Drinking around the World Cup: national beers to drink while watching the football

Brahma is a staple of Brazilian sports culture. Brewed since 1888, it is one of the country's oldest and most iconic lagers, a beer woven into the rhythm of the beach, the botequim and the endless Brazilian summer. It leans on heritage and a fuller pour, the choice of those who like a little more body in their golden lager.

Taste Profile: Bright gold and crisp, a touch rounder than its rivals; clean grainy-malt sweetness, measured hop bitterness, and a brisk finish built for the heat.

No beer says holiday quite like a Corona with a lime. Corona is Mexico in a clear glass bottle. Brewed since 1925 and now the most recognised Mexican beer in the world, its signature lime wedge pressed into the neck simply can't be beat.

Taste Profile: Pale gold and feather-light, clean and crisp; a soft grainy sweetness, the faintest trace of hops, and a brisk finish that asks to be drunk cold.

Order a beer almost anywhere in Madrid, and this is what lands in front of you. Made proudly in the capital since 1890 and crowned with its five-star emblem in 1969, the Cinco Estrellas is the country's best-selling lager and the default pour behind every caña. It is less a brand than a national habit.

Taste Profile: Bright gold and gently full-bodied, a touch richer than its lighter rivals; soft toasted-malt sweetness, a measured hop bitterness, and a clean, satisfying finish.

A beer that has been keeping its date since the seventeenth century. The number stamped across every bottle marks the year of its founding in Strasbourg, deep in the brewing country of Alsace. Kronenbourg carries its French heritage with ease, the go-to grab across the nation.

Taste Profile: Clear pale gold, light and elegantly balanced; a delicate floral hop aroma, gentle bready-malt sweetness, and a crisp, faintly bitter finish best drunk well-chilled.

See also: The 17 best French restaurants in Hong Kong, according to the Tatler Dining Guide

In Portugal, football and Super Bock pour from the same tap. The country's best-selling beer since 1927, born near Porto and fiercely proud of its northern roots. Not only is it the everyday pint, it is also the official beer of Liga Portugal.

Taste Profile: Bright golden and easy-going, smooth and softly malty; a restrained hop bitterness and a clean, refreshing finish.

No beer is more woven into English football than this one. If England's football runs on anything, it runs on lager, and few brands are bound up with the game like Carling. The UK's best-selling lager for decades, it was the first-ever title sponsor of the Premier League and lent its name to the old Carling Cup, and it pours today as the official beer of the FA Cup.

Taste Profile: Straw-gold and light-bodied, clean and gently grainy; a soft malt sweetness, the faintest brush of hops, and a crisp, cold, easy-drinking finish.

From a single Amsterdam brewery to the whole world's fridge. Not many beers are as instantly recognised across the world as Heineken, yet it remains unmistakably Dutch. Founded in the late nineteenth century, it grew into the green-bottled, red-starred ambassador of the Netherlands.

Taste Profile: Pale gold and crystal-clear, light and clean; a faint fruity note from its signature "A-yeast," a measured hop bitterness, and a crisp finish best enjoyed ice-cold.

Belgium may be revered for its monastery ales and wild lambics, but the beer Belgians reach for most is something far simpler: Jupiler, a clean golden pilsner brewed in the Walloon village of Jupille-sur-Meuse since 1966. Its place in the nation's sport is undeniable, lending its very name to the country's top football league.

Taste Profile: Bright pale gold, light and brisk; a soft grainy malt base, a clean hop bitterness, and a dry, refreshing finish made for easy drinking.

Brewed in the wooded Siegerland hills of western Germany since 1803, Krombacher is the country's best-selling beer, a crisp pilsner built on the rock spring water that the brewery has made both its signature and its calling card. In a nation of fierce regional loyalties and countless local breweries, it is the rare name that unites the whole, as much a fixture of the corner Kneipe as the supermarket aisle and the living-room sofa on a match day.

Taste Profile: Pale straw-gold beneath a thick white head, clean and dry; a delicate floral hop aroma, a crisp bitterness, and the brisk, quenching finish that defines the German pils.

America's new favourite, and the beer of this very tournament. Launched by Anheuser-Busch in 2002 and built around a low-carb, low-calorie promise, it rose to become the best-selling beer in the United States by volume. As one of the official sponsors of the World Cup, it is the beer woven into the tournament itself.

Taste Profile: Pale, light-bodied and exceptionally clean; a whisper of grainy sweetness, barely-there bitterness, and a crisp, dry finish engineered above all for refreshment.

A lager so patriotic it once gave the country a rallying cry. Few beers carry a national identity quite so openly as Molson Canadian, founded in 1786, among the oldest in North America. The lager has worn the country's name since 1959 and its patriotism on its sleeve ever since, a statement of cultural pride.

Taste Profile: Clear pale gold, clean and easy-drinking; a light grainy-malt sweetness, a gentle hop note, and a crisp, cold, unfussy finish made for a hockey night or a lakeside afternoon.

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