12 oz can courtesy of Kevin - many thanks. Well, it is what is. No more, no less. Typical, light straw colored pour with perfect clarity, low carbonation and, virtually no head and zero retention and lace. Could be one of a million different macros of the same ilk, but the color is getting close to completely non-existent. Pale as plae can be. Nose gives a touch of grainy alcohol. Tastes are a largely neutral sweetness and almost nothing else. Character is firmly at zero, but no skunk and...
Notes on beers brewed by
Spoetzl Brewery
Shiner Oktoberfest
12 oz single from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA. Amber pour, with little head or retention. Head fades badly. Aroma is bereft of any necessary elements. Horribly disappointing. Light malt tastes, but weak when considering the O'fest category as a whole. Malts are supported by a little hop factor, but it's ultimately somewhat non-descript. Fairly well balanced if rather bland, sand the downfall of the beer is really its lack of malt presence. Very little to report with this beer, a malt based beer...
Shiner 101 Czech Style Pilsner
12 oz single from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA. Pour is a golden color with a frothy, light head that although not especially well-retained it does produce some significant lace. Nose and tastes create a feel of a Pils without the true Saaz-like kick in the back end. Some light, white pepper that for a second seems like we have a Belgian Pale note, but it fades and the bitterness does not figure. Relatively light and easy drinking, but a beer that ultimately seems fairly pedestrian. Grassy notes...
Shiner Fröst
12 oz single from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA. Pour is a very attractive, deep, orange gold body with a pretty good, dense well-formed head. Even some lace and pretty nice retention. Surprisingly good looking. Carbonation is constant and the nose gives some slight sweetness. The tastes are quite sweet with a nice malt base and light hop finish. More sweetness and some grains come through and the finish is satisfying. The aftertaste lingers with a touch of bitterness. Deeper and more complex...
Shiner Holiday Cheer
12 oz single from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA. Interesting to say the least. I didn't bother to read the label in detail before I bought this so I just assumed it would be another, spiced Christmas Ale. That's OK, since I really enjoy that type of beer, so imagine my surprise when I started to drink the beer and then read the reviews on BA. Appearance is a lovely, tawny, clear brew with a decent head that has some lace and retention. The nose and tastes reveal what I thought were initially a...
Shiner Smokehaus
OK, mixed reviews on this one I see, let's have a go. 12 oz single from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA. Pour is a decent, somewhat frothy, typical for the Helles style yellow. Head was average with some retention and lace. Nose gives away very little except a touch of smoke and some malty sweetness. The tastes reflect this fairly faithfully but with the smoke playing a larger part. An interesting combination of tastes that frankly struggles a bit to settle on the palate but it's not unpleasant....
Shiner 100 Commemorator
On tap, Taco-Mac, Perimeter, Atlanta, GA, USA. Sat at the bar next to a Texas resident who tried to persuade me not to order this, but even though I listened carefully to his arguments I felt I had a duty to see for myself. As it turned out, his description of the beer as, "not bad, but not a very good Doppelbock" was pretty accurate. Pour was a standard dark, chestnut color but the head and lace are both WOREFULLY disappointing. This is at least in part to the pathetic way the beer was...
Bohemian Black Lager
12 oz single, Mac's downtown, Atlanta, GA, USA. I wasn't expecting much from this beer, since my experience with Shiner has been average at best but its often worth persisting with this kind of brewer. Nice loud pour with a pretty lively head and some nice lacing. Head has some persistence. Dark brown body with some rust/orange colored highlights. Some sweet caramel notes in the nose, but surprisingly you don't get a lot of this in the taste. I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised because...
Shiner Hefeweizen
Pours a pale orange color with cloudiness as expected. Very little head (at least without an aggressive pour). Lemon grass overtones in the aroma, a little too watery and ill-defined for my taste. Less satisfying and more acidic that many in the same style, this is not in the same class. A poorer example of the style, even from an American perspective. A weak brew that could be so much better. Having said all of that, it would do a job in blistering Atlanta summer heat.
Shiner Bock
Frankly I was disappointed. The darker the better for me, and this promised much (from what I'd heard) but came in as a bit of a lightweight. I found the experience a little "tinny" and fairly acidic. It did look good, and certainly would be a good candidate for a prolonged session, but too carbonated, light and watery for my taste. I thought it was too much like a decent dark beer that had been slightly diluted by accident.