Corona Extra Beer

Origin: Mexico · Brewer: Grupo Modelo (AB InBev) / Constellation Brands · ABV 4.5%

Corona Extra is the most successful Mexican beer of all time, the most-exported beer in the world, and one of the very few labels that has managed to make a clear glass bottle and a lime wedge into a global brand asset. It is consistently in the planet's top five beer brands by volume, and is now the most valuable beer brand on Earth by brand-equity surveys.

Brewed in Mexico since 1925

Corona was first brewed in 1925 at Cerveceria Modelo in Mexico City, founded that same year by Spanish immigrants Pablo Diez Fernandez and Braulio Iriarte. Within a decade Corona had become the best-selling beer in Mexico, a position the brand still holds. The clear flint-glass bottle - originally chosen partly because it was cheaper to source - has been part of the design from the start.

An unusual ownership split

Corona's commercial structure is a quirk of US antitrust history. Outside the United States, Corona Extra and the rest of the Modelo portfolio (Modelo Especial, Pacifico, Negra Modelo) belong to AB InBev, which bought Grupo Modelo in 2013. Inside the US, however, regulators forced AB InBev to sell the Modelo brands' US business to Constellation Brands as a condition of the deal. So when you drink Corona in Houston the brewer is Constellation; when you drink it in Hamburg the brewer is AB InBev. The recipe and the brewery (Cerveceria Modelo's plants in Mexico) are the same in both cases.

What you are drinking

Corona Extra is a 4.5 percent ABV pale lager brewed with malted barley, hops, water, yeast and corn as an adjunct (this is what gives it the light body and faint sweetness on the finish). It is intentionally low in bitterness - around 18 IBU - so the beer is mild enough to serve very cold and easy to drink in volume in hot weather. The lime wedge is not part of the original Mexican serving tradition; it is a 1980s marketing innovation that has stuck globally.

Modelo Especial - the family that overtook Bud Light

Corona is not the only powerhouse in the Modelo family. Modelo Especial, a slightly fuller-bodied pilsner-style lager, became the best-selling beer in the United States in 2023, taking the #1 spot from Bud Light. Combined, the Modelo brands now drive a significant share of every dollar Constellation makes.

Sources: Constellation Brands and AB InBev annual reports; US Department of Justice 2013 antitrust documents on the AB InBev / Modelo settlement; Brand Finance and Kantar global brand value rankings.