Mexican Food, Austrian Beer. Who Knew?

I was thrilled to receive my first write-in question last night! Check it:


Dear Brew-Ru,

I am having a party for about 20 to 40 people this Friday night where we are serving tacos and margaritas. What kind of beer goes with that? Is Blue Moon a good choice?

-Wondering in Pebble Beach


Dear Wondering,

Blue Moon would not be my first choice. Tacos & margaritas usually sport sharp, astringent, and spicy flavors and a beer like Blue Moon which is very soft and sweet, with a texture more like a wheat beer, will go against the grain. Actually it will get straight bowled over. Beverages with higher viscosity (in beer it comes from the sugar content, and is called "gravity,") will hold spice compounds to your tongue and palate, both exacerbating the spiciness and hindering easy movement between, say, chili verde and chili colorado tacos. Here are a couple of suggestions for specific brews and general styles that will lift and carry the spice away, preparing you for your next bite:


Mexicans are no fools - their beers may be given short shrift by some aficionados, but are pretty much perfect for their cuisine. Light, dry, highly carbonated and slightly bitter, they are based on a style called Vienna Lager, which itself is essentially a light lager in the same vein as Pilsners. That being the case, there are any number of beers that you could serve which would fulfill your needs without forcing you to resort to Corona: any German or Czech pils such as Spaten, Franziskaner, Czechvar, or even Austria's Steigl lager. You want to be careful of beers with an agenda of their own.


There are also a number of Californian beers that would work. West Coast IPAs have higher gravity than most lagers, but balance it out with much stronger bitterness than pretty much any other style of beer. Their characteristic citrusy, pine-needley aromas compliment most Mexican food well. Maybe it's chauvinism, but when it comes to spicy food these are the brews for me.


- The Brew-Ru