Red Pig Mexican Ale

Red Pig Amber/Pale Ale?

5.5%ABV

4 out of 5

This beer was very surprising. The brewer, Cervecería Mexicana, doesn't make the most exciting beers, and there is no description on the bottle that told me what to expect regarding this beer. A 4 out of 5 is a little generous, should be more like 3.5, but I don't want to start using fractions.

 Red Pig is a medium-bodied copper colored ale, pours with little head, and tastes like a slightly sweeter version of a pale ale. It is slightly caramely and pretty hoppy, but finishes dry and sort of flat. It is somewhat similar to the Minerva Pale Ale, but I think I prefer the Red Pig for its slightly more complex flavors. If this beer was slightly less watery and a bit more hoppy, this could be a really solid and interesting beer. I find this beer to be fairly drinkable and won't hesitate to drink it again if the price is right.

Red Pig is available at La Belga for 25 pesos/bottle.

Cerveza Rio Bravo

Rio Bravo Pilsner

4.6%ABV

3 out of 5

This is a decent pilsner. It is pretty boring, nothing really interesting to say about this beer. Its slightly bready and malty, easy to drink, pretty much what one expects from a pilsner. The Rio Bravo beers are certainly preferable over the national beers, but what they do is so close to the macro-brews that their beers just end up being kind of dull.














Rio Bravo Special Dark Beer Brown Ale

5.5%ABV

2 out of 5

This brown ale is light-bodied with slight caramel flavors, and is fairly easy to drink. But, it is just another boring brown ale that is only a step above the dark, vienna-style lagers from Bohemia, Negra Modelo, etc.
















Both beers are produced by Cervecería Rio Bravo out of Tecate, B.C. Or is it Cervecería Mexicana? The bottle includes both names, so I'm guessing that both companies are the same. These beers cost around 25 pesos/bottle, and you can find them at La Belga and La Gran Vía. Last time I was at La Belga they only had the brown ale. I picked up the pilsner at La Gran Vía. I've also seem the brown ale at Liverpool before.

Simpatico Beer

Simpatico Pilsner (?)

4.6%ABV

3 out of 5

I had never seen or heard of this beer the other day when I went to The Beer Box looking for some new beers to try. The beer itself is a very light golden beer, I think it is a pilsner. Since there is basically no information about this beer online, or on the bottle, I can't be one hundred percent sure. It doesn't have much flavor at all, just a small hint of malt. It isn't a particularly bad beer if you are just looking for a simple light refreshing beer, but there isn't a whole lot that really draws me to it.

Simpatico is made by Cervercería Mexicana, based out of Tecate, Baja California. It seems this beer was first made back in the 1980s, and then disappeared from the market? I don't really know the story, but there is an interesting facebook page of people from all over the world looking for this beer. It seems it has a bit of a cult following which makes sense in comparison to other standard Mexican lagers, but compared to the recent crop of craft brews, Simpatico isn't really all that special.

You can buy this beer for 29 pesos at the Beer Box.