About an hour and a half outside of San Antonio, you will find the Spoetzl Brewery in a little town called Shiner, Texas. Founded by German and Czech immigrants, they have been brewing beer there since 1909 with the ubiquitous Shiner Bock as their most popular offering. For years the brewery has been open for tours and samplings of their brews, but they have had no food to offer beyond maybe a bag of chips or other assorted snacks. This year the brewery opened up K. Spoetzel BBQ Co., though, so that you could have some good Texas barbeque to go with your beer. I happened to be traveling between San Antonio and Houston a couple of weeks ago and decided to make a slight detour to see what they were cooking up.
The barbeque place is on the premises and is located right next to the taproom. It is open seven days a week from 11 AM to 4 PM, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they are starting to run out of meat as it gets closer to the 4 PM hour. They have brisket, pulled pork, and sausage on the menu every day, and Thursday through Saturday they are cooking up half chickens and pork ribs. Wednesdays and Saturdays you can get a baked potato loaded with meat, and they have the usual sides like potato salad, coleslaw, pinto beans, and green beans (the latter is available Thu through Sat). You can see the full menu here. I decided to give the chopped brisket sandwich a try because in Texas brisket is the gauge for how good a barbeque place is.
First off, this is a big and messy sandwich. It is packed full of meat that is well-sauced and you will need several napkins while working your way through it. The brisket is tender and meaty but not drenched in sauce so that the taste of the smoked beef really comes through. The sauce adds the expected barbeque tang, but the brisket remains as the star of this sandwich. I got mine with jalapenos and those added a vinegar pop along with a bit of heat, but nothing that the average Texan can’t handle. Overall, it was definitely a good brisket sammy, very much in line with what you would expect to find in a small Texas town.
I also got the slaw, though that was more like a cabbage salad with a mild vinegar dressing that has some sweetness. It had some good crunch to it, and it actually works well when you add it to the sandwich. If you get the sandwich on the combo, it comes with chips and a drink for just eleven dollars. The coleslaw adds on another four bucks for a 4 oz portion. You can also just get the meat priced by the pound.
The barbeque place serves its food cafeteria-style and they have an open area outside where you can sit and eat. I was hoping they would have the Shiner beers on draft, but you have to go next door to the taproom for that. They are not really set up there to sell you one beer, possibly because of some of the regulations for breweries this size. If you buy one of their glass products, you can get two beer samplings. Or if you pay for the tour, you can get four or five. I was just stopping by for a quick lunch, so I didn’t get any beer, but they had a pretty wide selection of Shiner brews on tap.
So whether you are just looking for some good barbeque (at a fairly reasonable price) or if you want the full experience of beer and brisket, it is worth stopping by Spoetzel Brewery if you are in the area. It is not too far out of your way if you are driving between Houston and San Antonio (I think it added forty minutes to my trip total), and if you have the time you will certainly want to try out their beers as well as the barbeque.
Spoetzel Brewery is located at 603 E Brewery St, Shiner, TX 77984. It is open 10 AM to 6 PM Monday through Saturday and 12 PM to 6 PM on Sunday. K. Spoetzel BBQ Co.s is open 11 AM to 4 PM Monday through Sunday.
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