Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
Shiner Bock’s a standby in the world of smaller beers gone big. A widely available, mass produced beer that leans into its local roots.
Like Sam Adams is decidedly Boston, Shiner is decidedly Texas. While the Massachusetts standby presses its status as a craft brewing pioneer, Shiner has always felt a little more universal. A little more attainable. A little less snobby.
Part of that was because the company’s flagship beer, Shiner Bock, was so dang easy to drink. It was basic malty goodness, a step up from macrobrewing’s golden lagers that you could find in most supermarket beer aisles or package stores for negligibly more than a Miller High Life or Coors Banquet beer.
There’s more to Shiner than just Bock. The question remains whether the rest of the company’s brews can live up to the standard of its simple, beloved headliner. The cold weather — well, relatively cold for Texas — has brought along a swell of new seasonals and offerings from the brewery. Let’s drink those and see what we’ve got.