RL Policar-This beer is from a small town in Texas. You know what they say about Texas….eh,just Google it.
Beer: Shiner Bock
Style: Bock
Size: 12 oz. bottle
Brewer: Spoetzl Brewery
Alcohol content: 4.4% ABV
Shiner Bock is brewed by Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas, a town of only 2,000. Spoetzl offer 7 varieties, their Bock being probably the most well-known.
I picked up a six-pack for a treat after a ride of the Wasatch Crest Trail, a classic ride up Big Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake City. When my friends and I finished bombing down Mill D Fork, we pulled out the beer and toasted to a ride well done. We especially earned it after making it up Puke Hill in the beginning of the ride!
Shiner Bock isn’t a bock. It’s a dark lager. At least that’s what it tasted like to me. If it is truly a bock, it’s a horrible representative of the variety. The color was brown and inviting. The smell was very light, slightly malty. Blindfolded, you’d be hard pressed to say it was a beer you were sniffing on.
As for taste, it was quite refreshing after a long ride. But I’ve said before that just about any beer is. Later that evening I had another Shiner Bock, to get a better sense of what this beer is. The taste was all wrong for a bock. This is definitely a dark lager. I missed that roasted malt taste and raisin character so evident in bocks. This was light and simple. Not bad, but not a bock.
In the mouth, the beer felt thin and flat. Perhaps there is some hop aftertaste. Maybe it was an illusion. When you expect a bock, you expect a big, bold dark beer. Shiner Bock fools you be giving you the opposite.
Drinkability would be rather high due to the lightness and low alcohol content. At a picnic, an outdoor concert, after a ride, this beer would be acceptable. Perhaps not the first choice, but definitely an acceptable one.
Category Ratings:
A: 4 Brown and inviting.
S: 2 What smell?
T: 3 Light, not a bock.
M: 3.5 Thin and flat.
D: 4 Drinkable due to lightness.
Overall Rating:
3.5 Mtnbikeriders (out of 5)

