Spoetzl Brewery

Spoetzl Brewery
	Spoetzl Brewery
	; Little brewery in Shiner
Location	Shiner, Texas
Owner(s)	Gambrinus Company; San Antonio, Texas
Year opened	1909
Website	www.shiner.com
Active beers
Name	Type
Shiner Bock	Bock
Shiner Bohemian Black Lager	Schwarzbier
Shiner Blonde	Lager
Shiner Light	Light Lager
Shiner HefeWeizen	Hefeweizen
Shiner Smokehouse	Rauchbier
Seasonal beers
Name	Type
Shiner Spezial Leicht	Light Pilsner/Low-Calorie
Holiday Cheer	Dunkelweizen

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Known as the "Little brewery in Shiner," the Spoetzl Brewery is an American brewery located in Shiner, Texas. Wholly owned by the Gambrinus Company, the brewery is best known for producing Shiner Bock, a dark German/Czech-style beer that is now distributed in 41 states.

[edit] History

Shiner beer has had several starts, stops, and name changes. It has been brewed under the following names:

Shiner Brewing Association 1909-1914
Home Brewing Company 1914-1915
Petzold & Spoetzl 1915-1918
Spoetzl Brewery and Ice Factory 1933-1934
Spoetzl Brewery 1934-Present

[edit] Beginnings

Shiner, the oldest independent brewery in Texas, has been incorporated since 1909. A group of businessmen incorporated Shiner Brewing Association and placed Herman Weiss in as the company's first Brewmaster. In 1914 the founders offered the plant for lease, a German immigrant brewer named Kosmas (more commonly referred to as Kosmos) Spoetzl learned of the operation and co-leased with Oswald Petzold with an option to buy in 1915. Before this business venture, Spoetzl had attended brewmaster's school and apprenticed for three years in Germany, worked for eight years at the Pyramids Brewery in Cairo, Egypt, and then worked in Canada. He moved to San Antonio in search of a better climate for his health, bringing with him a family recipe for a Bavarian beer made from malted barley and hops.

[edit] Surviving the "Great Experiment"

During Prohibition, Kosmas Spoetzl kept the brewery afloat by selling ice and making "near beer." After Prohibition only five of the original 13 Texas breweries were still intact. When the Prohibition laws were repealed larger beer plants, such as Anheuser-Busch, moved to Texas making life harder on the smaller independent breweries, but Spoetzl kept things small and simple never going more than 70 miles for business.

[edit] Modern times

In the 1970s and 1980s the brewery's Shiner Beer and Shiner Bock had less than 1 percent of the Texas market. In 1983 Spoetzl produced 60,000 barrels of beer; in 1990 only 36,000. Sales improved after Carlos Alvarez of San Antonio acquired the brewery in 1989: Production grew to 100,000 barrels in 1994, and over the next ten years, production nearly tripled.^[1] Shiner Bock is the number 1 selling Specialty beer in Texas, with Shiner Light being number 2^{[citation needed]}. In the US, Shiner Bock is the number 4 selling Craft beer^{[citation needed]}. Even though Shiner has been growing, the beer they make is still brewed at the Spoetzl Brewery by only 55 employees.

Shiner's Centennial celebration beers.

[edit] 100 Year Celebration

In 2005, Shiner began producing a yearly brew in a progressive, anticipatory celebration of its 2009 centennial anniversary. The centennial program began developing and producing one special celebratory beer in small batches. The name of each such specialty beer corresponds to the age of the brewery: Shiner 96 was the specialty beer of 2005, Shiner 97 for 2006, and so forth. For the first two years, Spoetzl brewed Shiner 96 and Shiner 97 only from September through mid-December. Shiner 98 was released four months earlier in 2007 — in May — while Shiner 99 entered the market even two months earlier, in March 2008. Shiner 100 will have the longest run of all the anniversary beers, it will be produced all year long in 2009. After each beer's specified production run has ended, that year's beer is retired. However, Shiner 97 proved to be so popular that in 2008 Spoetzl brought the beer back as Shiner Bohemian Black Lager and made it a permanent part of the lineup. The Spoetzl Brewery intends to conclude its centennial beer production in 2009 with Shiner 100.

Below is a listing of each beer and their respective style:

Shiner 96 — Märzen/Oktoberfest Ale
Shiner 97 — Bohemian Black Lager
Shiner 98 — Bavarian Style Amber
Shiner 99 — Munich Style Helles Lager
Shiner 100 Commemorator — Starkbier

In addition to the centennial beers, Shiner changed the neck label for all their beers. The new labels proclaim Shiner's 100th anniversary and include the tag line "Here's to a century of independent brewing. Prosit!" All the neck labels are similar, but each beer's label mimics the beer's signature colors.

Shine On & a 6-pack of Shiner 100
at the Spoetzl Brewery.

[edit] Shine On

Since a 100th anniversary only comes around once, Shiner worked with Dallas author Mike Renfro to capture the past 100 years of Shiner history. Together they created Shine On (ISBN 978-1933979205) a coffee table book which document's the Little Brewery's history in photos as well as story. The book follows the brewery from its fledgling days in 1909, through the lean years, and all the way up till 2008. In addition to the prerequisite history on the brewery, Shine On also gives us the history behind the town itself as well as a look at some of the people responsible for making Shiner beer today.

