Mexican lagers have come to dominate the American beer market, accounting for about 80% of the total volume of beer imported into the U.S. in 2025. In 2023, one brand — Modelo Especial —even overtook domestically produced Bud Light, ending its 22-year reign as the country’s top-selling beer. While many European producers who pioneered the lager category have struggled recently to maintain a comparable foothold in the States, Mexican producers have become the standard bearers for the style to countless people.

Before Spanish colonization, Indigenous peoples throughout what is now Mexico produced a variety of fermented beverages. Modern Mexican beer as we know it, however, is tied to European settlement. Though European-style brewing took place as far back as the 16th century, Mexico’s beer industry didn’t truly take off until the late 19th century during Porfirian-era expansion. Despite the political upheaval that followed, European beer — particularly Vienna-style amber lagers — grew popular across a range of social classes.