Third Review... Shiner Bock Brown Ale

Shiner Brewery in Shiner Texas makes a full range of Ales (at least that is what they say on their website, www.shiner.com). Shiner Bock is one of the few brews that comes out of the third greatest state in the union (the first two being Arizona and Colorado) that is generally avalible here in Phoenix.

In general Shiner Bock is about how you would expect a Brown Ale to be. Full of flavor but not to much bite. It's got a bit of sweetness to it, not like a fat tire but more subtle. It also has a hint of a smokey flavor like a porter again is very subtle to find it. Overall all a way above average beer that has come from much farther away then fat tire or the flying dog (~800 --> 900 miles to the Denver Ft Collins are as opposed to ~1100 miles for Shiner TX Ok it's not that big of a diffrence but you get the idea)

Shiner loses points for having a twist off top.. I know it's from Texas and all but come on even a good Texan in a dry county has to have access to a bottle opener (the whole dry county concept is the only reason I can come up with as to why a micro brew would even consider such a device acceptable). Also shave off a few more points for the beer being better out of a bottle then a glass, at the very minimum it should be equally good out of both if not better in a glass.

A good beer, just not the first one I would reach for.

Ok lets talk about cleaning....

So if you've done any reading at all on the whole home brew process you have surely run across more then a chapter or fifty about how important it is to clean and sanitize your equipment.

The good news, it's easy to do and doesn't require alot of heavy elbow work, the bad news. You have the most ungainly group of items ever devised by man to clean. Did I mention the nooks and crannies? No? Oh you have nooks and crannies too.

Case in point #1 the Keg... because bottling is so much worse then kegging. Now for those of you keeping score at home this is the same keg that I kept batch #1 in and the keg I planned on putting batch #2 in.

The stuff in the bottom? The normal sediment you get with home brewing since your not filitering your beer like the micro/macro brews you get this lovely sludge in the bottom. The good news it's mostly beer (barely) and fine particulate matter so it's easy to rinse out. The bad news... remember the bit about the nooks and crannies? Now look down on the bottom of the picture... see the tube thats where the beer comes out of the keg... You need to clean that too.



I can already hear you crying with joy now.

It's not as bad as you think... the thing actually screws out first off and then you can get a special brush to clean the inside. If you goto morebeer.com it's called a line brush if you talk to the guys at homebrewdepot here in Mesa it's a "dip tube brush". So cleaning the keg isn't that bad at all and once you've got it disassembled it's really easy to clean. I think I may get a toliet brush (a new one you sicko) to clean the keg after the next batch clears out. Since all I really did this time was rinse it with water and gave the keg a once over with my carboy brush.

I am probably going to look for a deep socket set since the connectors on the top of the keg are hexagonal in shape and a socket wrench will fit around them. Lets just say it's a little unnerving pressurizing your tank to 25psi after hand tightening everything.

Of course if things had gone south on me I would have the start of a very nice sky light in my kitchen.

Batch #2 and other thoughts....

I kegged Batch #2 this evening... I don't know how the fermentation took... there was about .25 of a inch of yeast on the bottom of the carboy.... I don't know if this is because of the yeast I used or the beer. The last batch had almost 2 inches of yeast.

I also planned on posting more photos and cleaning guide.. I think that is going to wait until tommrow night.