“[It] started to quench our thirst and [was] meant to be in Kurowski’s living room; and it kind of blew up for us” - Dave Thibodeau
Sometimes relief means taking the week off and having a beer about it. This Cinco de Mayo we dove into a beer style that brewers can’t seem to stop talking about: Mexican Lager. We kicked back and took a week off COVID-19 talk, and we highly recommend it.
Ska Brewing is one of the pioneers of the "craft Mexican Lager” style, often touted for bringing this style to the United States… at least in a can, anyway.
Mexican Logger is celebrating its 21st anniversary — so it can now legally enjoy itself. Over the 21 years Mexican Logger has been around, it’s grown exponentially. This Cinco de Mayo we’re pleased to catch up with Dave Thibodeau, Steve Breezley, Kristen Muraro, and the crew over at Ska to learn more about Mexican Logger and how it has evolved over the years.
In sharing more about the beer itself, Thibodeau wanted to start from the beginning and highlighting the history about the beer style itself and what Cinco de Mayo actually celebrates. The Cinco de Mayo that we celebrate here in the US is often associated with Mexico’s independence. In actuality, it’s celebrating the Battle of Puebla, being as the war that gave Mexico their independence was 50 years before the Battle of Puebla.
Both battles had roots in beer, believe it or not. The country had been brewing some version of alcohol beverages well before all of this happened — even dating back to the 1500s where some European beers were brewed but was short lived; however, after the Mexican War of Independence, Mexico was invaded and that’s how the German-Austrian influence came into Mexico and when the Mexican Lager-style beer began kicking off.
In the mid-1800s, Mexico was invaded by the various European countries. While many had left, the French stayed and tried to turn it into a monarchy. Napoleon brought Maximillian the First to Mexico to be their emperor — which became known as the Second Mexican Empire. Wherever Maximillian the First went, he brought his brewer. And that is how the Vienna-style Lager arrived in Mexico. Over the years, the Mexican-style Lager evolved from a darker Lager rooted in the Vienna-style to something more similar to a Bohemian Pilsner.
And how did the Mexican-style Lager come to the U.S? Many made their way to Mexico to drink during the Prohibition and with that, they brought back the influence of this Mexican-style lager.
You may be asking yourself, How did Ska get into making Mexican Logger? Here’s the skinny:
Ska has been brewing Mexican Logger since 1999 and is widely recognized as being an “OG” of the style amongst craft brewers. The beer originated because “we were closeted Pacifico drinkers,” shares Thibodeau, “we had this crazy old van that we used to drive to all the festivals around Colorado.” He continues, “I remember going to all these small mountain town festivals, getting set up for the festival, and then going to this copper colored van with teardrop windows and drinking these Pacifico’s, then going out to the festival and pretending like we’ve been drinking our craft beer.”
And then it clicked: “we’re craft brewers — why not brew one ourselves?” Just like that, Mexican Logger was born.
“Mexican Logger,” Thibodeau shares, “grew every year, but it grew small. It really took off for us after we started canning it back in 2012.” He went on to talk about how brewing a beer this light is a very delicate process, because these lighter beers won’t mask any imperfections in the beer.
Even though Mexican Logger is a seasonal beer for Ska, it is the Durango brewery’s second largest seller after their year-round beer, Modus Hoperandi. They also shared that they initially wanted to create a Vienna-style lager to be Mexican Logger’s counterpart, but ended up producing Oktoberfest. “Between Mexican Logger and Oktoberfest, we have won a few awards,” shares Thibodeau.
We also had the opportunity to host a small Q&A with the Ska crew during our Weekly Industry Zoom call and here’s a bit of what we learned:
“Where did adding a lime to the Mexican Lager start/why does it taste so good with a lime?” — Cheyenne R.
“It had to be a marketing thing for Corona or the Michelada style — lime juice in a beer with the salt — in a campaign from Corona,” Thibodeau muses, “As much as I want to poo poo it as a brewer, enjoyed putting a lime in our Pacifico.” He adds, “We brought this for the first time to Colorado’s Rendezvous. We brought bags and bags of key limes that we chopped and set it up on our table in Salida.” He contiues, “we just showed up with a tub full of cut limes, but it went over really well. It felt a little irreverent and against the grain. I remember that festival very well and I don’t remember all of them all too well. We just went with it from the beginning.”
“Mexican Logger is one of the first-ever craft lagers/Mexican-style craft lagers produced in the country. What has marketing been like over the last 21 years?” — Emily Hutto
“I can tell you that when we first started putting it in a bottle, the justification at the time, we were originally had a guy in a sombrero with a chainsaw celebrating a siesta. once there was an end put to that, we put together a story as to why siestas should be mandatory,” shares Thibodeau, “We ran into flack over time, and it’s changed over time, it went to a guy welding chainsaws, and now it’s chainsaws. He continues, “there were times where our distributor didn’t want to carry it due to kick back from the label. The cans are easier to market and that opened doors.”
There is a lot of cultural sensitivity that goes into marketing a Mexican-style beer in comparison to a Belgian-style beer, German-style beer, or anything like that and that’s undoubtedly top of mind. Among the niche group of craft beer enthusiasts, there has been an upward trend of popularity amongst craft lagers at the moment. Lagers don’t mask any impurities, as mentioned by Thibodeau, it shows the true prowess of a brewer.
Emily also shares that it’s very interesting to a craft marketer as well. Looking back even 10 years ago, craft lagers weren’t as large of a discussion on a national scale — whereas now, it’s trending to make lagers with a large gain in traction over the last couple years.
Mexican Logger, in particular, tells a story behind the brand and the beer — and that shows sensitivity more than just slapping a label on a beer style. Stories behind the beer help to avoid some of those “uncomfortable” conversations around cultural sensitivity. “Ska has a story behind each of the beers, why it was made, and why it was canned,” shares Emily, “Mexican Logger is no different.”
Since then, many other breweries, especially in the Colorado region, have followed and developed their own Mexican-style lagers. And they all attribute Ska as being the “OG” of the style.
Until next week, salud!
— Karen Mills, RadCraft Content Editor