Beer Saturday - Victoria, the most victorious brew in Mexico
As I may have mentioned, the selection of Mexican beers is really not all that great. While there are small up-and-coming microbreweries making truly diverse and mostly delicious beers, you really need to look for them. In most restaurants and corner stores the options are typically limited to either one of the two large brewing conglomerates (none of which is Mexican). And since Corona (a beer I have not even gotten around to introducing, simply because I think its horrible taste makes it unsuitable to drink) is considered the king of beers somehow, most places opt for offering it, along with Victoria as the only alternative.
image source
La Historia de Nuestra Victoria
The History of our Victory - this was the advertisement slogan of this beer around 2010, when Mexico celebrated the 100th anniversary of its Revolution, and 200th anniversary of its Independence. Of course, a beer with such an aptly chosen name would jump right on the bicentennial bandwagon, and shamelessly use old photographs of military trains to associate the ideas of victory with selling itself. Quite ironic, if you consider the actual history of Victoria.
The brand Victoria belongs to the Modelo Group, which is also in charge of fifteen other beers sold in Mexico and exported to other places. Modelo itself is owned by AB InBev, a multinational brewing giant, responsible for Budweiser, Stella Artois, and other very famous beers with sub-average taste. The company Modelo was founded in 1925, when the Mexican Revolution was about to come to a close. This is quite late, compared to León or Indio, both of which go back to the turn of the century.
Having said that, I should also mention the Compañía Cervecera Toluca y México S.A. which Modelo bought in 1935. They came up with this beer back in 1890, around the same time as most other Mexican beers. It is a Vienna style lager with alost the same amber-bronze color as the other two beers I have introduced. The taste is pretty decent, though I still like to add the juice of a lime to each pint, something I don't do with a delicious IPA for example.
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I think you have been very honest in your appreciation of this beer, as well as its history, its origins. It is strange that in a country as large as Mexico, they have few beer alternatives, perhaps it is because they favor tequila more.
I haven't had the pleasure of trying this beer, although it looks good. What I have seen are their wonderful Day of the Dead advertisements, I think that has been an important source that they have used in their promotions, which is not bad, if it is about preserving and disseminating the culture of a country .
Adding lime to beers is a good alternative, I usually do it, and sometimes I add some gin too.
Cheers!
Oh, you add gin to your beer? Hahaha, I admire your unconventional taste. You obviously know where it's at!
Sure tequila is quite popular, mezcal even more so, but so are rum and whiskey. But those are all heavy duty liquors.
As for beer... It's not like there is no selection, the options are just very similar. And it's one thing to have lots of different breweries, and another thing to be supplying restaurants and shops. So if a waiter asks you what you'd like to drink (unless it is a fancy place with a wide selection of beers) your request of a stout or a wheat beer will be met with a confused look, and an apologetic "Corona o Victoria".
But that is just the culture. I remember the US before the microbrew explosion was a similarly desolate place in terms of beers. In college my favorite beer was Labatt Blue, as I honestly thought it tasted better than American beers. I still have to laugh about my unrefined taste!
I add it occasionally with the blonde beers from my country, because I think they don't have much flavor, and it is a way to enrich them, and if there is no gin, vodka works well, with its respective touch of lime or lemon, and a touch of grenadine, it is a tasty cocktail.
And well, I think that here the beer supply is even more limited, because the crisis devastated the small craft breweries that existed, so I have no other option than to look in the warehouses for some imported beers, in addition to the national ones.
I'm sorry to hear about the devastation of small craft breweries due to the crisis. It makes me have this fantasy, that someone could start brewing beer in their basement, selling it for HBD or HIVE... But I can imagine there are other problems before this can be real. So until then, I would add a small bar to this fantasy, where you sell your exotic sounding beer cocktails too. 😜
You've been curated by @amazingdrinks! Delegations welcome!
Here in Latin America beer culture is rare. Usually people consume whatever commercial brand of beer is available, and they're not many options. That's why craft beer is such a treasure .
That's pretty much how it used to be in North America too. (Real actual beer culture you'd find in Germany, where the 600-soul village I used to live in had its own 700-year-old small brewery, just like most other towns.) Then suddenly American hipsters started making their own beers, and more importantly, drinking each other's micro-brews. Before you knew it big commercial beers were out of style, and by now most beer drinkers in the US or Canada (especially on the West coast) are likely to opt for one of the thousands of craft beers, which have gotten big on their own, so are not necessarily micro any more. And I don't blame them! Why would anyone even go near a Heineken, when you have Electric Unicorns and other crazy options with delicious tastes to choose?
Totally agree, and you also get to have a nice collection of bottles and cans. Win-win 🍻
As a fan of craft beer and IPA, Mexico is a little bit of a challenge for me. Good thing they have my favourite beer there, which is LOTS! ;)
My last trip there, I found this one which was great compared to the watery piss the masses drink. There is good !BEER everywhere and I am glad to know I have a Mexican craft beer researcher in my network now!
Okay... now I feel like I really should focus on the craft brews, because they do have some of those here too. Pescadores I haven't seen, but there is Minerva, Allende, Rey, Tempus and others.