Famosa (Gallo)
Cervecería Centro Americana, S.A.

Look: It pours golden and clear with a white head. Head retention is low.

Smell: It has corn aromas with some grass. There are hints of sweetness in the background.

Taste: There are corn flavors and it is quite syrupy. There are some grassy hops in the background.

Feel: It has a medium light body and it finishes sweet.

Overall, the flavors are standard for pale lagers but the syrup notes are quite different.

From a 12 oz can with a BB date of Mar 2024. They're optimistic since I'm sampling it May 25, 2023.

Golden-yellow appearance with great clarity and a modest white head. Busy carbonation.

Typical mass produced aroma of cooked grain, bread, corn syrup and a whiff of floral or grassy hops.

Light to medium mouthfeel. Better than some of its ilk.

Sweet, grainy and bready taste. Nothing that really stands out. Crisp finish. Easy to pound it down.

 

 

 

Taking a trip to Guatemala, we have Famosa lager. It pours a straw gold with a quickly disappearing white head. It smells of malt and the taste follows suit. The body is pleasant and leaves you ready for another sip. In a blind taste test, I'd have thought this was German. I would absolutely drink this again.

 

 

Cervecería Centro Americana, S.A. Famosa American Adjunct Lager, 5% ABV. Pours light golden with a 3-finger white head that left some lacing. Nose is malty and sweet. Taste is malty, slightly sweet, slightly bitter, and faintly tart. The first sip seemed over-carbonated and alka-seltzer like, but after it sat a few minutes it seems fine. Overall very good.

 

40oz'er - oops, I mean 33.8oz'er

Clear pale yellow, lacing on the glass. Smells like sweet corn, dough, just slightly sour. Drinks surprisingly clean, just a very faint aftertaste of garbage juice and booze, mildly bitter. I plan on buying this one again

Its not Gallo beer being rated here it is Famosa beer being rated. It's like an American version of Sofia Vergara. It doesn't compare.

 

 

It's pretty average. Very light in color with minimal head. Slightly skunky, bready, non- offensive flavor. Quickly dissipating head, almost non- existent. Easily poundable and inexpensive, on sale, at 10 bucks a 12 pack at Fresco here in Central Florida. Overall, average AF to say the least, though drinkable and not undesirable. For a cheap summertime brew, not bad. Nice and light, with a SLIGHT bit of flavor and hugely refreshing. Although, I prefer Icehouse or Budweiser to this stuff, to be honest. Definitely not my weekend truck washing/ grass cutting beer, for sure, but I would take it over Natty Ice any day. Great brew to try out if you haven't already, but won't be rushing back for more. It's ok if ya get it on sale. Worth a shot.

Shared bottle at local tasting, as Famosa. Pale golden colour, low white head. Artificial and "chemical" sweetish / sourish aroma. Sourish flavour, otherwise bland as hell, dust, no bitterness

Funny that this is rated as awful. For what this is and the travel it goes through as well and the unique quality it has over other beers from its region make me question if reviewers are simply saying it's bad because it's not an imp stout or ipa.

It looks like every other adjunct lager yes. But the smells are spicy and herbal underlying beneath a cracker base. The flavor follows the nose and is pretty unique given the region and style it comes from as previously stated. The feel is light enough and inoffensive.

If you are comparing this beer to American craft beers then you're doing it wrong. If all you drink is a Dipa then why even bother with this. From a point of view of this that's why I believe the rating is low. If you like clean lagers then this is a great beer.

 

 

 

Taste like a cheap cheap beer

Poured from a bottle into a pint glass
Appearance – The beer pours a clear light straw color with a one finger head of white foam. The head fades rather fast leaving a tiny bit of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma of the brew is heaviest of a doughty and caramel smell. There is an odd, salty almost meaty like aroma to the brew as well. At the same time there is a touch of bread and some light must.
Taste – The taste begins with a crisp cracker and caramel malt flavor mixed with a touch of graininess and some light hay. As the taste advances, the graininess increases and is joined by some very light lime like tastes. Toward the very end the sweetness increases a touch and with a bit of herbal flavor, one is left with a crisp, slightly sweeter, lager taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is thin and crisp with a carbonation level that is average to slightly higher. For the style and the abv. the feel is great and makes for a nice crisp sipper.
Overall – A nice crisp “Mexican” actually Guatamalan style lager. Very easy drinking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the national pride of Guatemala, it is a good regular beer, but once you check other beers out it no longer stands.

