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The history of Corona Extra beer goes back to March 8, 1922, when a group of Spanish immigrants began building Cervecería Modelo S.A. in Mexico City.
When the brewery was completed in 1925, Grupo Modelo was also born, led by Braulio Iriarte as president and by Francisco Cilveti, whose first goals were to establish the brewery in Mexico City and its surroundings.
The Spanish community, organized by towns and regions of origin, had earned a place in Mexico’s social and economic life, and Cervecería Modelo was part of that world of trade associations and family ties that had been developing since the last third of the 19th century.
The Birth of Corona Beer
In 1926, the first brand produced at the new brewery was Modelo beer. A month later, Corona was born.
A widespread legend holds that Corona’s name and logo were inspired by the crown on top of the parish church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Puerto Vallarta. The timeline disproves it, because that crown was built in 1965, almost four decades after the brand was born.
In its early years, Modelo brewed its beer with imported malts and hops. Today’s Corona is made with malted barley, rice or corn, hops and yeast, and includes ascorbic acid as an antioxidant and propylene glycol alginate as a foam stabilizer.
Who Was Pablo Diez Fernández?
Around the same time, a key figure in the history of Grupo Modelo, Pablo Diez Fernández, born in León, Spain, served as first board member of Cervecería Modelo. His name already appeared in the company’s account books from 1922.
Pablo Diez Fernández started out in modest positions. He was an accounting assistant and set up his first business partnership with the owner of the bakery “La Primavera”, which he later owned.
In 1926 the brewery began producing Corona in quarter-size bottles. According to the story usually told, the company considered replacing the clear bottle with a brown one that would better protect its aromas and flavors from light. The public rejected the change, and the clear bottle remained a hallmark of the brand.
In 1930, Pablo Diez Fernández became general director of Cervecería Modelo and carried out the expansions inaugurated in March 1931, which made it the most modern and highest-capacity brewery in Mexico.
Between 1931 and 1933 the brewing industry suffered from the economic recession and new tax policies, and Cervecería Modelo went through changes in its leadership. When Braulio Iriarte died in 1932, his heirs, including his eldest son Fernando, sold their stake to Pablo Diez and Martín Oyamburu, a businessman from the dairy sector.
Avoiding the Bankruptcy of Cervecería Modelo
It was then that Pablo Diez Fernández showed the negotiating and management skills that allowed Cervecería Modelo to avoid looming bankruptcy.
Diez and Oyamburu shared the management and turned Corona Extra, ten years after its launch, into the best-selling beer in Mexico.
A couple of years later, by mutual agreement, they set a deadline to prove before a notary that they had the resources to buy out the other’s shares. The first to do so would become sole owner. Oyamburu had more financial power, so Pablo Diez moved quickly and took out a loan from Banco Nacional de México. With it he formalized the purchase offer and became majority shareholder of Cervecería Modelo in 1936, leading the business until his death 36 years later.
Corona Extra Beer
By 1937, Grupo Modelo’s strategy for Corona was to position its quality, presenting it as a refined and sociable brand against its main rival, pulque, a fermented drink of pre-Hispanic origin made from the maguey plant.
In 1940 Corona began printing its name directly on the glass of the bottle instead of using paper labels, something unusual in the market at the time. With the new bottle, the brand was relaunched as Corona Extra.
Corona Beer Marketing Strategies
In terms of image, nothing paid off more for Cervecería Modelo and Corona Extra than advertising, first on radio and then on television, tied to soccer, baseball, boxing and lucha libre.
That strategy began in the 1930s, and one of its biggest successes was the radio soap opera “¡Ahí viene Martín Corona!”, starring Mexican singer and actor Pedro Infante.
Its success took the story to the stage and, in 1951, to the cinema, again with Pedro Infante and now with Sara Montiel in the leading roles.
In 1953 and 1954, Modelo’s advertisers launched a campaign that brought together the best cartoonists of the time to draw artists, journalists, athletes, writers, popular characters and even themselves, saying “Un momentito… estoy tomando mi Corona” (Just a moment… I’m drinking my Corona).
