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A tall glass of clear pale gold lager beside a glass of clear dark copper-brown lager with a beige head

Mexican Lager

Mexican-style lager: the light, pale, amber and dark lagers of Mexico's brewers, crisp and dry, often lightened with corn or rice. Strength, colour and the BA guidelines.

Family
Lager
Origin
Mexico
Colour
Pale, Gold, Amber, Brown
Strength
4.5–5.0% ABV (pale)
Bitterness
15–22 IBU (pale)
Colour scale
3–5 SRM (6–10 EBC) (pale)

A Mexican-style pale lager pours pale to deep gold and clear. It tastes of soft pale malt, sometimes with a touch of corn or rice, a low noble-type hop and a low bitterness, and finishes dry. Light in body and lively, it runs at 4.5–5% alcohol. The Brewers Association describes four Mexican-style lagers in all: a light lager of 3.2–4.2%, the pale lager, an amber lager with caramel and bready malt, and a dark lager, copper to brown with ruby lights, whose brewers may use Munich or Vienna malt and toasted or crystal malt.

Where it comes from

Mexico’s brewers took up lager in the second half of the 19th century, with German immigrants and the court of the Habsburg emperor Maximilian, whose own brewer made Vienna-style dark beer. The BJCP says brewers such as Santiago Graf brought the Vienna lager to Mexico, and the amber and dark beers of Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma and Grupo Modelo, from Dos Equis Ambar to Negra Modelo, still carry that line. Apart from those, Wikipedia notes, almost all Mexican beer is pale lager, drunk very cold and light in body.

The BJCP has no Mexican category of its own. It lists Corona Extra as an international pale lager and Dos Equis Amber as an international amber lager. The Brewers Association gives the Mexican styles their own guidelines.

Next to its neighbours

In BJCP competitions the nearest categories are international pale lager, where Corona Extra is listed, and international amber lager, where Dos Equis Amber is. The dark version shares its Munich or Vienna malt with the Vienna lager and the Munich dunkel.

Mexican Lager in numbers

Classic example
Cervecería Blest
Original gravity
1.045–1.050 (pale)
Final gravity
1.008–1.012 (pale)
Light
3.2–4.2% ABV, 8–17 IBU, 2–3 SRM
Amber
4.0–5.5% ABV, 12–25 IBU, 7–15 SRM
Dark
4.5–5.8% ABV, 12–28 IBU, 16–30 SRM
Style guidelines
Brewers Association 2026: Mexican-Style Light, Pale, Amber and Dark Lager

Sources

Checked .

  1. 2026 Beer Style Guidelines (Mexican-Style Light, Pale, Amber and Dark Lager) — Brewers Association
  2. Beer in Mexico — Wikipedia
  3. 2B. International Amber Lager, 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — Beer Judge Certification Program
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