Two Endangered Species from the Yucatan: Montejo and Leon
Dec 08 '02
The Bottom Line Negra Leon and Montejo are two beers from the Yucatan that are seldom discussed among beer connoisseurs, yet both are good, solid well-brewed lagers. Here's why...
Whenever I travel anywhere, I always make it a point to sample the best of the local cuisine, and that means drinking beers and wines that I can't easily find outside their home turf. This year, I enjoyed a thanksgiving vacation to Cancun and nearby environs, and in this corner of the world, "local beer" means beers made at the old Yucateca brewery -- Negra Leon and it's younger brother, Montejo.
Leon was first brewed in 1900. The beer is based on the Vienna amber style and is similar in flavor, body, and character to Dos XX Amber. I find Leon to be a little richer and bolder than Indio (another Vienna style amber lager from Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma), but still lighter in color and body than Modelo's flagship Vienna, Negra Modelo. Side by side, I find very little to differentiate a Leon from a Dos XX, which is a good thing since Dos XX already has a huge following and is generally acknowledged as a very good quality beer.
Montejo was first brewed in 1960 and was named to honor Francisco de Montejo, the founder of the city of Merida. Montejo is a pilsner style beer that shares more in common with the all-malt light pilsners of the Netherlands than it does with the sometimes grainy tasting derivatives that are popular in the U.S. It is entirely possible that this beer is brewed using adjunct grains, but if they are used, the grain is very well handled since there is little in the flavor or body to signal its presence. Compared to other Mexican brands, it shares a similar firm malty tasting base that reminds me more of Bohemia than any other Mexican brand, though the hopping rate is definitely lower than that fine brew. A surprisingly good, very drinkable light lager.
But enough preview!
I brought a few bottles of each brand home with me from my recent trip to the Yucatan. Although you might have to look around a little to find these brands, they are not hard to find anywhere -- even on the Americanized tourist zone of Cancun's hotel strip, some of the small convenience stores do stock both brands. I also found it served on the beach at the Camino Real hotel, and I found it in some of the small family run restaurants on Isla Mujeres (including the Miramar, which I recommend highly for its low brow ambiance, great prices, friendly service, and excellent regional cuisine -- but more on that in another review). So without further ado, let's pop the lids and do the taste test!
Tasting Negra Leon
A right glass for every beer, and for a good lager beer, I like tall, thin-waisted lager glasses, and that's what I'll use to serve both of these beers.
Appearance:
The beer pours with a light brown color rich with deep orange hues and a touch of red. The clarity is impeccably brilliant and it pours with a tight, creamy head that lingers all the way down the glass. It's a beautiful beer -- I'd guess the color to be right around 12 to 14 on the SRM scale.
Aroma:
Hmm. This is quite a light aroma, but one of mostly sweet malt with just a little hint of soft toffee and toasted sweet bread. There is no graininess, and no real hop signature to speak of. It is a clean and inviting aroma.
Flavor:
Well balanced and refreshingly light, but without being bland and lifeless. It reminds me in some ways of good English brown ales, like Newcastle, that somehow manage to bring some lively malt character into what is basically a very light bodied beer. Leon is light. Leon is refreshing. Leon is not wimpy though -- it has some very nice light caramel malt flavor and a balance that's just barely tipped towards the sweet side of the spectrum.
While the appearance is probably more like Dos XX amber, the lightness of the body reminds me very much of Dos XX's little brother -- Indio -- another light Vienna style amber that is quite popular in Mexico.
Verdict:
Negra Leon is a very nice, refreshing amber lager. It is a good, well-brewed beer. In terms of rating, I would probably rank it as 3 to 3-1/2 stars. It isn't quite as assertive nor as true to style as beers like Dos XX or Negra Modelo, which I think make it into the 4 to 4-1/2 star realm. But make no mistake, this is an excellent choice when you're sitting out on the beautifully sun-drenched beaches of southeast Mexico. A definite winner!
Tasting Montejo
Another clean, thin-waisted lager beer glass and we'll commence to pouring a cool Montejo Clara...
Appearance:
Montejo pours with a vigorous carbonation rush that kicks up a nice rocky head and that leaves a trail of tiny bubbles spinning their way upwards through the brilliantly clear golden colored elixir. This looks about the same as pouring most pilsner beers -- very pale yellow in color, perhaps a 3 to 4 on the SRM scale, but without looking sickly and anemic like some industrial lagers look. This is light and attractive, but it also looks refreshing and it looks like it has a little bit of depth to it.
