REVIEW 82: DOS EQUIS AMBER LAGER

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Mexico

BREWERY:  Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, S.A. de C.V.

STYLE:  Vienna Lager

ABV:  4.7%

PURCHASE:  Draught (18-oz.), $5.59

SERVING:  Weizen glass sans lime. 1/2-inch head from the tap. Average retention.

APPEARANCE:  Amber. Ha. Transparent amber-copper, to be more precise. Standard white head. Faint bubble action. Excellent lacing.

BOUQUET:  Fresh, "clean" (read: bleh) aroma; slightly grainy, slightly malty, slightly floral. A hint of caramel--although, that could just be psychology at play, due to how the beer looks.

PALATE:  Average body, but a bit heavy for a beer under 5% ABV. Carbonation is initially modest but can spiral if left unchecked. Sweet and faintly toasty malt characterizes practically the entirety of every sip. Very little complexity; it seems to be missing something. Finish is partly seltzer-like. What's there is agreeable but boring; taste is too "clean" for its own good. Lacks balls. (Don't misunderstand me; I don't want to taste balls in my beer.)

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Dos Equis is a Spanish term. It refers to the two "X's" on the label. Dos Equis, the beer, is brewed in Mexico. But it is a Vienna lager. That's right.

For you novices out there, Vienna lager was first brewed in 1841 in . . . Vienna. Hence the name. The style soon spread to Austria's neighbors, namely Germany. But then in the late nineteenth century, numerous Austrian and German brewmeisters emigrated to Mexico, bringing this lager with them. It was a German-born Mexican brewer, Wilhelm Hasse, that produced Dos Equis, in 1894, utilizing the "XX" to commemorate the impending arrival of the twentieth century. (The beer would not be exported to this side of the border until 1973.)

Warren Oates' character in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (directed by Sam Peckinpah, 1974) explains this development in an early scene from the film, noting that "some of the best beer in the world comes from Mexico." That may be true, but Dos Equis does not fit that description, regardless of what "The Most Interesting Man in the World" says.

That said, unlike it's mediocre green-bottled cousin Especiale, the Amber Lager is at least what I would call "okay." 




GRADE:  C-