full body. A beer with brawn from Germany, swagger from Mexico, and the finest North American pale and roasted malts. An amber-colored refreshment that’s adventurous enough to be distinctly flavorful. "

Silly commercials aside, my overall impression of this beer was positive. True to the description, there is plenty of body and it leaves a pleasant taste in my mouth. In fact, the aftertaste brings to mind a loaf of decent bread. And because it's a lager, it's not very bitter which is something I like. With a 4.7% ABV, there is not much of a buzz either. The golden orange color is quite pretty too. "Amber" certainly is an appropriate name for this brew. While it's not primo beer, this is a huge improvement over Corona and even outranks its sister brew, Negra Modelo. I didn't even have to adulterate Ambar with any lime juice to make it palatable!

As for food pairings, Dos Equis Ambar goes well with fish and something sour. Foods with tomato sauce or pickle relish fare particularly well with this beer, but I'm pleased to note that Dos Equis Ambar does pull its weight as a general, all-purpose beer. From tacos to burgers to salad, Ambar goes down smoothly with all of them. Provided that I don't find something better, I may have found a suitable replacement for my all-purpose beer void that Steel Reserve once filled.

For more information on Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma and the labels it covers (including Dos Equis), check out their website (in Spanish) or their Wikipedia page (English)

As always, please drink responsibly

A Short Review of Beer: Negra Modelo

Though its owned by Anheuser-Busch, Modelo (the largest brewery in Mexico and brewer of Negra Modelo) still keeps their operation homegrown. Pic found here

After finishing up my Stella Artois, it was time to get a new buffer beer. Buffer beers are the store-bought mainstream beers that I consume in between fill ups of my growler. Stella Artois had been my previous one, but this past weekend had me hankering for something a bit closer to home. I had my answer after a trip to one of our regularly frequented Mexican grocery stores revealed that they had Negra Modelo on sale.

It may surprise you to learn that Mexico is one of the largest brewers of beer in the world (I believe it ranks second or third in terms of production). While Mexico has always had its homegrown alcoholic beverages (pulque, tequila, etc) and a bit of localized domestic brewing since the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors, beer brewing really came of age in the 19th Century with German immigrants from Bavaria who arrived to work in the mines in northern Mexico. These miners discovered that the water there was identical in quality to the water they used back home to make their beer. Thus, a new industry was born.

Negra Modelo (Spanish for "Black Model", likely for its dark color) is not the first Mexican beer I've consumed. That distinction goes to Corona, which I found positively disgusting the first (and only!) time I drank it. No amount of lime juice could take away the pissy flavor of that beer. My husband, after supporting my displeasure at Corona, recommended Negra Modelo as his preferred Mexican beer.

I admit, the first time I drank Negra Modelo, I did not like it. It was too bitter for my novice palette. But time, variety, and persistence have paid off and I was ready to reapproach Negra Modelo with a new perspective.

According to the website of the Crown Imports, a US-based importer of foreign beers, Negra Modelo is characterized as "made with filtered water, malted barley, hops, rice and exceptional yeast varieties, which give way to the balanced flavor and remarkably smooth taste you can only find in a Negra Modelo. Hints of caramel sweetness and dark chocolate balance out this smooth, medium bodied beer."

My take: I smell and taste the malt (and it smells wonderful too!), it's still a bit on the bitter side for my liking, but I do detect just a tiny bit of sweetness if I let the beer sit in my mouth for a bit. It goes down pretty smoothly too. While technically Negra Modelo is a lager, it's a dark lager thanks to the roasted malt (the roasting process is called Munich Dunkel, which involved slow-roasting malts in the style of south German dark beer). It's definitely better this time around than when I tried it for the first time three years ago. At 5.5% ABV, there is a slight buzz, but it does not last long.

My trusty beer mug modeling Negra Modelo, back-lit by my computer screen. That dark mass in the mug is the lime floating around inside

While I'm a die-hard purist and normally avoid adulterating my beers in any way, shape or form, I do recommend adding some lime juice to Negra Modelo. I find that half a lime adds just enough zip to edge off the bitterness but not overwhelm the taste of the beer. Traditionally, Mexican beer drinkers would add lime in addition to chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, clamato (tomato-clam juice), seafood, fruit, salt, etc. to their beers, depending on region and personal preference. I don't particularly care for clamato as I find the tomato flavor overwhelming, but if you don't mind pretending you're drinking a hard tomato juice, by all means add it.

One thing to be said about Negra Modelo is that it's a fairly good all-purpose beer. It went well with everything from seafood gumbo to sandwiches. That sort of one-size-fits-all practicality is hard to pull off and it's something I value in beer. Previously, that all-purpose void was filled by Steel Reserve but since I've gotten away from drinking that shit, my other quest (aside from finding a good IPA) is to find a good quality all-purpose beer.

For more on the history of beer brewing in Mexico and the brands its produced, check out Wikipedia or this site for information.

As always, please enjoy responsibly