In 1955 the brand began directly sponsoring sports teams, which boosted Corona’s distribution and linked it to the country’s biggest events.
In the 1960s the family-size Corona came onto the market, promoted as “the beer of your home”, and shortly afterwards draft Corona was born, thanks to the brewery’s new technology.
International Expansion
Between the 1970s and 1980s, the brand began its international expansion in the United States, focusing on the states with the most Mexican immigration, such as Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
To reach the rest of the country, the brand had to settle a long legal dispute, because in Puerto Rico there was a brewery with the same name. The dispute over the use of the Corona name in the United States was resolved in Grupo Modelo’s favor in the late 1970s.
From 1980 onward, Corona Extra used its momentum in the U.S. market to reach South America and Europe. Ironically, in Spain, the home country of its founders, things got complicated again. The Catalan winery Torres had registered the Coronas brand for one of its wines in 1907, so the beer had to be sold as Coronita Extra for decades. The conflict was resolved through an agreement with Torres, and since June 2016 the beer has been sold in Spain as Corona.
In the mid-1980s Corona Extra’s sales in the United States grew so much that a black market for the product at speculative prices emerged in cities such as New York and Denver.
Growth and Consolidation
In 1989, Corona entered the U.S. light beer market with the launch of Corona Light.
In the 1990s, Grupo Modelo’s production grew by more than 75%, from 19.62 million hectoliters at the start of the decade to 34.46 million at the end. In 1997 Corona Extra overtook Heineken as the best-selling imported beer in the United States.
In 2002 Grupo Modelo accounted for 62.7% of Mexican beer industry sales, and 81 out of every 100 Mexican beers exported that year came from its plants.
Anheuser-Busch bought a minority stake in Grupo Modelo in 1993 and gradually increased it to 50%. In June 2013, AB InBev completed the full acquisition of the company for 20.1 billion dollars. As a condition of the deal, the perpetual rights to Corona and the Modelo brands in the United States went to Constellation Brands (AB InBev, Form 20-F, 2013).
The Story of the Lime Wedge
There is no documentation confirming the origin of the custom of putting a lime wedge in the neck of the bottle, and several theories circulate.
The most widespread theory says that the custom of drinking Corona with a lime wedge began at Hussong’s Cantina in Ensenada, Baja California, when one bartender bet another that he could start a new trend.
Another theory holds that the old metal caps left rust on the neck of the bottle and that the lime was used to clean it.
A final version places the origin on the coasts of northern Mexico, where surfers used to add lime to their beers. With Corona it was easier to drop a wedge into the bottle than to squeeze the juice, and American surfers traveling to Mexico supposedly took the habit back home.
Frequently Asked Questions About Corona Beer (FAQ)
1. Where is Corona beer from?
Corona Extra beer comes from Mexico. It was first produced in 1926 at Cervecería Modelo, founded on March 8, 1922, in Mexico City by a group of Spanish immigrants led by Braulio Iriarte. Since 2013 the brand has belonged to AB InBev, except in the United States, where its rights are owned by Constellation Brands.
2. What year was Corona beer born?
The Corona brand was born in 1926, a year after Cervecería Modelo finished its construction. Its first format was the quarter-size bottle. In 1940 it was relaunched as Corona Extra, when it began printing its name directly on the glass instead of using paper labels.
3. Why was it called Coronita instead of Corona in Spain?
Because the Catalan winery Torres had registered the Coronas brand for one of its wines in 1907. The beer was sold in Spain as Coronita Extra for decades, until an agreement with Torres allowed it to be sold as Corona from June 2016.
4. Why do people put lime in Corona beer?
There is no official documentation of its origin. The most widespread version places the custom at Hussong’s Cantina in Ensenada, Baja California, where a bartender bet he could start a new trend. Other theories say the lime was used to clean rust from the old metal caps or that the habit began among surfers in northern Mexico and later reached the United States.
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