What Is a Dressed Beer: Everything To Know About This Mexican Trend

If you find yourself asking “What is a dressed beer?” then you’re not alone, and this article will tell you everything you need to know about dressing beers and beer salt.

Did you know it is a common practice in Texas to order a dressed beer?

This simply means that your beer glass will be rimmed with lime juice and salt.

This is what dressing beer means, so let’s understand where this trend came from and how you can dress a beer.

What Is a Dressed Beer?

A Mexican dressed beer is simply a beer glass that is rimmed with lime juice and salt. The trend of dressing beers evolved in Latin America, with the idea of bringing a refreshing twist to drinking beers. It is an age-old tradition to add lime and salt to your beer in Mexico.

Everything About Dressed Beers

When you order a dressed beer, be prepared to find your beer presented with the following: freshly squeezed lime in the beer, some lime rubbed on the rim of the glass, and salt dressed on the edge of the rim. This is typically what a Mexican dressed beer is. The brewers believe that adding salt brings out hidden and unique flavors of the beer.

– How To Make a Dressed Beer

To make your own dressed beer, you will need a beer, some salt (preferably beer salt), a beer glass and some lime. Whether it is a can or a bottled beer, it is still best to have a glass to pour the beer into, as a dressed beer is best enjoyed in a glass.

Some traditional Mexican recipes involve adding a hot sauce into the beer too, but that makes for a Michelada. However, the choice is solely yours. Let’s get that beer dressed.

1. Always clean the rim of the glass, bottle or can first. There is nothing more awful than a bitter or bad first sip.
2. Cut the lime in half and run a thick layer of lime juice over the rim of the glass.
3. Put some salt on a plate and dip the glass rim into the plate. This way, you will have equal amounts of salt throughout the rim.
4. In case you want to add some hot sauce too, this is the right moment for it. Swirl the glass around so the sauce can cover parts of the glass walls.
5. Finally, pour your choice of beer into the glass and your dressed beer is now ready to drink.

– How To Dress a Canned Beer

If a canned beer is what you wish to dress, just run a lime on the underlip, or the edge of the can with the opening, and add some salt there.

However, even a dressed beer bottle isn’t easy to manage. The right way to go about this is to pour the canned beer into a glass that is dressed. It is much easier and much less messy this way.

– How To Dress a Beer With Chamoy

Dressing beers with hot sauce is an age-old tradition in Mexico. Chamoy is a hot sauce made with dry chilies, lime and salt. Adding this to a light beer is what makes for a classic Michelada cocktail.

To dress a beer with this sauce, wet the rim of a beer glass with lime juice or Tajin. Then, you must coat the inside of the glass with Chamoy. Twirl the glass so the sauce spreads around evenly, then add clamato, lime juice, Mexican hot sauce, salt and pepper to the glass and mix.

Finally, add the desired amount of ice and pour your choice of beer into it. If you simply want to dress the beer with Chamoy, you can add beer right after coating the glass walls with the flavorful sauce.

– The Best Beers for Dressing

There are a wide variety of beers in the world, but when it comes to dressing beer, it is best to stick to lighter beers.

Beers that do not have strong aromas or are harsh on the palette, highly bitter or extremely sour or fruity, won’t do well when dressed up.

It is important to use beers that are low on hoppiness and malt character. Beers like a simple Pale Ale or a light IPA would do very well being dressed up.

On the other hand, there are some fruity beers out there that would brighten up by adding salt. Radlers and Grapefruit Sours are excellent beers to dress up. Stouts, Porters and Bocks are an absolute no when it comes to adding salt, as it would completely put off the flavors and flatten your beer.

Coors Light, Budweiser Light, Miller Light, and Pale Ale craft beers are all good beers for this activity.

• Best Dressed Beer in Texas

Tecate Light is one of the best and the lightest beers to be dressed. A dressed Tecate has an ABV of 3.9 percent.

Some other light beer options for this purpose are Corona Extra Mexican Lager Beer, Modelo Especial and Dos Equis Lager. All of these beers are extremely light and airy and a perfect base for a dressed beer.

Conclusion

Dressing beer simply means adding salt and lime to the rim of the beer glass. Granulated salt or beer salt is normally used across Latin America to improve the taste of the beer, while lime and lemon alongside salt are used to cut down the bitterness and harshness of the beer.

• A Mexican dressed beer is simply a beer glass that is rimmed with lime juice and salt.
• Always make sure you are using a clean glass, can, or beer bottle for dressing. It will help avoid any foul flavors on the first sip.
• Avoid strong beers like Stouts, Porters or Sours. This doesn’t go well with dressing.
• Always use light Ales or Lagers, especially Light Mexican Lagers to dress beer. These have mild flavors and adding salt and lime will only brighten their taste up.

Now that you know how to dress beers, are you willing to try one? Do you think you can take on this fun Mexican tradition?