Pictured is the Armadillo World Headquarters beer garden, showing prices for different pours.
Austin 360
In the 1960s and ’70s, Austin was becoming known for what made it different from other parts of Texas: long-haired idealists, musicians and people trying to figure out a life outside the usual rules.
Shiner beer fit right in.
Article continues below this ad
While the rest of the country was drinking mass-produced light lagers, Shiner Bock was finding its people in Austin. It belonged at college bars, music venues and wherever people were gathering to do something different.
Van Morrison and band onstage at the Armadillo World Headquarters on Jan. 10, 1974. Contributed by Burton Wilson
Austin American-Statesman
Its following grew in the 1970s, when the Armadillo World Headquarters opened and started pouring Shiner Bock for concertgoers. A glass cost three dimes.
Many beer lovers know Shiner Bock. Fewer know about the Texas town where the beer was born.
Article continues below this ad
Shiner Bock’s Texas origins
Spoetzl Brewery, founded in the early part of the 20th century, claims to be Texas’ oldest independent brewery. [Mauri Elbel for STATESMAN]
Austin 360
Located roughly 90 miles from both Austin and San Antonio and 120 miles from Houston, Shiner is a town of just over 2,000 people.
For more than a century, the K. Spoetzl Brewery has been making beer in this small Texas community. The brewery has survived two world wars, Prohibition, changing tastes and several generations of leadership.
Article continues below this ad
The story begins in the early 1900s, when German and Czech immigrants settled across Texas and longed for the beer they knew from home.
Kosmos Spoetzl, a German immigrant and trained brewmaster, arrived in Texas with years of brewing experience that had taken him from Germany to Canada, Egypt, San Francisco and eventually San Antonio. He carried with him a Bavarian beer recipe.
In 1915, Spoetzl leased the Shiner operation with Oswald Petzold and eventually bought the facility, renaming it the K. Spoetzl Brewery. The location was key because local artesian water became part of the brewery’s identity and shaped the character of its lagers.
Fermentation tanks at the Spoetzl Brewery.
Ana Gutierrez / Austin American-Statesman
Today, stainless steel fermentation tanks line the production floor, including some original equipment. A strain of European lager yeast brought from Germany continues its work, though that yeast is kept in a secret facility.
Article continues below this ad
At the center of it all is the brewmaster.
Gregory Hybner currently holds the position, continuing a family connection to the brewery. His father, John Hybner, was also a brewmaster at Shiner, serving under two brewers before him.
During production, brewers check the sweet liquid extracted from grains, known as wort. Temperatures and fermentation are monitored. For those who spend enough time around the brewery, the process is all around them.
“Depending on which way the wind is blowing, I can smell when something is brewing,” said Larissa Blaschke, who has worked at Shiner for 12 years.
Article continues below this ad
Blaschke was born and raised in Shiner. She lives nearby, where the brewery’s presence is a fact of daily life.
Surviving Prohibition
A 1933 certification marked the end of Prohibition for the K. Spoetzl Brewery.
Ana Gutierrez / Austin American-Statesman
The brewery’s survival has required more than good beer.
Article continues below this ad
When Prohibition took effect in 1920, breweries across the country were forced to close or find new ways to stay alive. Spoetzl, according to brewery lore, was among those who found creative ways to keep producing.
“He’d forget to boil out the alcohol,” Blaschke said, winking.
The joke carries a larger truth. The Spoetzl Brewery endured.
Spoetzl died in 1950, leaving the business to his daughter, Cecilie, known around these parts as Miss Celie. According to Shiner, she became the only woman serving as both owner and brewmaster of a brewery in the country at the time.
Article continues below this ad
The Shiner experience
A replica of a shiner 6-pack is found at the entrance of the K. Spoetzl Brewery grounds.
Ana Gutierrez / Austin American-Statesman
The brewery’s growth is visible on its grounds.
There is a taproom, with dozens of beers on offer, a gift shop, outdoor spaces, a restaurant, tours and events. There are people who arrive from places much farther away than Austin or San Antonio.
Article continues below this ad
Visitors drive from Minnesota, Louisiana and other parts of the country to see where Shiner beer is made.
“People know the brands and they don’t realize that Shiner is a town,” Travis Robinson, manager at the brewery’s restaurant, said. “It’s a town full of great people that make really good beer.”
The K. Spoetzl Brewery & Distillery is located in Shiner.
Ana Gutierrez / Austin American-Statesman
The brewery employs people from the surrounding community, many of whom have family ties to the town. Others arrive from elsewhere, drawn by the size of the company and the opportunity to work somewhere with a history that runs deep.
Article continues below this ad
Robinson, originally from Los Angeles, said he had been drinking Shiner for years before realizing the brewery was located in Texas.
He eventually moved to the area, found work nearby and joined Shiner’s spirits operation. What began as an unexpected career move has become part of the brewery’s ongoing expansion. Even after several years, he said, the property continues to change.
“This was three bushes a year ago,” he said, gesturing toward the restaurant grounds. “It was just three big hedges. And now we have this whole thing.”
About 11 months ago, the brewery added Rickhouse, the restaurant at the Spoetzl Distillery, offering Southern comfort food such as Gulf seafood, Cajun flavors, chicken-fried steak and barbecue-inspired dishes.
Article continues below this ad
The restaurant also offers salads, seafood, vegetarian dishes and cocktails made with Shiner spirits. The goal is to give visitors a reason to stay.
“You really can spend the day here,” Robinson said.
The future of Shiner
Shiner Bock and other beers available from the Spoetzl Brewery. Tuesday, July 8, 2014.
MediaNews Group/Boston Herald vi/MediaNews Group via Getty Images
There is a tendency, when talking about historic brands, to treat the past as the most important part of the story.
Article continues below this ad
At Shiner, the past is everywhere. But the brewery is headed forward.
The company continues to experiment with beer styles, seasonal offerings and spirits.
For employees who have watched the property evolve, that future is part of what keeps the work interesting.
“It’s never the same day,” Robinson said.
Article continues below this ad
There are weddings, tours, festivals and locals who stop by because they have been coming to the brewery for years. There are families on weekend outings and bikers who have driven hundreds of miles to pay their respects to the place that makes the beer they love.
For a small town, the scale of the gatherings can feel disproportionate.
But Shiner is not Austin. It is not San Antonio. It is not Houston.
Article continues below this ad
It is a place where people know each other, where the brewery is a major employer and where an expansion can really change the rhythm of the town.
Dining and Cooking