Spoetzl Brewery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Spoetzl Brewery | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Location | Shiner, Texas |
| Owner | Gambrinus Company San Antonio, Texas |
| Year opened | 1909 |
| Active Beers | |
| Shiner Bock | Bock |
| Shiner Blonde | Lager |
| Shiner Light | Light Lager |
| Shiner HefeWeizen | Hefeweizen |
| Seasonal Beers | |
| Shiner Kölsch | Kölsch |
| Shiner Dunkelweizen | Dark Hefeweizen |
| Shiner 97 | Schwarzbier |
Known as the "Little brewery in Shiner," the Spoetzl Brewery is an American brewery located in Shiner, Texas that is wholly owned by the Gambrinus Company. The brewery is most well known for producing Shiner Bock, a dark Czech-style beer. Long a regional favorite, particularly among college students, Shiner Bock is now distributed as far west as California, as far north as Alaska and as far east as Virginia.
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[edit] History
The 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 independant brewery in Texas, has been incorporated since 1909. A group of businessmen incorporated Shiner Brewing Association and placed Herman Weiss in as the companies first Brewmaster. In 1914 the founders offered the plant for lease, a German immigrant brewer named 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 before moving to San Antonio in search of a better climate for his health. He came to Texas with the recipe for a Bavarian beer made by his family from malted barley and hops.
[edit] Surviving the "Great" Experiment
During Prohibition Kosmos Spoetzl kept the brewery afloat by selling ice and making "near beer". After Prohibition only 5 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 When the Prohibition laws were repealed larger beer plants, such as Anheuser-Busch, moved to Texas making life harder on the smaller Independant breweries but Spoetzl kept things small and simple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. Production was only 36,000 barrels in 1990. Sales improved after Carlos Alvarez of San Antonio acquired the brewery in 1989: Production grew to 100,000 barrels in 1994. Ten years later, production was nearly three times as large as in 1994.[1]
[edit] Current line of bottled products
- Shiner Bock- Thier flagship brew made from Kosmos Spoetzl's family recipe.
- Shiner Light- A light beer that, before release, was given a "yes or no" taste-testing by the citizens of Shiner, Texas where the brewery is located.
- Shiner Blonde- Utilizes one of the very first recipes used by the Shiner Brewery in the early 1900's.
- Shiner Kolsch-Is Shiner's "delightfully effervescent" Summer brew.
- Shiner Dunkelweizen- Modeled after a Bavarian recipe this is Shiner's darker beer and can be considered their Winter brew.
- Shiner Hefeweizen- Unfiltered, this is a classic Bavarian Wheat brew and is the only beer brewed that is not pasteurized. Shiner suggests a wedge of Lemon when drinking.
- Shiner 96- Made to celebrate 96 years of Brewing this is a Marzan-style of brewing that was made famous in 1810 and served to start the first Oktoberfest celebration. This is a small batch beer that is available in limited quantities.[2]
[edit] Trivia
- When visiting Austin, Texas in 1996 for a week long film festival, director Quentin Tarantino quipped that he was "draining the town of Shiner."[3]
- Shiner Bock is the number 1 selling Specialty beer in Texas.
- Shiner Light is the number 2 selling Specialty beer in Texas.
- Shiner Bock is the number 4 selling Specialty beer in the US.
[edit] Images
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 brew kettle |
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[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.shiner.com/about/history.html -History of Shiner Bock from the Brewery website.
- ^ http://www.shiner.com/beers/beers-home.html -Summary of all beers made by the Spoetzl Brewery.
- ^ Hornaday, Ann. "Tarantino's film festival hits home with Austinites." Austin American-Statesman. Aug. 10, 1996. Page E-1.
[edit] External links
- Shiner.com - The official website.
- Gambrinus.com - Owning company's official site.
- TexasBreweries.com - Unofficial history.
