Review: Good Neighbour Mexican Style Especial Amber Lager

Good Neighbour Mexican Style Especial Amber Lager (Winnipeg, MB)

It was November 2017 when my buddy Ben declared that Mexican lagers were going to be the future of craft beer. I gave him a serious 🤨 look because there were several other styles becoming more popular at the time, but he was right - less than five years later many, many breweries came out with crafty takes on Mexican lagers. The thing is though, there's more to Mexican lagers than the typical crisp, light style we all know from Corona, Sol and the like. There's also a malty brown bockish kind of lager that's also popular thanks to brands such as Dos Equis (XX) with their Ambar Lager, something I haven't had since 2015 apparently.

From the label: A Mexican-style Amber Lager brewed with Galena hops and a combination of caramel & roasted malts. Full-flavoured, with a hint of creamy caramel and a smooth, mellow finish. 5.4% ABV

Appearance: Caramelly brown in appearance, light amount of clarity through the glass and a thick amount of creamy beige foam on top. The head diminishes pretty slowly, leaving behind a few bubbles here and there, but pretty much leaves a nice thin layer of head on the beer the entire time.

Aroma: Pretty much every amber ale/lager I've had in the past eighteen years or so - it's not aggressive in any way. It's sweet, a tad nutty, slight toasted malt profile, slight hint of caramel at the end.

Taste: Sweet and caramel-forward lager with a bit of a breadiness to it, good amount of nuttiness, hint of raisins, hint of straw at the end.

Overall Thoughts: I can't really do a comparison of this beer with other Mexican style Amber Lagers as there just aren't any for me to review.. unless if my parents bring me back some from Mexico this weekend, hint hint. Pretty much a standard amber, something that the first thing I could think of is that I could go for a slice of pizza with this beer, it's a hearty beer that I would easily pair pub grub with. Sweet, tad nutty, easy to drink.