Negra Modelo Is First Brewed

On October 25, 1925, Cervecería Modelo opened in Tacuba, Mexico, and served Negra as its first Modelo beer. Modelo’s own history describes Negra, later known as Negra Modelo and now Modelo Negra, as the first beer served at the brewery’s grand opening, while the brand’s product history describes Modelo Negra as first brewed in Tacuba in 1925. Negra Modelo belongs in the Vienna Lager storyline because it became one of the best-known Mexican dark amber lagers connected with the style’s survival outside Central Europe. The beer is not always classified consistently: Modelo currently describes it as a Munich Dunkel-style lager, while beer-style sources and many beer writers have often treated it as Vienna-style or Vienna Lager-adjacent. For the timeline, it is therefore best understood as a Mexican dark lager that helped preserve and popularize the broader Vienna-style amber lager tradition.