Shiner Oktoberfest...a little late, but still

Got some samples of this one, and, well...you know what my blogging's been like lately. But I had one today, and remembered what the others were like, and I gotta say: if you see any of this award-winning (European awards; up against German ofests...really) festbier, you ought to get some. Solid malt, that elusive Munich dry malt character, full and tasty, great with food...keep an eye out for it next year. (And keep an eye out for the Shiner Export, too: fantastic Dortmunder, and I really hope it's back.)

Shiner Smokehaus

Shiner sent me some samples of their new "Sommer bier," Shiner Smokehaus, a helles-style lager made with malt smoked over local mesquite. And it was smoked locally, too: the pictures show two Shiner employees smoking the malt out back of the brewery, loading 50 lbs. of malt in each tray in the smoker (the smoker's in the back of a truck; this is Texas, and you never know where you might need to smoke some meat). The firebox is juiced with wet, aged mesquite and started with propane, then the propane's turned off and the mesquite smolders smoke up through the trays.

As you might know, I'm a big fan of Schlenkerla Helles. Light smoke goes great with this kind of beer. The Shiner Smokehaus is more than light smoke, but it didn't overpower the beer; maybe it's the mesquite, maybe it's the solid malt quality of the beer, but it was juicy-good and fantastic with grilled beef.

This is not a big bear of a beer like Schlenkerla Märzen. It's summer-weight, and very drinkable. It's going to be a love-it-hate-it thing with people because of the smoke (getting panned in some newspaper columns by sunny-day "beer experts" who don't get smoke...risks of stretching the paradigm), but you can put me down in the love-it camp. If you're in a Shiner distribution area, get some of this before it's gone.

Shiner 100: Commemorator

The Spoetzl Brewery is 100 years old this year, and that means their series of anniversary beers that started at Shiner 96 -- a Märzen -- has come to a culmination in Shiner 100 Commemorator, a lean, drily malty doublebock...kind of. At 6.8%, this is a big bock, a kind of low-side doublebock.

It's brown, but not dark brown; sweet, but not cloying (I mean, at all); big, but not huge. I know a guy at Shiner, and I can tell by the way this beer tastes that he had a hand in the formulation: it's not too big, it's wicked drinkable for the size, and it's not cloying. It's got the little bit of raunch I have come to like in dark, malty beers, that edge that comes from using dark-roasted malts instead of malt-based coloring agents: the taste of authenticity.

I'm actually on my second one already, and it's tasting like there might be another one in my glass before this Pittsburgh/Baltimore game is over. Hope the Steelers put the Ravens away and put one Pennsylvania team in the Super Bowl...

To: You -- From: Shiner

I got a sample sixer of this year's Shiner Holiday Cheer and didn't get a chance to try it right away. Gotta admit: I figgered, ho-hum, another damned spice beer, what's the rush. The retro labeling (the cap, in script: "To: You -- From: Shiner." Very nice) Shiner has been using lately, along with the red and green and cream color scheme, was luring me on, though, and I finally succumbed last night.

I poured it without reading a thing about it, brought it up to my nose, and whoa! There was a strong aroma of ripe peaches, and something else underneath, a kind of cookie-nuttiness and spice. What the hell was this stuff? I took a sip, and the mouth was full of peach -- my second favorite fruit, after pears -- and that cookie thing humming in the background.

What the hell is this beast? I finally got the label and the letter and looked. It's a German-style dunkelweizen, flavored with Texas peaches and roasted pecans. Well, I'll be dipped. As my mom said, it's not something I'd drink all night, but it does make a delicious change of pace. Bet it would be great with duck or goose, too. Cheers, Shiner!

By the way...in case anyone was wondering, I messed with the photo to try to get it to look like the early 1960s snapshots I remember from my parents' photo albums of when my sister and I were growing up. Upped the flash, did a B&W wash on the background, and fuzzed it just a bit. What do you think?