REVIEW 111: MODELO ESPECIAL

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Mexico

BREWERY:  Grupo Modelo S.A. de C.V.

STYLE:  Adjunct Lager

ABV:  4.4%

PURCHASE:  Case of 24 12-oz. bottles, $30.99

SERVING:  12-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. Almost no variation in the head; a standard, faster, and slower pour all yielded in the neighborhood of half an inch. Not much retention, regardless.

APPEARANCE:  Clear golden body the usual off-white sudsy head. Very bubbly. No lacing whatsoever.

BOUQUET:  Mainly doughy and grainy but also slightly citrusy and floral. Not much else going on.

PALATE:  Manages to be smooth and somewhat light without being watery. Points for that. Taste is amiable enough. Carbonation can go unnoticed, since it is very slow to assert itself. Entry and mid-palate are grainy and typical for a North American adjunct. Finish features a tinge of both citrus and floral hops--just a tinge--and leads to a slightly yeasty and malty aftertaste. 

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  More or less a standard cerveza; in other words, it's Bud if it were brewed in Mexico City instead of St. Louis. The difference with this one is that unlike a lot of other Mexican lagers, it thankfully lacks that final downer note of skunk a la Corona Light or Sol. 

In case you didn't know, "modelo" is the Spanish word for "model." How fitting.




GRADE:  C-

Get it? She's a "modelo."