the spoetzl brewery
if you really want the experience of “small town texas”, shiner is the place to visit. It’s been on my texas bucket list for years, but admittedly, only because I wanted to visit the shiner brewery, the oldest independent brewery in Texas. I heard that it was one of those “one-stoplight” kinda places, where if you blink, you’ll miss it. This is and isn’t true. There is one stoplight, which comes after you stroll through their main street, cross the railroad tracks, and then you’re outta town. But, that one little main street packs a lot of punch.
Now, this post is about the Spoetzl Brewery, but for a town that has really embraced the brewery, it’s good to mention that a trip “downtown”, which is quite literally a walk across the railroad tracks from the brewery, might be a good idea.
The story of Shiner starts in 1909 when local German and Czech immigrants struck water and decided to turn that water into beer. That same artesian well water makes every drop of Shiner to this day. Shiner’s first move away from their local scene was in the 1970s right up the road to Austin, where it became a hit, and helped advance Shiner to the rest of Texas, and then, the country.
Now let’s get to the name confusion that I’m sure you might be wondering about: It’s Shiner beer, but the brewery is called Spoetzl Brewery? Kosmos Spoetzl purchased the brewery, becoming the founder and the very first brewmaster. They gave the brewery his name but kept the product as Shiner Beer. Pretty simple, and it definitely rolls off the tongue a little easier.
I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect of the Shiner Brewery, er, the Spoetzl Brewery. But, whatever I did expect, I was very surprised by what I saw. Coming down the main street of Shiner, you take a left at that one stoplight, and you can’t miss the brewery. As you come up over the hill, it commands your eyes, sitting back along a spring with native flowering plants lined along the entrance. To be honest, it’s a beautiful brewery. They’ve done such an amazing job combining the old with the new. As you enter, there’s a huge grassy yard filled with picnic tables, under huge shade trees…because, Texas. The clean, white lines of the building’s exterior contrast and pop off the clear, blue backdrop of the sky.
Protip : Forego the parking lot inside the main entrance. There is a huge lot right next door ( they have signs directing the way ). You’ll get to walk along a flower-lined path to a bridge that crosses the spring, which will land you right at the main path to the brewery entrance.
Once you get on the grounds of the brewery, there are food trucks, yard games, and dozens of biergarten tables situated under an awning. It is very much a place to come and bring your family and spend an afternoon supporting the local brewery and drinking amazing beer. For it to be kind of out in the middle of nowhere, it was surprisingly busy. But, it was a sunny Saturday afternoon, with beautiful, albeit hot, weather.
We took our obligatory brewery sign photo and darted inside to catch some relief from the heat. We had pre-reserved a spot for a tour online, but had decided on the way, that we didn’t really want to do the tour if we didn’t have to. The tour tickets are $20 per person, and wanted to save that money if we could, and also didn’t have a lot of time due to having to drive the two hours back to Willow City. We weren’t sure if we would be able to grab beers if we didn’t do the tour, so we decided to check out the gift shop while we waited for our time to check in for the tour and ultimately ask if we had to.
the gift shop was small and packed, but they had a lot of really cool stuff. More than just the standard t-shirts, bottle openers, glasses, etc. We ended up purchasing a pint glass, to go with the one we bought at the OG Budweiser Brewery in St. Louis, and some stickers. Turns out, that when you buy a pint glass, you get two free tokens for beer. So, we were set and decided to just head straight for the taproom.
The hallway that connects the gift shop and taproom, both in the original brewhouse building, was filled with pictures and different memorabilia from their 109 years of operation. It was so clean and well-done, and not overly tacky. Again, so very surprised. The taproom itself was pretty big, comprised of two separate tap stations. We realized after a little bit that It kind of acts as a holding room for tour participants. It would get pretty crowded and then empty out over the course of thirty minutes or so.
They had a very large selection of beers on tap, and a decent amount that you couldn’t get anywhere else. This is why I love going to breweries. You can also ask for samples, which I loved. I tried a watermelon Aqua Fresca that I have to say was mind-blowingly good. But, you come to Shiner to drink a Shiner, because it’s always better at the source. And, I can confirm that it was.
After hanging out in the nice air-conditioned taproom, we reluctantly took our last sips and headed for home. Although Shiner is pretty far outta town, it was 100% worth the drive. Not only that, but the drive through Texas Hill Country, aint that bad. Especially when there is a Shiner waiting for you at the other end.
check out our shiner video below :
