Sin maíz, no hay país. “Without corn, there is no country.” As important as corn is to Mexico’s rich cultural heritage, it’s equally important for brewing an authentic Mexican-style lager. 

The style was added to the World Beer Cup style guidelines in 2026, with Mexican-Style Light Lager (Category 55) drawing 33 entries and Mexican-Style Pale Lager (Category 60) reaching 114 entries. The Mexican-Style Pale Lager category had 148 entries in its debut at the 2025 Great American Beer Festival competition. 

“We are grateful to the BA for letting it be its own category,” said Alex Ancona, founder and director of Beer’s Cool – Escuela de Cerveza in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, who participated in a panel on the style at the Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia—Exploring Mexican Lagers. “It’s exciting to see the category continue to evolve and generate deeper conversations beyond the ‘easy adjunct lager’ perception.”

The panel outlined four substyles of Mexican lager (light, pale, amber, and dark) and emphasized the importance of: 

• Maize
• A highly disciplined fermentation profile
• Noble hop restraint
• Drinkability shaped by climate and culture  

“In many ways, corn is one of Mexico’s greatest contributions to global agriculture and food culture,” Ancona said. “In Mexico, corn is much more than a crop or an ingredient—it became the foundation of entire civilizations, cuisines, art, economies, and cultural systems.” 

Different forms of corn can be used in a recipe (up to 40% of the grain bill), including flaked corn, with malted corn adding the most expression. Rice can also be used in a Mexican-style lager.

“In brewing terms, both rice and maize certainly contribute technical effects like attenuation and drinkability, but culturally, corn adds context, intention, and authenticity to the style,” said Ancona. “Corn can help build the dryness and refreshing character expected in the style, but it still requires careful process control, especially regarding yeast health, FAN (free amino nitrogen) availability, sulfur management, and overall fermentation quality.”

Ogden Beer Company in Ogden, Utah, won gold at the 2026 World Beer Cup in the Mexican-Style Light Lager Category with its Cultura Cerveza.

“Cultura Cerveza was the third beer brewed after we opened,” said Ogden head brewer Jacquie King. “The recipe has been constantly evolving since then.”

Cultura Cerveza is carefully brewed to exemplify the hallmarks of the style. “A Mexican style light lager should have a light malt profile, and subtle hints of corn sweetness both in flavor and aroma,” King said. “The hop profile is most likely noble with very low to no bitterness. It should be light in body, have good carbonation, and a nice dry finish. The key is finding a balance between the light body and malt profile.”

King offers the following insight for brewing the style:

“At Ogden Beer, we treat the style as a German lager with North American ingredients,” she said. “We blend both Continental and North American malt. We’re using all German hops. Water is also such an important ingredient. We add a little gypsum and adjust pH, but other than that we want to let our water set our beer apart.  

“We spund our beers and use a lenticular filter for clarity. Since we stress our yeast by spunding, we try to baby it as much as possible in other ways by slow crashing and doing yeast dumps after capping. Process is so important with lagers.” 

King uses flaked corn for the recipe, “but less of it than you would think. In a light lager, you want it to be in perfect balance with all the other ingredients.” 

Balance is always the goal, agreed Ancona, “and what we called during the panel ‘staple drinkability’—the kind of beer you instinctively want another sip of.” 

Go deeper: Brewers Association Style Guidelines