The history of the brewing industry in Mexico

It all began in 1542 when Alfonso Herrara, one of Hernán Cortés' emissaries, asked Emperor Carlos V for permission to open a brewery to produce beer; it was to be located at the foot of the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes at Hacienda El Portal, in what is now Amecameca, State of Mexico.

This first Mexican brewery remained between four and five years since it did not have the conditions to survive, beer was very expensive and production was minimal. Since domestic production was very expensive, during this period 619 barrels and a little more than 71 thousand bottles of beer were imported into our country; these imports were not because the consumption of this beverage was popular in Mexico, but so that the rich could drink it.

Over the years, several breweries were established in the country, but they did not prosper because they had to import hops and barley; this led Mexico to the need to cultivate barley. It was not until the end of the 18th century that breweries began to become more popular in Mexico, in the mid-19th century the national production of this alcoholic beverage was industrialized and in the 20th century the great Mexican breweries began to emerge.

In the mid-twentieth century, the Mexican brewing industry was able to consolidate both nationally and internationally, after having established itself with almost thirty breweries around the country. These breweries eventually became part of the two largest brewing groups in Mexico, which registered the small breweries with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property as a trademark of Grupo Modelo or Cervecería Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma.

In the mid-twentieth century, the Mexican brewing industry was able to consolidate both nationally and internationally, after having established itself with almost thirty breweries around the country. These breweries eventually became part of the two largest brewing groups in Mexico, which registered the small breweries with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property as a trademark of Grupo Modelo or Cervecería Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma.

Historical sources date back to 1542 as the year in which King Charles V of Spain authorized Alfonso de Herrero to establish the first brewery. It was brewed by expert brewers brought from Europe using malted grains, yeast for fermentation, hops, and water. But its low popularity, together with the high cost of its production, ended up relegating it as a beverage only for the upper classes.

In the public sector, a regulatory framework was created for its free production in various regions of the country. It is possible to learn about this normative dimension through the banns that can be found in the Gobernación collection (without section) in the Archivo General de la Nación (AGN). By then, beer continued to be brewed mainly by inhabitants of European origin, who consolidated the first renowned breweries during the time of the Second Empire.

In the last years of the 19th century, during the Porfirian era, industrial production in Mexico began to take shape more formally. This was possible thanks to the development of the railroads, which allowed a greater consolidation of the brewing companies that had been established in the country as joint-stock companies. Important production plants were built, such as the Cuauhtémoc breweries in Monterrey, Moctezuma in Veracruz and the Compañía Cervecera de Toluca y México.

By the beginning of the 20th century, there were approximately 36 beer producers in Mexico. In the 1920s, the prohibition on the sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States helped to open more breweries on the country's northern border, and the existing ones began to expand towards the border itself and became tourist destinations that Americans frequented to drink beer.

This competition immediately caused the industry to become concentrated in just a few corporations, which had the capital to absorb the smaller breweries. Thus it was that the Cuauhtémoc brewery acquired the Tecate brewery and later joined forces with the Moctezuma brewery. The Modelo brewery, founded in 1925, merged with the Toluca y México brewery.

By the middle of the 20th century, these two brewing consortiums managed to buy out the smaller companies and forced those that resisted a purchase to close, taking over brands that already existed such as Carta Blanca, Indio, Noche Buena, Superior, among others, as well as the novel presentations that emerged such as beer in cans or the famous "caguama", products that were quickly distributed both in Mexico and abroad.

Upon acquiring these brands, the Modelo and Cervecería Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma groups were obliged to submit once again to product registration before the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property. This procedure consisted of presenting the legal documentation of the acquisition of the trademark with the registration of the trademark so that the same institute would search the name and logos of the trademark in question in order not to interfere with another already registered trademark. If the company passed this filter, it was granted product certification by the Secretariat of Industry and Commerce. Records of processes such as these can be observed in the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, which is kept in the AGN, and allow us to have a perspective of the historical confirmation of the beer industry in Mexico.

Today, in the 21st century, we find ourselves in a situation that has transformed the brewing industry in Mexico. It has once again become entirely managed by foreign companies, with the purchase of the two largest and most important brewing groups in the country. This event was also accompanied by the return of new small breweries that recovered the artisanal way of production and seek to regain prominence in the national and international market.