Shiner Bock

Rating: 5 out of 10

Thursday means just two things: Must See TV (if this is the 1990s) and Father and Son Beer Love bringing you their beer review of the week. This week we hit the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas for a little Shiner Bock action. We'll talk in more detail in a future post about breakout beers, but just know Shiner Bock is one of those beers that can help you turn your friends into craft beer drinkers.

Before we jump into the meat of the review here are a few quick stats you need to know. Use these at your next party to make people think you're a beer guru. Shiner Bock accounts for 80% of the beer made at the Spoetzl Brewery and it's been brewed since 1913. It currently ships to 41 of the United States. Shiner Bock is the number one selling craft beer in Texas and is the number 6 selling craft beer in the US. To give you a feel for how a relatively large craft brewery runs, Spoetzl Brewery has about 50 to 60 employees and makes 5 beers years round along with 3 seasonals. Beer fact session over and out - on to the review.

We served up our Shiner Bock in an American pint glass and got a temperature of 41.9 F. The 12 ounce bottle comes in at a 4.4% ABV and we paid $7.79 for the six pack. The pour gave us an average 1 1/2" fizzy off-white head that dissipated quickly and left virtually no head lacing in the process. There is a soft carbonation to the clear amber colored beer.

Our initial aromas came in with caramel, hay, honey, toasted malts, grass, yeast and brown sugar. Our initial flavors came in with just a light caramel, honey and toasted malts. The initial flavor notes are a light to moderate sweet and the finish moves to a light sweet, light bitter and light tart. The finish is short in duration, the mouthfeel is dry and the tongue hit is at the front of the tongue. There's no body lacing to speak of and on our patented malt to hop scale it comes in about 1.5 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side.

Bottom line notes give us 4 yeses and 3 nos - yes to drinkable, repeatable, balanced and buy again, no to harmony, memorable and wow factor.

Is it the greatest beer in the world? Not by a long shot. Is it a good middle of the pack beer? Yes. It's not heavy, it's got a nice amount of sweet to it (a little sweeter than an Amber Bock) and it's very much a textbook session beer - that is a beer you can drink many of in one sitting without fear of waking up with marker drawings on your face.

Bonus - if you have a Saltgrass Steak House near you they make a Shiner Bock Beer Bread that you've got to try. It's fantastic.

Don't over think this beer people, just know that it's a good beer to have during a football game (or any sporting event) and it's eminently better than any of the usual rank domestics your friends might try to push on you. It's good to go and it's worth a 6 pack. Bring this to the next party and help some of your friends start to transition to better beer.

By John & Dad on September 15, 2008 @ 8 PM with 3 Comments

Comments (3):

Congrats on your 99th! Have you picked out something special for the 100th? Great job with all that work!

Posted by The Beer Babe on September 15, 2008 @ 6 PM

You guys drove to Shiner just to pick up a sixer? I guess I did something similar when I went to interview a bunch of townsfolk and brewery workers for my book that comes out soon. Here's some pics from Shiner:
http://www.beerodyssey.com/RWB/Spoetzl.html

Hey, I'm hitting to road in Oct on a promo tour. I'm hitting DC and Atlanta. Any tips on where to set up an event in NC?

Cheers,
Brian

Posted by Brian Yaeger on September 16, 2008 @ 2 AM

We didn't actually drive to Shiner, we were just a little "loose" in our language by saying we hit the Spoetzl Brewery, which we did in just a virtual and visceral sense of the word.

For your NC road trip Raleigh hosts the World Beer Festival in early October and that would be ideal.

And Beer Babe - have no fear - we do have something special for 100 - it's near and dear to our hearts and it's often requested on the site. And it's coming this week!

Posted by John on September 16, 2008 @ 11 AM

Shiner Bock

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