[edit] Current line of products

Shiner currently produces five beers year around and two seasonal brews.^[2]

[edit] Active beers

Shiner Bock — Shiner's flagship beer. Bock has been brewed since 1913, almost as long as the Spoetzl Brewery has been in business. However, it wasn't until a few decades ago that Shiner began producing Bock year-round. Bock was considered a lent beer, and therefore was only made around that season. Today 80% of the beer made at the Spoetzl Brewery is Bock.

Shiner Bock, Shiner Light, Shiner Blonde, Shiner Hefeweizen, and Shiner Black Lager

Shiner Light — Shiner Light is Shiner's first ever light beer. Before release, Shiner Light went through a "yes or no" taste-testing ballot by all the residents of Shiner, Texas. Shiner Light has the lowest production numbers out of all of the year around beers.
Shiner Blonde — Blonde is the direct descendant of Shiner's earliest brew. Although Blonde has carried numerous names, such as Shiner Special and Shiner Texas Special, the recipe has been virtually unchanged since it was first brewed in 1909. For this reason, Blonde carries Brew Kettle No. 1 on its label.
Shiner Hefeweizen — Hefeweizen is brewed with orange and lemon peels and honey. Hefeweizen is an unfiltered classic Bavarian Wheat beer and is the only beer brewed that is not pasteurized.
Shiner Bohemian Black Lager — Originally a limited edition in honor of the Spoetzl Brewery's 97th anniversary, this classic schwarzbier became a permanent part of the Shiner family in late 2007. Black uses imported Austrian Saaz and Styrian hops and dark-roasted malts to create a distinctive taste that honors the German and Czech immigrants who settled the town of Shiner.
Shiner Kosmos — The Original Shiner Kosmos was available in 1999 with a higher alcohol content and a different taste. This re-release is an American Pale Lager style beer available only in Shiner Family Packs, one bottle per six-pack.

Spezial Leicht & Holiday Cheer

[edit] Seasonal beers

Spezial Leicht — Leicht is Shiner's entry into the low calorie contest and is designed to compete with light beers from Bud, Miller and Coors as well as Michelob Ultra.^[3] While some confusion exists between Shiner Light and Shiner Leicht, due mainly to the similarity in names and packaging, they are in fact separate brews with very dissimilar tastes and appearances. Shiner Light weighs in at 120 calories, while Leicht has only 99 calories.^[4] As of Spring 2008, Shiner only plans Leicht as a seasonal summer beer.^[5] Leicht replaced Shiner Kölsch as the brewery's summer seasonal.

Holiday Cheer — Cheer is an "old world dunkelweizen" brewed with Texas peaches and pecans. Malted barley and wheat are used to enhance the malty flavor of the dark wheat brew.^[6] The style of beer reflects the German and Czech heritage of the brewery and the town of Shiner. The flavors from peaches and pecans grown in the nearby Hill Country are a nod to the brewery's Texas roots. Holiday Cheer replaced Shiner Dunkelweizen as the brewery's winter seasonal.

"Smokehaus" Shiner's smoked 'sommer' beer is brewed with pale malt that's been smoked with native mesquite use their helles-style beer and has a smoky flavor that goes great with all the flavors of summer. Smokehaus has an alcohol content of 4.89 percent by volume and an IBU of 16.

[edit] Inactive beers

Shiner Kölsch/Shiner Summer Stock — Seasonal Shiner beer usually associated with their seasonal summer offerings. This Kölsch style ale is a light hybrid between an ale and a lager that is fermented like an ale.

Shiner Dunkelweizen/Shiner Winter Ale — Shiner Dunkelweizen is another seasonal flavor that was replaced in the active line-up by Shiner Holiday Cheer, essentially the same beer but brewed with Texas peaches and pecans.

[edit] Bocktoberfest

Shiner Bocktoberfest was an annual music festival held each October in Shiner, Texas. Bocktoberfest featured a concert line-up that blended Texas Country, Modern and Alternative Rock with Blues, Pop and Americana.

The Shiner Bocktoberfest Concert began in 1994 as the “Thanks a Million” concert, a tribute to the first million-case sales year achieved by the Spoetzl Brewery. Thousands of people attended the concert as the city of Shiner celebrated. The following year, the concert name was changed to the Shiner Bocktoberfest Concert. Since its inception, the festival’s reputation continues to grow^{[citation needed]}. Bocktoberfest, originally on the brewery grounds, is now held in Green Dickson Park, just one mile east of the brewery, to accommodate growing crowds. Proceeds from the Shiner Bocktoberfest Concert benefit civic and charitable organizations.^{[citation needed]}

The 2006 Bocktoberfest was the last, at least for now. In early summer 2007, the Gambrinus Company announced that the annual concert would be discontinued.^[7] According to Alvarez, the financial and administrative costs of the festival had become excessive, and the company needed to shift its energies toward its beers.^[8]

[edit] Images

Hospitality room & gift shop	New brewhouse	Old portion of brewery	Closeup of new brew kettles
Texas historic marker	Retired paper thin brew kettle	Hospitality room & gift shop	Detail of Shiner van