Details:

• Name: Cerveza Cusqueña
• Origin of name: from the demonym for the people of Cusco
• Brewery: Backus and Johnston (part of the international SABMiller group)
• Website: www.cusquena.com.pe

History:

On October 1, 1908, a group of entrepreneurs led by Ernesto Günther founded the Cervecera Alemana (“German Brewery”) in the city of Cusco. A year later, the newfound brewery was bottling its cerveza premium del Perú (premium Peruvian beer).

Residents of Cusco (called cusqueños) were accustomed to drinking alcoholic beverages, particularly traditional chicha beers made from maize, and it didn't take them long to grow fond of the new Cusqueña beer.

In 1939, the brewery changed its name to Compañía Cervecera del Sur (Cervesur), increased production and expanded its distribution throughout southern Peru.

By 1995, Cusqueña had established itself as one of the most popular beers in Peru. In 2000, the Compañía Cervecera del Sur joined the Backus and Johnston brewery union, making Backus -- the largest brewery in Peru -- the owner of Cerveza Cusqueña. A year later, Backus and Johnston was acquired by Grupo Empresarial Bavaria, which itself became part of the SABMiller group, the world’s second-largest brewer, in 2005 (giving the Cusqueña brand far more scope for expansion both at home and abroad).

Cusqueña Products:

Cerveza Cusqueña comes in four main varieties:

• Cusqueña Regular -- the standard and most popular Cusqueña beer, made with “100% pure barley and SAAZ hops."

• Cusqueña Red Lager -- a beer produced “for the most demanding palates, with an accentuated taste of malt and hops, giving it a reddish golden color.”

• Cusqueña De Trigo -- the Cusqueña wheat beer, “It has a golden color and a natural opacity produced by a light filtering process that gives a more consistent body and fine aroma.”

• Cusqueña Malta -- Cusqueña’s cerveza negra, or black beer, made from malted barley. An acquired taste...

A Brief Review of Cusqueña Regular:

If I were a true beer aficionado rather than a simple beer drinker, I’d probably describe the popular Cusqueña Regular in words such as these: “The head dissipates quickly like the wake of an Amazonian river dolphin, leaving a waft of malt on the nose. Adjunct flavors linger in a delicate cloud of hops, belying the slightly watery body of the gold-flecked beer.”

I am, however, just a simple beer drinker. Given the choice, I normally choose Pilsen Callao (also owned by Backus and Johnston) ahead of Cusqueña, despite the latter's fuller flavor. When served icy cold, there’s little to choose between the two, but Pilsen retains its flavor better than Cusqueña when the two beers start to warm up (I live in the jungle, so this is an important consideration).

Apart from that little detail, I’m happy to drink either Cusqueña or Pilsen Callao. When compared to the rest of Peru’s mass-market beers, these two sit well above their domestic rivals.