Beer of the Week, Special Mexican Edition

It's starting to feel disingenuous calling this column "Beer of the Week", but I'm going to keep calling it that and maybe soon I'll live up to that name.

For now I'm going to continue my special, sporadic, summer series. I'm going to go a little off course for this one and not review a few "summer seasonals." Instead I'm going to take a look at some of the beers of Mexico, in honor of my recent trip there.

I'll be looking at Corona, Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo, and Sol. These are the beers I actually had while on vacation. I didn't bother trying Leon because I've heard it is awful. I wanted to try Pacifico and Tecate but I didn't get around to it. (That's because in our hotel rooms we had a case of each Modelo to work through, and, more significantly, once I tried a Sol I didn't want anything else. I'll try Pacifico and Tecate sometime soon.)

Corona:

I'll get through this quickly. Everyone has had it. You know what it is all about. The only reason I drank one in Mexico was because I went to an all-inclusive dinner where Corona was the only beer choice.

Modelo Especial:

This beer was unremarkable. It is not bad, but not great. It is a typical good Mexican light beer. It is the type of beer you can drank on a hot summer afternoon, all afternoon. You won't get tired of it, but if something better is available you'd probably leave the Modelo behind.

Negra Modelo:

This beer is great. It has a nice dark rich color. It has a robust full flavor. The mouthfeel is very smooth. I prefer dark beers and this one is no exception.

Sol:

A lot of people don't like this beer. In fact, it is panned on most of the good beer websites. However, many of the reviews mention old or skunky beers. I imagine it is difficult to find fresh specimens in the U.S.A. That being said, I had a fresh one in Mexico. We had had a long day, lots of walking in the oppressive Mexican sun. My wife and I sat down at an outdoor dive bar and ordered two Sol simply because they were 2 for $4. It was perfect. The flavor and refreshment the beer provided stopped me in my tracks. When we got up to leave we had four empty bottles on the table, three of which were mine. Enough said.