BREWERY: Grupo Modelo S.A. de C.V.
STYLE: Vienna Lager
ABV: 4.0%
PURCHASE: Case of 24 12-oz. bottles, $32.99
SERVING: 12-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. Regular pour gets a standard one-inch head; a faster pour doesn't get much more. Doesn't matter: Either way, the head is gone within a minute.
APPEARANCE: See-through amber body with your usual off-white head--while there is a head, anyway. Steady bubbling. No lacing.
BOUQUET: Toasty, but generic. A whiff of wheat and a touch of hops complement the more prominent notes of malted barley. Not particularly complex.
PALATE: Very easygoing with light carbonation. Fairly "straight-through" taste consisting mainly of biscuity grain and sweet malt. Very, very little in the way of hops or anything else. Relatively dry and yeasty finish with a brief aftertaste consistent with what came before it. Complexity doesn't seem to be a hallmark of the folks from Modelo.
MUSINGS AND METAPHORS: Eh. Mexican Budweiser? Nah. Wrong style. This is a Vienna lager. Sam is a more direct comparison.
Needless to say, this ain't Sam.
GRADE: C-
