Shiner Bock

Brewed By: Spoetzl Brewery

Style: Bock

ABV: 4.4%

IBU: 13

Since 1909, The Shiner Brewing Association has been providing Texas, and now other places, with their beer. Not too long after their founding, Shiner Bock (1913) made its first appearance. The following year, Kosmos Spoetzl was brought in as brewmaster as changed the brewery into the successful business that it is now. He was the head of the company for 36 years. Anyhow…..enough about the company. If you have further interest, the Shiner website is very informational and can be found here: www.shiner.com

I used to love Shiner Bock. It was my go to beer back when I didn’t really drink that much beer, so I was looking forward to reviewing it now and seeing how different my tastes had become. There is a plethora of interesting information about Shiner Bock to be found on the world wide web; people complaining about it not being true to the style, differing opinions on whether it’s a worthwhile beer or not, and varying opinions on the ingredients. So lets check it out!

Look – It poured a reddish brown, almost copper with about a finger width of light tan head that dissipated rather quickly.

Smell – Not much to talk about. I smell yeast and a little bit of some sort of malt. No hop smell at all.

Taste – So much yeast taste! It wasn’t until I did some research that I found they remove the yeast they use during the fermentation process and add a bottling yeast right before bottling. So that explains that. There is hardly any hop taste, there is no alcohol taste (with an ABV of 4.4%, I guess I’m not surprised), but there is a slight dark malt flavor. I will say that Shiner Bock is very crisp and refreshing. It has a light body and a very clean taste to it. It might be a little over carbonated, but then again, it might not be as crisp as it is if that aspect was changed. I was enjoying a pizza while drinking this beer and they went together very nicely.

Conclusion – I keep going back and forth on whether or not I liked this beer, even as I write this blog I flip back and forth. On the one hand, its has a very poor flavor, but on the other hand, it’s refreshing and I could easily see myself sitting outside on a nice summer day, grilling some burgers and drinking this beer. I remember seeing ads on T.V. of people jogging and then grabbing some light beer (Miller Lite maybe?) and thinking that no one would ever do that. After revisiting this beer though, I feel like it would be a good use for this low alcohol content beer because it is so crisp!

I will say that the taste is not worth it, but the drinkability and feel of it are.

I will grant this beer a C+

Go out and grab a six pack of it this summer though for sure!

Happy Drinking!