This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.

Made with Mexican beer, homemade Clamato Juice, hot sauce, and fresh lime juice, this Easy Michelada Recipe is a light, refreshing, and delicious way to beat the summer heat.

Beet being poured into glass filled with homemade clamato juice.

The Michelada

As a child, I never quite understood my mother’s love and devotion to spicy tomato juice beverages. That is, until now.

Now, I literally can’t get enough (aka hangover helpers).

If you’re a fan of the Bloody Mary, then I’ll wager that you’ll also love this savory, spicy, and ultimately incredibly refreshing Michelada recipe. Perfect for brunch or as a light summer cocktail, there’s no wrong time to enjoy the michelada.

What is a Michelada?

The Michelada is a Mexican cerveza preparada- a Mexican cocktail made with a mixture of beer, lime juice, spices, assorted sauces, tomato juice, and chili peppers. Although you will find most Michelada recipes served in a chilled salt-rimmed pint glass, not every Michelada is created equally.

For example, travel through Mexico City and you will most commonly find a Michelada recipe made with beer, lime, salt, and a mix of hot sauces or chili sauces.

Journey to other regions, however, and you may be served a Michelada made with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, oranges, or Clamato juice (more on Clamato below).

Made with authentic, real, and unprocessed ingredients, this Michelada recipe is one which will hopefully appeal to everyone.

What is the difference between Michelada and Chelada?

The Chelada is what I think of as a much simpler Michelada. Less spicy, and made with less “stuff”, the Chelada requires just a few simple ingredients.

Chelada – made with a light Mexican lager, lime juice, and salt.
Michelada – made with a light (or darker) Mexican beer, lime, salt, hot sauces, chili sauces, oranges, tomato juice, etc.

Michelada ingredients

A Michelada can be prepared in several different ways. Depending on where you order your Michelada or what part of Mexico you’re from, you may decide to make this cerveza preparada by adding a few simple ingredients like lime juice, hot sauce, and spices, or, you may choose to add a little of all those things plus Clamato juice.

I chose to make this Michelada with Clamato juice. However, rather than use store-bought Clamato juice, I made my own (more on that in a sec).

Sea salt + Chili powder. First and foremost, you need to add a little salt to the rim of your glass. Actually, you don’t have to, but traditionally salt is added. You may add just salt or spice things up a bit and add a little chili powder to the mix. This is entirely up to you. If you’re unsure, you can even add the salt to just half of the rim, allowing you to decide how much or how little you really want.
Limes. I didn’t even write lime juice because I want to make sure it’s clear that you please use fresh lime juice from real limes. Lime juice concentrate tastes like rubbish – please don’t do that to your beer.
Clamato Juice. I am going to tell you all about this below, but until then, just know that it’s best to make your own. I had intended to make this cocktail with the premade bottled Clamato juice, and then I read the ingredients.
Hot sauce. I actually added two different hot sauces to this recipe. The first, a habanero hot sauce, went into preparing the Clamato, and the second, Tapatio (my fav), went directly into the Michelada. This recipe, while meant to have a little kick, is not meant to burn your mouth off. Keep this in mind when adding the (drops) of hot sauce to each glass.
Beer. I have a feeling that some people probably have really strong opinions when it comes to the best beer to use when making Micheladas. Here are a few of my suggestions-
- Tecate
- Negro Modelo
- Sol
- Pacifico
- Corona Extra

Overhead image of ingredients needed to make homemade Clamato Juice.

Tomato juice being poured into a large pitcher.

What is Clamato?

Now, before I explain how you can make your very own Michelada, I thought you should know why I made a homemade Clamato juice.

But first, does anyone here know what Clamato is?

Clamato ingredients: Tomato Juice Concentrate, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), Salt, Citric Acid, Spices, Onion and Garlic Powder, Ascorbic Acid (to maintain color), Dried Clam Broth, Vinegar, Natural Flavors, Red 40, Red Chili Pepper.

Now, I’m not going to devote this post to why we shouldn’t drink bottled, pre-made Clamato. But I did underline the reasons for you above just in case you want to dig a little deeper.

Homemade Clamato Ingredients

After looking at the ingredients I realized there was no way I was going to make myself or any of my family and friends a drink with all that crap in it (sorry, guys, full transparency here) especially when I knew I could make it (or something similar) myself.

Pure tomato juice. Now I’m not saying it has to be that exact brand, but I do recommend that you take a look at the ingredients and make sure there are no strange things hiding in there. You may also juice your own tomatoes.
Clam juice. Like a good Bloody Mary Mix, you need clam juice to make a good Michelada. I have no idea how one goes about making clam juice, so this will need to be store-bought.
Worcestershire sauce. Just another one of those key ingredients in achieving the slightly sweet and somewhat savory tomato juice.
Tabasco sauce / hot sauce. Super vinegary and spicy, this is my favorite condiment to add to Bloody Marys. I also love it added to homemade Clamato…but with the addition of another hot sauce, like Tapatio.
Lemon Juice. As with the lime juice, my friends, if you have access to fresh lemons, use them.
Onion Powder (and Garlic Powder -optional). This is where you can play around and have a little fun with your very own personal Clamato juice. I love a little onion powder, and while I usually add tons of garlic to my recipes, I chose to leave it out of this one. See what works best for your own personals taste and preference.
Fresh Ground Black Pepper. Nothing better, my friends.

How to make a Michelada

Start by making the Homemade Clamato.

Add all ingredients (tomato juice, clam juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco or hot sauce, lemon juice, onion powder, black pepper) to a large pitcher. Use a long spoon and mix well to combine. Cover with plastic wrap or seal with a fitted lid until and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

To make the Micheladas

Mix together the sea salt and chili powder on a small, shallow plate. You may choose to add more or less chili powder depending on your own personal taste and preference.
Run a lime wedge along the rim of each beer glass and immediately dip them into the sea salt mixture to coat.
Fill each glass with ice half-way.
Divide the lime juice and homemade Clamato juice between the two glasses then divide the remaining 1/4 teaspoon chili powder and hot sauce. Mix to combine.
Top off each glass with your favorite Mexican Lager beer and stir. Garnish with lime wedges or jalapeño wedges, if desired.

Love the Michelada? Try these,

If you try making this Michelada, please leave me a comment and let me know! I always love to hear your thoughts.

For more Mexican-inspired recipes check out,

DON’T FORGET TO PIN AND SHARE THIS MICHELADA AND CLAMATO RECIPE AND ADD IT TO YOUR NEXT SUMMER PARTY PLANS!

21 Comments

Owen K says:

August 18, 2024 at 1:09 pm

I bought the brand name stuff without looking at the ingredients and immediately looked up how to make it from scratch. This is an awesome recipe. I used Tabasco Family Reserve which is a bit more rounded than regular Tabasco. My only criticism is I think your beer to “clamato” proportions are reversed. Most of the recipes I read for Michelada specified a 1:4 clamato to beer whereas yours specifies 1:4 beer to clamato. Other t4han that, wonderful stuff.

Michelada Recipe (with Homemade Clamato Juice)