The Short Version
Corona Extra is brewed in Mexico by Grupo Modelo, which means "Model Group." It started in 1925 in Veracruz, a port city on the Gulf of Mexico. The water there is soft, which is part of why the beer tastes the way it does. Soft water means less mineral interference with the malt and hop flavors, and it lets the cereal character come through cleaner. That's also why they added a bit of corn to the recipe. Corn sugar isn't something you'd expect in a pilsner-style lager, but it's standard for Mexican lagers. It lightens the body and bumps up the alcohol without adding much sweetness. It was bought by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2013 for about $20 billion. So yes, it's technically owned by a Belgian-Brazilian-Dutch corporation now, but the brewery stays in Veracruz and the recipe hasn't changed since the buyout. Production numbers are around 45 million barrels annually, making it one of the most exported beers in the world.
Where Does Corona Beer Come From
The original brewery is Cervecería Modelo in Veracruz. There's also a larger facility in Playa del Carmen that handles a lot of the export volume. The two plants together produce roughly 110 million cases per year for the global market. Most of it goes to the United States, which buys about 60 percent of total production. The rest splits between Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. The beer itself is a Pale Mexican Lager, which is a category basically invented by Mexican brewers because American Pilsners and Czech Lagers don't behave the same way under the local water conditions and ingredients. The hop profile uses mainly Saaz and German noble varieties, but the mash schedule leans toward a single-infusion rest at around 152°F (67°C). That's on the higher end for a lager, which produces a slightly drier finish than you'd get from a standard German pilsner mash. I spent a few years working with import distributors who handled Corona alongside other Mexican beers, and one thing nobody tells you about the supply chain is how much the lime wedge has become a marketing artifact rather than a traditional practice. It wasn't part of the original serving culture in Mexico. The lime idea took off in the US in the 1990s, mostly through advertising campaigns. In Mexico, people drink it plain, straight from the bottle. I saw this cause genuine confusion when a supplier tried to train bartenders in Guadalajara on the lime technique, and the bar owners just stared at him.
Another practical detail that matters if you're comparing it to other lagers: Corona is filtered but not pasteurized in the traditional sense. It goes through flash pasteurization at around 140°F for about 30 seconds. That's shorter than the typical 15–20 minute pasteurization cycle for many domestic US lagers. The result is a beer that tastes fresher but has a noticeably shorter shelf life once opened. I had a case where a restaurant kept unopened Corona on the back shelf for three weeks past the printed date and the flavor degradation was immediately noticeable. It doesn't spoil, but it turns slightly cardboard-y and flat because the brief pasteurization doesn't kill every single microbe, and trace enzymatic activity continues slowly over time. If you're looking for something to replicate the taste at home, it's essentially a lightly hopped pale lager with about 4.5 percent ABV and 10–12 IBU. The corn adjunct gives it that crisp, almost dry mouthfeel. You won't find it in any traditional German or Czech brewing style guide because it doesn't fit neatly into either. It's its own category, and that's by design.
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