Spoetzl Brewery

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Spoetzl Brewery

Location	Shiner, Texas
Owner(s)	Gambrinus Company San Antonio, Texas
Year opened	1909
Active beers
Shiner Bock	Bock
Shiner Bohemian Black Lager	Schwarzbier
Shiner Blonde	Lager
Shiner Light	Light Lager
Shiner HefeWeizen	Hefeweizen
Seasonal beers
Shiner Dunkelweizen	Dark Hefeweizen
Shiner Kölsch	Kölsch
Shiner Leicht	Light Pilsner

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 that is is now distributed in 39 states.

1 History
2 100 Year Celebration
3 Current line of products
- 3.1 Active beers
- 3.2 Seasonal beers
4 Bocktoberfest
5 Images
6 References
7 External links

[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 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 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, 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 When the Prohibition laws were repealed larger beer plants, such as Anheuser-Busch, moved to Texas making life harder on the smaller independent breweries, but Spoetzl kept things small and simple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. 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] Shiner Bock is the number 1 selling Specialty beer in Texas, with Shiner Light being number 2. In the US, Shiner Bock is the number 4 selling Specialty beer. Even though Shiner has been growing, the beer they make is still brewed at the Spoetzl Brewery by only 55 employees.

Shiner 96, Shiner 97, Shiner 98, and Shiner 99

[edit] 100 Year Celebration

Beginning in 2005, Shiner began producing a yearly brew to celebrate their upcoming anniversary. The centennial program develops one special beer each year that is produced in small batches. Each beer is named after the age of the brewery, thus in 2005 the beer was named Shiner 96, the 2006 beer Shiner 97, the 2007 beer Shiner 98, and 2008's beer is Shiner 99. With 96 and 97, the beers were only brewed from September through December. By mid-December the beer production was stopped and the beer was retired. However, beginning with Shiner 98 the brewery varied things up, releasing 98 in May 2007, and then 99 entering the market in March 2008. The Spoetzl Brewery claims that the program will end 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 — ?

[edit] Current line of products

Shiner currently produces five beers year around and three seasonal brews.^[2] In the past, the seasonal beers were brewed each season, but starting in winter of 2007, Shiner's schedule has been less predicatble. Dunkelweizen wasn't produced till late winter, and Kölsch isn't being brewed at all for summer 2008.

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

[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 around. 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 Light — Shiner Light is Shiner's first ever light beer, so the company was very meticulous on selecting the right formula. Before release, Shiner Light went through a "yes or no" taste-testing ballot by all the residents of Shiner, Texas. Every bottle of Shiner Light is signed by a citizen of Shiner, Texas as an official approval that Light is good enough to carry the Shiner name. 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 pure Texas clover honey. Unfiltered, this cloudy brew is a 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 Dunkelweizen and Shiner Leicht

[edit] Seasonal beers

Shiner Dunkelweizen — Dunkelweizen is a dark wheat ale, named to reflect the beer's German heritage. The bats on the logo are another tribute, they show the Mexican Free-tailed Bats of Austin, which was the first major city Shiner was "exported" to. Dunkelweizen was formerly known and sold as Shiner Winter Ale until 2005.
Shiner Kölsch — Kölsch was fashioned after the legendary Kölsch beers of Cologne, Germany in the 1800s. Although the recipe is from Germany, the beer's horney toad is a nod to Shiner's Texas home. Kölsch was formerly known and sold as Shiner Summer Stock until 2005.
Shiner Leicht — Leicht is Shiner's entry into the low calorie contest and is designed to compete directly with 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 weights 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]

[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.^[6] 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.^[7]

[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