I have been a proponent for a long time of breweries properly finishing their beers at the factory before putting them in cans or bottles and shipping them off to us, the people who just drink the beer. The idea that I have to add and orange wedge or lime in order to properly enjoy a beverage when I'm out seems more like a custom, and it really seems like it's just covering up what the brewery forgot to do. I guess that's how these kind of customs would manifest themselves, and I am unlikely to cut up a lime just to have two beers on a weeknight. So, the inclusion of lime in the brewing process of this beer delights me.
I was expecting a pale Mexican lager, but that's not what I get. The hazy, brass colored beer has a significant enough head when it comes out of the can, and it boils down to an uneven layer across the top. If you put this in front of me without describing its claimed style, it would be a while before I guessed Mexican lager. The aroma is a lime covered breadbasket with light spices at the free ends.First sip is smooth and relatively sweet. The spices really add to the body, and the bread malt is almost crackery, but it's solidly basted in a film of lime. The lime is very subtle in the sip, but it is clearly adding something. The something that it is adding is making this more palatable, and adds the proper amount of citrus to bring a complexity to the beverage that it might otherwise lack.
Tip-in is moderate carbonation burn with lime and lemon dancing on a spice-laden hunk of bread. The middle smooths out into a grainy river with the spices alighting the shores and the lime are a swirling mist where the water turns white with carbonation. The finish highlights in bitterness as the malt turns a little caramel and the sweetness that had existed in the center without drawing attention to itself recedes quickly and we're left with a lime-tinged spicy trail off.
Bottom Line: A unique and endearing take on a Mexican lager.
3.25/5