Shiner Bock, that is, and I’m swilling it even as I type. It has lots more body and flavor than Pearl or Lone Star. I find it to be a decent alternative to more lifeless brews like Rolling Rock or Stroh’s. What beer are you drinking right now? Anyone have some history or anecdotes connected with Shiner Bock? Especially you resident or ex-pat Texans.
Does it come with a little fez?
Er, wouldn’t that be, Shriner Bock?
And they’d have to be in parade formation!
Ahh, Shiner Bock! You’ve inspired me to knock one back as well, despite the late hour…
Is it easy to find out in Cali? Cuz I could easily fill a wading pool without breaking the bank in these parts…more, if took a trip about an hour SE of here.
[slight hijack/rant]BTW, do the Zeigen Bock ads here in Texas bug anyone else? It kinda bothers me that a big-label-backed “local” beer is trying to make an independent and authentically Texan beer seem like the poser-brew…[/rant]
Tsingtao, which is actually a German lager left behind from the German colony (concession) in Qingdao China.
Yippeee Shiner Bock!! I had three last night at a local bar here in SoCal. It’s not easy to find, but it’s not unheard-of, caveman. It is rather expensive, though:(
Y’know, I thought this thread was going to be about you getting a black eye or someting, and that I’d be able to say I had 6 in the fridge…
A Shiner was the very first beer in the bottle collection I started a year and a half ago. The collection has sinced changed hands (I graduated) and grown to over 75 bottles, but the Shiner is still there. 
I always assumed everyone knew that Zeigen wasn’t really local, and wasn’t as good as Shiner, so the ads have never bothered me.
Zenster, you’ve invoked the name of one of the world’s finest beverages.
I clicked on this thread hoping against hope that it would be about sweet, sweet Shiner Bock beer, and you did not disappoint.
I have a number of these stories, most of which are classified for the protection of myself and other interested parties. I’ll only say that many a non-Texan has started out an evening in my presence professing a hatred for both Texas and Country Music, only to undergo a transformation after a few Shiners and a little two-stepping.
As an aside, I have a long running dispute with bars which advertise specials on “domestic beer” then refuse to sell me Shiner at the reduced price. I’m less than two hours from Shiner, TX, and they’re telling me it’s not a domestic beer… It boggles the mind.
Expensive?
Shiner is a damn cheap beer in San Antonio.
It’s ok, I drink it if I can’t afford anything better shrugs.
Not drinking now (I’m at work), but the plan is to pour myself a Guinness opon arriving home. 
[Madge]
I’m soaking in it.
[/Madge]
Shiner Bock was my favorite College brew. I’m 40 now. Don’t drink as many brews as I used to. I do, however brew 15 gallons of all-grain (barley malt) homebrew every month or so. I have a steady stream of “garage visitors”.
I visited the Spoetzl Brewery, in Shiner Texas, where they brew several beer recipes (bock being one of them), in 1990. They used to have an 80 barrel kettle (a barrel is 32 gallons) that they would run 3 times a day in 8 hour shifts. At that time, they only brewed enough beer to “market” to a triagle, delineated (roughly) by the cities of Houston, Austin, and Dallas. You would be hard-pressed to find any Shiner beer sold out of those bounds.
Sometime soon after my visit, two things happened:
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Herbert Simms - one of the longest-tenured Spoetzl brewery employees (second only to Mr Green) - retired. In his later years at the brewery, he served every beer tapped out of the hospitality room, where tour members would stop and “purchase” their free taster beers with two wooden nickels given to them by Mr Simms. This was to limit the amount of beers given to any one person. In truth, you could keep getting beer/wooden nickels as long as you didn’t either spill your beer, or make fun of Mr. Simms’ tie. He often would wear a bright colored or unusual tie to “tempt” people into making a comment.
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Some large (and I won’t name them) distributorship bought the Spoetzl brewery. They scrapped the 80 barrel kettle, replacing it with four large (400-600 barrel) kettels, and two smaller (200 or so barrel) kettels. Now the beer appears on shelves nationwide. Everythihg at the brewery has changed, except for the beer recipes. They still make a good Bock, and what used to be called “Premium” is now “Blonde”… and sells better. I haven’t seen their “Kosmos” brew in years, it was a “reserve” or specialty brew that they would occasionally make to honor the breweries founder Kosmos Spoetzl.
Cheers
I also thought this thread was titled “I’ve got a Shriner.” I thought maybe you had one of the fez-wearing geezers tied up in your basement.
You know, I figured it was a black eye thread, but JUST as I clicked on the thread I thought…
…wait a minute, this is Zenster we’re talking about, I bet he’s talking beer.
I’ve got some friends who originally hail from Texas, and they always talk about this beer. I’m not into beer in general, so I’ve never had it, but I’ve heard good things.
Actually, Ziegenbock’s about as local as Anheuser-Busch brews get- it’s only for Texas, and it’s brewed at the A-B brewery in Houston(along with the rest of the A-B brews).
I agree- not so good as Shiner. But, it’s often MUCH cheaper, and still much better than Bud Light, et al.
Oh… and Kosmos was pretty damn good. Haven’t seen it since college.
Shiner does make a Summer ale or something like that- it’s a weizen-ish beer that’s ok. Same goes for the winter brew, although I prefer the Sam Adams version.
Sniff… Shucks, I learned how to drink with Shiner Bock!
They sell it here in bottles, but nowhere yet (in NC) have I been able to find it on tap. I shore miss draft Shiner.
Good stuff, and my #1 homesick brew.
My name is Rob, and I am a beer snob. I am so much a beer snob that Shiner Bock is the lowest beer on my totem pole. I will not drink anything less. No Bud/Miller/etc for me. If I can see through it, it is not worth drinking.
While this is not a Shiner story per se, I can read the yellow lable near the opening of the bottle in a really groovy announcer voice. My friends ask me to do it everytime we have a Shiner Bock.
Just last week I consumed a Shiner Bock in its Right and Proper Habitat: Kreuz’s in Lockhart. I was at a conference and visiting family in Austin when I snuck out one morning and drove down. Had a hot sausage (mmm, gooooooood) with slices of white bread (no forks! never!), and a Shiner. Followed it all with a Dairy Queen (we don’t have those in NY - only the awful Carvel).
God, I love America. And I always think of Texas as more America than anyplace else.
My brother is single-handedly responsible for the continuing availability of Shiner here.
Okay, not really. But when he moved back from Austin, they had just started making it available in the grocery stores here.
He would go and buy all the cases on the shelf whenever he saw it. To scew the data. To keep them bringing him more.
'Bout the only thing that made the homesickness better when I left Austin was a bottle of Shiner… Aw, crap. Now I’m crying. And now I’m missing Trudy’s and green chili chicken enchiladas… Ah, gawd. I have to log off.