Shiner Oktoberfest By the Spoetzl Brewery

Howdy partners!

Well, I have been back in Texas for a little bit more than a week, and things are going dandy here. I have gotten into a new routine that includes thinking a lot about new content and trying to find more venues to increase readership, apply for jobs, helping my mother around the house, and getting a fair amount of Texas sun by the pool (also known as a cement pond). One thing that has been lacking though has been the presence of a Texas brewery’s product up for review on Intoxico! Luckily today I was in need for a beer that would act as a good base for cooking and enjoying bratwurst, and “needed” to buy a six-pack of something that wasn’t an American India Pale Ale or American style Belgian beer (I stocked up on favorites before leaving Georgia.)

While a lot of smaller Texas breweries were represented at the grocery store I found myself at this morning, I ultimately went with the larger Spoetzl brewery’s Shiner Oktoberfest. Really, when it’s August, and 107 degrees in the shade, who isn’t thinking about fall?

Pouring out into a favorite Shiner Bock pint glass that reminded me of home, specifically the home that I have returned to, the beer pours a wonderfully clear golden copper color. A nice white formed at a thickness of about half a finger, but quickly died down to about to that of a dime. The clarity helped accent a ton of active carbonation in the brew.

As consistent with the style, the nose is sweet and malty accented by slight hop bitterness.

An adherence to the facet of the marzen fashioned beer continues in the flavor of the beer. Being medium-to-medium full, caramel sweetness, likely produced with dark malt, is the principal flavor, with slight citrus undertones adding some complexity. A nice, also slight, hop bitterness remains on the palate as an aftertaste.

While there are a few Shiner varieties that I have been less than impressed with, the quality of this beer, and several others, bring a background of Czech and German brewing to American beer drinkers who are inundated with that of an English tradition from our craft breweries.

Variety is good, and quite often there is “nothing finer than a Shiner.”

Prost!