The Shiner Brewery is celebrating is 100th in appropriate fashion – with a beer that says a lot about where’s this Texas institution has been and where it’s going. I bought a six-pack of Commemorator – a great name by a company with perfect pitching for selling longnecks—and drank a couple with the Super Bowl with a friend who’s favorite beer if Shiner Bock ( but he’s always open to new ideas). Brad’s take was, it’s good but for the 100th anniversary he was hoping for better. For perspective I’d bought a six of another new offering, St. Arnold’s Spring Bock, because in Houston the Super Bowl marks the end of football season and the first signs of spring on the way. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/DN-nf_shiner_1203gd.State.Edition1.246aeff.html Commemorator is a dark lager – a story about the anniversary from the San Antonio Express News calls it a dopplebock—which would be the logical next beer-making step for a brewery whose resurgence was built on the back of its popular bock beer. And like a lot of things that come out of Shiner I like, I think it’s a good thing to drink but I’m not blown away by it. Part of the problem is the beer type – if you are expecting a dopplebock it comes up short of a pretty extreme type of beer typified by that German classic Salvator. It’s got more going on than Shiner Bock but this isn’t a company that does extreme. Like my college career, this one gets a lot of Bs according to the Beer Advocate reviews that I looked at because I’m no expert. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/143/47098 The drinkability is decent. I really wanted to like this one, but it is not as good as their black lager. I say this despite a strong preference for the style. Oh well...there's always 101. By far the very best beer I have had from Shiner. This should become a regular and a launching pad for more good beers. As Shiner Bock was my first beer to ever drink, I have a fondness for the brewery. With that said, I have to say this is thee worst beer I have ever had from Shiner. This beer just reminds me of the taste you wake up with in the morning, after a long night of drinking cheap beer Taste -- like an improved Shiner Bock. Pretty good maltiness. A little sweet. Drinkability: Pretty good. I could drink a few of these. The last one pretty much sums up what Shiner does well. It’s not a beer that stops you after the first step to ask, what did I just taste? But after a few of them it’s not annoying you. During the Super owl I found myself getting annoyed with the sweetness of the St. Arnolds. So Commemorator beat out a beer I paid $2 a six pack more for. And I just hope they keep putting out new beers. Shiner isn’t trying to Dogfish here but it has built a nearly national market by offering something good for a long afternoon of smoking brisket can have some character. It’s a good story. The place that plays up its distant past – when Kosmos Spoetzl would drive around in in Model T with iced kegs,offering a taste to Central Texas farmers – also has its tied dyed side as well according to this account from TexasBreweries.com. http://www.texasbreweries.com/shiner.htm Brewery records indicate that Bock was brewed here as early as 1917, but its popularity is a relatively recent phenomenon that owes to the old Austin hippie scene. Shiner premium became a popular beer for members of the Austin counterculture in the early 1970s for a variety of reasons (including low price). But when a seasonal shipment of Shiner Bock rode into town about 1975, it was "love at first quaff." By 1978, Spoetzl was brewing Bock year round to supply the Austin market. And they seem to have a sense of humor. I liked this joke that first appeared in the San Antonio Express-News back in 2000. After the Great International Beer Festival, all the brewery presidents decided to go out for a beer. The guy from Corona sits down and says, "Hey, señor, I would like the world's best beer, a Corona." The bartender takes a bottle from the shelf and gives it to him. The guy from Budweiser says, "I'd like the best beer in the world, 'the king of beers,' a Budweiser." The bartender gives him one. The guy from Coors says, "I'd like the only beer made with Rocky Mountain spring water. Give me a Coors." He gets it. The guy from Shiner sits down and says, "Give me a Coke." The bartender is a little taken aback, but gives him what he ordered. The other brewery presidents look over at him and ask, "Why aren't you drinking a Shiner?" The Shiner President replies, "I figured if you guys aren't drinking beer, neither would I." Nobody with a Shiner longneck in their hand can doubt they’ve got a real beer – excect for that wretched Christmas mess of their's -- and you can’t say that about everything you buy.