The two groups behind almost every brand
Two corporate groups account for nearly all mainstream Mexican beer. Grupo Modelo, which is part of Anheuser-Busch InBev, lists Corona Extra, Modelo Especial, Victoria, Negra Modelo, Pacifico, Montejo, Leon, Barrilito and Estrella among its own brands, alongside Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra. HEINEKEN Mexico, which describes itself as the former Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma brewery that joined Heineken in 2010, carries Tecate, Sol, XX Lager, Indio, Bohemia, Superior, Carta Blanca, Noche Buena and Amstel Ultra, and operates seven breweries plus a malt plant across the country.
That is the whole map for practical purposes. If you can name a Mexican beer, it almost certainly sits on one of those two lists.
What that ownership means at the bar
Most Mexico City bars pour one group's portfolio rather than a mixed selection, because supply agreements, fridges, taps, signage and umbrellas usually come as a package from a single brewer. The visible clue is on the exterior: the awning, the wall painting or the neon sign outside a cantina names the group whose beer you will be drinking inside.
The consequence is simple. Asking for a Victoria in a Tecate bar is not a failure of stock control but a structural feature, and there is no point walking three venues down the same street hoping for a different answer. If you want a specific brand, look at the branding on the outside of the building before you go in. If you want range rather than a particular label, a craft taproom or an independent bottle shop is the format that carries beers from outside both portfolios.
How a cantina works today
A cantina is a drinking house rather than a restaurant, historically built around long service hours, a fixed clientele and food that arrives with the drinks rather than from a menu. The defining custom is the botana: small savoury dishes brought out as you order successive rounds, escalating from peanuts and chicharron towards proper plates of stew or seafood the longer you stay. Cantinas were for most of their history male-only spaces, and the signs barring women, uniformed soldiers and dogs were literal. That exclusion has gone, and contemporary Mexico City cantinas, including several of the century-old ones in the Centro Historico, have a mixed clientele across a wide age range.
What has not changed is the rhythm. You take a table rather than stand, order rounds rather than individual drinks, and stay. Service is table service. Cash is still widely used and some older establishments prefer it, so carry some even where cards are accepted.
The legal framework behind the door is the city's commercial establishments law. Under the Ley de Establecimientos Mercantiles para la Ciudad de Mexico, a venue serving alcohol by the glass or in an open container must ask for official photo identification showing the date of birth to confirm the customer is of age, and must display the brands and types of alcoholic drinks it serves where the public can see them. Carry a passport or a photo ID with a birth date if you look under the line.
Pulquerias and what pulque actually is
Pulque is a fermented drink made from aguamiel, the sap that collects in the heart of a mature maguey after the upper leaves are cut away and the core is hollowed out. The Secretaria de Cultura's cultural information system describes that extraction and fermentation process, and records the pulqueria as the traditional venue for drinking it, historically with separate rooms for women and with painted interiors showing maguey fields and bullfighting scenes.
Three things follow for a visitor. Pulque is fermented and not distilled, so it belongs with beer and cider rather than with tequila and mezcal in both strength and character. It is a living product with a short shelf life, which is why it is sold from open barrels by the litre or half-litre rather than bottled, and why the taste differs from one day and one pulqueria to the next. And it is commonly sold both natural and as curados, blended with fruit, nuts or oats, which are sweeter and are where most first-time drinkers start.
The craft scene and where it sits
Mexican craft brewing exists as a real and growing segment but remains a small share of a market dominated by the two large groups, which is why craft beer is concentrated in dedicated taprooms and bottle shops rather than distributed across ordinary bars. In Mexico City you will find it in independent taprooms, in beer-focused shops that sell to take away, and on the menus of newer restaurants, largely in Roma, Condesa, Juarez and Centro.
Expect a different transaction from the cantina. Prices per glass are higher, measures are smaller, staff expect to talk about styles, and the range rotates. That trade-off suits a visitor who wants variety and dislikes lager; it suits nobody who wants a cold familiar bottle and a plate of botanas for a long afternoon.
The rules that catch visitors out
Three legal points change what you can do on a given day in Mexico City, and none of them is obvious from a bar's opening hours. Drinking alcohol in public streets, parks and plazas is prohibited and policed in Mexico City under the city's civic culture rules, so a beer bought in an Oxxo is meant to be drunk on private or licensed premises rather than on the pavement outside; the penalty is set by the city's civic justice system rather than by a fixed national fine, so treat it as something to avoid rather than to price in. The legal drinking age is eighteen and venues are required to verify it with photo identification. And the city government can order alcohol sales suspended entirely on specified dates.
That last mechanism is what Mexicans call ley seca. Under the commercial establishments law, the Secretaria de Gobierno can order the suspension of activities in commercial establishments on determined dates and hours by a general agreement published in advance in the city's official gazette, and licence holders are obliged to comply. In practice this is applied around elections and occasionally around major civic events, it can cover shops as well as bars, and the exact scope and exemptions differ each time.
Working out where to spend an evening
Decide what you actually want before choosing the format, because the three formats do not substitute for each other. A cantina gives you long service, food that arrives with the drinks and a single brewer's beer list. A pulqueria gives you a drink you cannot easily try outside central Mexico and a room that has changed little in a century. A craft taproom gives you range and a conversation about it, at a higher price per glass.
If it is your first evening, start with a cantina in the Centro Historico or Roma, eat what arrives, and treat the beer brand as fixed. Save the pulqueria for an afternoon rather than a late night, since many close early, and confirm opening hours the same day rather than relying on listings.