Tequila Beer: The perfect drink for this Christmas

Beer provides us with an enormous variety of brewing styles thanks to the almost infinite number of combinations we can make using its 4 basic ingredients: water, malted barley, hops and yeast, and the variations of each recipe in terms of proportions, maceration and cooking times and temperatures.

On a previous occasion we discussed how the different mineral composition of water in different regions has a decisive effect on brewing processes and the final taste of the beer. We could say the same about the level of malting, the hop varieties and the strains of yeast that we select, which all condition the colour, smell and taste of our beer.

That diversity does not end with the 4 basic ingredients though, and since time immemorial master brewers have included other ingredients in their recipes, such as fruit, spices, honey, cereals other than just barley, etc., and even liqueurs, as the case we are discussing today: tequila beer.

Although identifying the origins of this practice is not easy, everything points to Mexico as the place where it first began. As is true with the beer commonly known as Radler (Lemon Shandy), which combines beer and lemonade, it was actually the beer drinkers themselves who started mixing the two drinks to create a new one. That was the case too with beer and tequila, and today breweries now market the ready-mixed product the world over.

As for taste, flavour and texture, the reason behind this cocktail is the pleasant combination of the freshness of beer, usually a golden lager, and the earthy, liquorice tones of tequila. Perhaps the beer plays a similar role in this combination as refreshments do in other drinks that are added to spirits such as whisky, rum or gin. These added ingredients tend to tone down the strength of distilled spirits, as is the case of the tequila being diluted in beer with its much lower alcohol content, and along with its carbonation and the fact that it is usually served cold, it makes for a longer, more refreshing drink.

Although the term tequila beer could initially lead us to think of a strong drink, that is not actually the case on the market, as most of them have a similar alcohol content, or only slightly higher, to most popular golden lagers, somewhere within the range of 5% to 6%.

The most widely available tequila beer in Spain is “Desperados” (5.9%) made by the Heineken group, which is perhaps the most well-known and easiest to find, but other brands have also launched their own versions, such as “Manito” by KR Drinks, who also market “Mescalina”, made with Mezcal. Other breweries such as Mahou San Miguel, on the other hand, market other combinations of beer and spirits such as “Cubanisto”, which features rum rather than tequila.
 

¡Salud!