 

Doesn’t blow you away in any category, but very few pilsners do. It’s super light in body & flavor, probably a good substitute for water when it’s hotter than hell in Guatemala. Tastes a little sweet when poured into a glass and is most refreshing straight out of the can.

 

 

There is no date on the bottle. The pour is straw colored. The taste is grains, malt, with a touch of hops. I'm not getting any corn syrup in this beer, I would drink this again. I highly recommend this beer if you can get a hold of it, it's easy drinking & sessionable. Oh well, at least now I can say that I've had a beer from Guatemala & it was good. Cheers! B-

Well, first up: it’s better than jail hooch. But nah, it actually ain’t that bad. It definitly is one of the most clear beers I have ever seen - I mean, this thing is more transparent than Trump’s brainwaves. Taste is here and there. Bad, but not all that bad (like Raul’s first sexual experience). I mean, I’ll drink it and high five my friends after - but greener pastures in the future are in-store.

Yep!

(1000 ml bottle - though it says 1 qt 1.8 oz on the label... no bottle coding... purchased cold... poured into a liter Maßkrug)

L: crystal-clear, pale yellow-gold liquid; stupid amount of frothy, rocky white foam, as if this is over-carbonated or expired; loose honeycomb of bubbles on the sides, but beautifully craggy, tight cottony head in the middle... hmm, looks dreamy; Himalayan lace

S: almost smells skunked(?!), but also smells like a junk, dusty German pils (a la Bitburger?)... it gets more pleasant as it goes, almost like honey atop cream of wheat... overall intensity is mellow yet has relative depth

T: ultra-dry, cereal meal malt base; the finish does a relative 180, shifting to a restrained herbal-grassy bitter bite, as well as vague nutty-nougat malt; the combo of the grain and green lend a peculiar earthy color, perhaps like woolen upholstery??... it stays rather dry throughout, but the malt does tease with a faint honey sweetness... as it goes, it does improve (it's gotta breathe); the malt and perfumy phenolic aftertaste is rather Euro pale

F: slow flow and finish, though cut dry at the bottom and back... the warmth lingering may in part be the bitterness and/or smoky phenols

O: perhaps reminds me of Tsingtao maybe?; at any rate, definitely more akin to a Euro pale than AAL; grew on me along the way... had to get this bottle for its novelty gargantuan size - the empty bottle itself feels almost as heavy as a six-pack (of full cans)... I could see grabbing this again, especially in the liter bottle; funny conversation piece (1466)

 

Decanted from a 12 oz (355 ml) bottle into a custom taster pint glass; no production stamp.
A: Pours a crystal clear, dark straw color with less than one finger head formation, spotty retention, but partial rings lacing.
S: Aromas of corn, caramel, and grasses predominate the nose.
T: Semidry. Palate follows the nose, but slightly grainy. Light bitterness contributes a very clean finish.
M: Light bodied with low effervescence.
O: A nicely constructed AAL. Drinkable and very enjoyable.

12 fl oz cans run $7.49 USD per sixer at some grocers in Austin, TX.


"Lager beer." "Contains sulfites."

Pours a dull depleted yellow body. Clear/obviously filtered, but lifeless.

Head is thin and a bit weaky, but pleasantly fluffy.

AROMA: Mineral water, faint 6-row, obvious maize, a hint of starchy grassy hop character. Marries its adjunct to the rest of its profile decently, but the corn would be obvious even in a blind tasting. Suggests a skullable neutral lager with an inoffensive taste.

TASTE: Pleasant 6-row and corn sweetness is the name of the game in this simple lager, but a bit of fringe grassiness from limited hopping does surface as well.

TEXTURE: Smooth, wet, clean, refreshing, and approachable. Light-bodied. To give it credit, it's not a watery or syrupy brew like so many budget lagers. A little soft. Its texture is probably the best executed aspect of it.

OVERALL: A step up from most adjunct lagers and Euro pale lagers out there, with a refreshing taste and enough flavour to make it worth pairing spicy food with. Would make a nice table beer not to think too much about, but it's not worth seeking out. Within the style, it's generally well-executed. I could pound a sixer in a sitting.

B- / WORTHY