156. Dos Equis Amber

I can't say that I'm a Spanish expert.  I took four years in high school, none in college.  I speak a few words and phrases here and there, attempt to speak Spanish to my wife, who will then tell me to use English.  I want to be tri-lingual one day, with Spanish being one of the languages.  The Rosetta Stone or something like it is in my near future.  Anyway, Equis means X.  Dos Equis means two X's.  Maybe that'll help the bottle make more sense.  Cerveza is beer.  There's your Spanish lesson for the day.  We had just finished closing on our house and we wanted to celebrate by going out.  We went to a Mexican restaurant and there were some pitcher specials.  A pitcher of Dos Equis?  Si!

We were given some standard pints to go with the pitcher.  I gave it a standard pour, getting a good finger and a half of soapy head to show up.  Light retention, not much lacing.  The beer had a light caramel color to it.  When getting the beer, I was expecting to get Dos Equis Lager, not the amber, but when I saw the color, I knew what I had.  No complaints here.  Aromas of malt dominate, with a little bit of caramel notes as well.

When you taste it, it's definitely an amber.  It's not overly sweet, but the malt base is evident on this one.  Not much, if any hop finish.  There's a metallic taste to it which I experience with most ambers.  It wasn't bad, just a little unbalanced.  I did share half of the pitcher, so there was plenty to drink, and I honestly didn't appreciate it like I could have from a drinking standpoint.  There was a lot there and I didn't want to waste it, I needed to chug it down!  It's one of the better "mass-produced" beers that I've had, but I may be simply favoring the amber style, which I admittedly like.  Oh well, chalk this one up as another beer worth having if the selection is really light.  

Grade: C+

Price Paid: $9.50 (48 oz pitcher)

135. Negra Modelo

So I'm still at Vida and I helped myself to a second beer.  Like I'd only get 1..?  Okay, I seriously thought about stopping at one, but I hadn't finished my meal yet and I was only headed to a hotel room after I was done here, so I was in no rush to really leave.  It was nice to people watch and to relax at the bar area.  After finishing off the Modelo Especial, I asked to try the Negra Modelo to see if this would fare any better.

The beer was poured into another pint glass.  This beer had a nice cola color to it with another half finger of head.  I could detect aromas of roasted malt, a little bit of caramel, but that was about it.  Not a lot of character or complexity to this one.  Still gives a pretty clean complexion.  Oh yeah, can't forget about the lime aroma I picked up from the lime wedge on the glass.  It helped out a bit.  

The taste was consistent with the aromas, a decent serving of roasted malts, with a little bit of a nutty background and some caramel to finish it off.  There is a very light hop bite at the end that gives the beer a little more character.  I found the beer to be light to medium bodied with average carbonation.  This was easier to drink than the Modelo Especial, and would instantly vault to the top of my list of Mexican beers that I will drink.  The list isn't very long, but this is a start..!

Grade: C-

Price Paid: $3.00 (16 oz draught pint)

134. Modelo Especial

Alright, so I mentioned that I wasn't able to drink all of the beers that I brought on my trip, but that I had found some other beers to drink as a substitute.  This was one of them.  Yeah, I know, you'll say that I was better off drinking what I brought, since this could quantify as absolute crap, but the fact of the matter was that I have never had Modelo before, and I was a little limited with my selection.  I ended up dining at Vida Cantina.  They mainly tout their tequila bar, which has several different brands of tequila.  Their draught beers are all native to Mexico, so I could only choose from so much.  

So the beer was poured into your standard pint and served with a lime slice.  I drank two thirds of the beer without the slice, then added it in to see if I could discern a notable difference.  The beer was a nice golden yellow color with a half finger of head that dissipated quickly and left no real traces of lacing.  I could detect aromas of corn, grains, other light malts, and some of the lime from the wedge that was on the glass.  Not much there otherwise.

I didn't pick up a lot of tastes with this one.  Some corn, some malt, some light hop bitterness.  Light bodied, lightly carbonated, there wasn't any real complexity that stood out.  When I added the lime, it added a twist to it, which I did like a little more, but that doesn't say much when you need outside influences to make the beer taste better.  Still, it's better than a Bud Light, but not much better.  This is one of those beers I'll only buy again when the selection is limited.

Grade: D+

Price Paid: $3.00 (16 oz draught pint)