Aroma:
I get a nice, lightly floral and peppery hop signature as I first pass the glass under my nose. It reminds me of the same kind of hop scent that I get on good European pilsners, such as Bitburger or Grolsch. Significantly, I also pick up none of the faint sulfur scent that I get on some adjunct-laden brews. It is a very clean aroma with a light hop emphasis. Very enticing!
Flavor:
My first impression is one of clean, sweet, fresh pale malt. As I swirl the beer around in my mouth, I can't help but feel that the body has the same kind of firmness and roundedness that I tend to like in good all-malt pilsners, and that I find emphasized in some pale German lagers, especially the helles beers from south Germany. Like the Leon though, this is not a big bodied beer -- it is light and refreshing, it just manages to bring some flavor and character depth with it -- something that not many light lager beers in the Americas manage to do.
But Montejo is a pilsner beer, and pilsners should have a good hop character. Montejo does that. The balance is slightly towards the bitter side of the scale, and after I swallow the beer, I get a very nice, lingering spicy hop bitterness. I do not know what kinds of ingredients the brewery uses, but if I were a betting man, I'd lay down cash that this is made using real European noble hop varieties (or at least noble hybrids if they're using American hops).
Verdict:
This is a good, light, poundable pale lager beer. It won't offend anyone who "just likes beer", yet it still manages to be good enough to not offend people with more discriminating palates. My sombrero is off to the brewers at Yucateca and Modelo for brewing such an enjoyably refreshing beer. Brews like Corona and Sol might be popular among the trendy beach crowd, but Montejo is the better choice in Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, or anywhere fine grainded white sand meets crystal clear turqoise waters under the Yucatecan sun...
In terms of stars, I'd probably rank it as 3-1/2 -- which is about as high as you'll ever see me go on a light pilsner derivative brew. Not truly world class, but truly enjoyable in this part of the world.
About Cerveceria Yucateca
Cerveza Leon Negra and Montejo Clara are the two major brands of the Cerveceria Yucateca, a regional brewery founded in Merida Yucatan in 1899. Negra Leon was one of their first brands and for many decades, the brewery relied primarily on that one single brand: Cerveza Negra Leon. The beer was popular in the Yucatan Peninsula, and was generally available noplace else since it was neither exported nor distributed nationally. Several years ago, the brewery was purchased by the huge Modelo brewery (Grupo Modelo out of Mexico City -- brewers of Corona and other big brands). By 1999, the brewery had developed a cachet as a quality regional brewer, similar to the market niche occupied in the U.S. by brewers like Saranac, August Schell, or Spoetzl. Negra Leon was a good beer, and discriminating travelers to the Yucatan always sought it out.
The last few years have been tumultuous for the Yucateca brewery. In 1999, Modelo started pushing Montejo and Leon a bit more, with new labels and packaging, but still with a regional Yucatan focus and without wide national or international distribution.
Sadly, I saw in La Jornada that Modelo had decided to close the Cerveceria Yucateca this year. 700 employees would be let go from the Merida brewery, but Negra Leon and Montejo will continue (for a while anyway), to be produced at other Modelo plants. I also heard rumors last year that Modelo wanted to export Negra Leon. To my knowledge, this has not yet happened, but it might be a good thing for the brand, if it managed to win the hearts of enough foreign drinkers to make a big company like Modelo care about its future.
I always hate to see good regional breweries pushed out of the market by bigger breweries with blander beers. It's happened a million times in the United States and in Europe, and it heppens elsewhere as well. Unfortunately for Cerveceria Yucateca, the modern mass market is not gentle to regional breweries with distinctive product lines. Not in the U.S., not in the U.K., not even in Belgium and Germany, and certainly not in Mexico.
Bottom Line: When In the Yucatan, Do as the Yucatecas...!
Rated on a truly international scale, both Negra Leon and Montejo are fairly average beers. They are normal gravity lagers that are cleanly brewed and fairly unexceptional when judged next to the masterpieces of their styles, yet both are very well suited to the hot jungles and beaches of the Yucatan Peninsula, and both have justly earned their place as true examples of the local brewing art.
If I taste these beers at home in Houston, where I have a refrigerator that's stock full of great beers from around the world, I easily see that they are not particularly exceptional beers, but when I taste them on their home turf, compared against the beers that the Mexican mega-breweries sell, it becomes apparent that both Leon and Montejo are a head above the crowd -- something that locals have known for 100 years.
When I'm anywhere in the Yucatan, from the coasts of Cancun to the Mayan cities of the interior, I always make it a point to ask for Leon first. If you like good beer like I do, you'll do the same.
Until next time, see you on the road. As always, I'll be letting my tongue be my guide...
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