Noche Buena

Brewed by FEMSA - Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma (Heineken)
Style: American Dark Lager
Monterrey/Veracruz-Llave, Mexico

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Shaker

Bottle thanks to a good friend. Pours amber-brown-red hues with almost no foam. Aroma is slightly of bittersweet malts and grains, but otherwise pretty faint. Taste is light, and sweet, with a decent malt presence and a balanced, if watery, mouthfeel and character. No funk, no bad aftertaste. For what it is, this beer is a winner. Hard to believe the ABV is higher than Sierra Nevada.

UPDATED: JAN 16, 2012 Color castaño oscuro de sabor muy agradable sin ser amargo le falta cuerpo pero es agradable y ligera.

Drank from bottle at New Years party. Unable to comment on appearance. Mild roasty aroma. Flavor of sweet caramel. Decent beer, very drinkable and much better then the Miller Light that I had priot to this.

Thanks JoeMcPhee for the bottle. Clear copper/amber colour. Frothy white head. Strong fruity, malt aroma. Quite a syrup texture. Nice surprise, better than expected. Decent balance, refreshing beer. Lacks body.

A solid pour into my Lost Abbey Teku produces a two-finger thick, pale amber tinged, tan colored head that even leaves some lacing on the sides of my glass. The beer is a deep amber, sort of root-beer looking color that shows an absolutely brilliantly clear, garnet color when held up to the light. The aroma smells spicy from a mx of hops and malt and there is an almost raisin like note towards the end; this last is contributed by the malt and really isn’t fruit-like. The spiciness suggest cinnamon to me for some reason and now that I noticed that I am noticing that the hops definitely are contributing a berry-like character to the nose; that even smells a bit like concord grape juice.

Fairly dry up front, this picks up a faint sweetness as it rolls across the tongue, which accentuates a light, concord grape like flavor. Both the carbonation and a hop bitterness contribute a nice bite to this beer from beginning to end; this is almost the dominant note in this beer. The beer is quite clean, like one would expect from a lager, and finishes fairly non-descriptly with a faintly metalic, grassy combination of malt and hop. Clean malt contributes a touch of lightly accented umami malt character, a wisp of caramelized whole grain; this does manage to have a sort of diluted richness of malt character that a good bock would have and it works quite well here. Fairly light bodied, but still has a touch of viscousness that manages to linger a bit on the palate; the body is enough that this would stand up well to food. At times this has a sort of berry flavor to it, which nicely compliments the softly sweet malt character.

Not bad, and certainly better than Negra Modelo, I wish this beer was as ubiquitous as that when I went out to Mexican restaurants. While nothing to get overly excited about, this is a nicely enjoyable brew that I would be happy to be drinking as I am cooking food up in the kitchen, which is exactly what I happen to be doing at the moment.

12 oz bottle. Smooth sweet malt flavor. Hints of grass. Nice drinkability.

this one caught me by surprise, because I do enjoy this one more way more than I thought I would. while the aroma and palate are weak the it is nicely balance that would make this the my standard beer for a Mexican vacation. malty and not too hoppy

The aroma is not bad just sweet malt with hints of chocolate, toast, corn, and molasses. The appearance is light brown with a medium head that falls fast. The taste is like the aroma with a watery finish. The palate is average for this type of beer. The beer is overall drinkable but not something I want again.