gcarter
07-05-2009, 12:05 PM
Or so folks from Texas say.... I'm not a beer drinker but Ive been aware of Shine Bock (from Shiner, TX) all my life. Before they built I-10, goin' through Shiner was how you got to my grandfather's house;
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6510423.html
Once over a barrel, brewer finds prosperity
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press
July 4, 2009, 12:47AM
ERIC GAY : ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Spoetzl Brewery is home to Shiner beers. The brewery is celebrating 100 years of brewing beer.
SHINER — By all accounts, Shiner beer shouldn’t have made it this long. The Spoetzl Brewery ferments its brew in a one-stoplight town that’s not on the way to anywhere, and much larger regional brewers long ago succumbed to consolidation and the muscle of national brewers.
For years, Spoetzl limped along. But today, at 100 years of age, Shiner beers are more popular than ever, and it is the oldest and largest craft brewer in the state.
“It’s the classic little guy story,” said Mike Renfro, author of Shine On, a book about the brewery’s history. “They managed to overcome some pretty incredible odds.”
Before Prohibition and easy interstate travel, the nation was dotted with regional brewers, but only a handful have survived and remained independent. In Texas, there’s just Shiner now, and it’s growing. The brewery produces 400,000 barrels a year, 10 times what it did 20 years ago, and distributes to 39 states, company officials say.
The German and Czech immigrants who settled and farmed around this town, roughly halfway between San Antonio and Houston, formed the Shiner Brewing Association in 1909. That year, they bored a well and at 55 feet, water bubbled to the surface, providing a water source that the brewery still uses. German immigrant Kosmos Spoetzl bought the brewery in 1915 and marketed his brew by loading up his Model T with kegs and ice, offering laborers what today is basically Shiner Blonde.
He ran the brewery until his death in 1950, when his daughter Cecelie took over. She ran it for nearly 16 years.
But time pretty much stood still in Shiner as the beer industry went through consolidations in the 1960s and 1970s. Spoetzl stayed independent, surviving mostly because of a loyal following among Austin drinkers for Shiner Bock. The brewery was so ramshackle and remote that big companies weren’t really interested in it.
By the late 1980s, the brewery was probably on the verge of last call, said brewmaster Jimmy Mauric, 49, who has been working at Spoetzl since he was a teenager.
Salvation, and modernization, for Shiner-brand beers came in 1989 with the arrival of Carlos Alvarez, a beer marketing executive who first encountered Shiner Bock while building a U.S. market for Grupo Modelo’s Corona brands. His Gambrinus Co. bought the Shiner brewery.
Just about everything at the brewery needed to be rebuilt and replaced, but Alvarez said he wanted to keep it in the town of Shiner. He liked the authenticity it gave the brand and the people who made the beer.
“They are farmers. They work in the fields. They are extremely handy,” he said. “It makes a huge difference to be able to be from a real town, from real people who are not the creation” of marketers.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6510423.html
Once over a barrel, brewer finds prosperity
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press
July 4, 2009, 12:47AM
ERIC GAY : ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Spoetzl Brewery is home to Shiner beers. The brewery is celebrating 100 years of brewing beer.
SHINER — By all accounts, Shiner beer shouldn’t have made it this long. The Spoetzl Brewery ferments its brew in a one-stoplight town that’s not on the way to anywhere, and much larger regional brewers long ago succumbed to consolidation and the muscle of national brewers.
For years, Spoetzl limped along. But today, at 100 years of age, Shiner beers are more popular than ever, and it is the oldest and largest craft brewer in the state.
“It’s the classic little guy story,” said Mike Renfro, author of Shine On, a book about the brewery’s history. “They managed to overcome some pretty incredible odds.”
Before Prohibition and easy interstate travel, the nation was dotted with regional brewers, but only a handful have survived and remained independent. In Texas, there’s just Shiner now, and it’s growing. The brewery produces 400,000 barrels a year, 10 times what it did 20 years ago, and distributes to 39 states, company officials say.
The German and Czech immigrants who settled and farmed around this town, roughly halfway between San Antonio and Houston, formed the Shiner Brewing Association in 1909. That year, they bored a well and at 55 feet, water bubbled to the surface, providing a water source that the brewery still uses. German immigrant Kosmos Spoetzl bought the brewery in 1915 and marketed his brew by loading up his Model T with kegs and ice, offering laborers what today is basically Shiner Blonde.
He ran the brewery until his death in 1950, when his daughter Cecelie took over. She ran it for nearly 16 years.
But time pretty much stood still in Shiner as the beer industry went through consolidations in the 1960s and 1970s. Spoetzl stayed independent, surviving mostly because of a loyal following among Austin drinkers for Shiner Bock. The brewery was so ramshackle and remote that big companies weren’t really interested in it.
By the late 1980s, the brewery was probably on the verge of last call, said brewmaster Jimmy Mauric, 49, who has been working at Spoetzl since he was a teenager.
Salvation, and modernization, for Shiner-brand beers came in 1989 with the arrival of Carlos Alvarez, a beer marketing executive who first encountered Shiner Bock while building a U.S. market for Grupo Modelo’s Corona brands. His Gambrinus Co. bought the Shiner brewery.
Just about everything at the brewery needed to be rebuilt and replaced, but Alvarez said he wanted to keep it in the town of Shiner. He liked the authenticity it gave the brand and the people who made the beer.
“They are farmers. They work in the fields. They are extremely handy,” he said. “It makes a huge difference to be able to be from a real town, from real people who are not the creation” of marketers.