Shiner 106 Birthday Beer (Chocolate Stout)
Chocolate Stout. Cheers to 106 years.
To celebrate the 106th birthday of the “Little Brewery” in Shiner, we crafted this special limited-edition brew that’s a sweet treat for all. Brewed with chocolate malt and real cocoa, this year’s Shiner Birthday Beer is a delicious out with a soft creamy head, chocolate aroma and taste and a slightly sweet finish. Drink this beer that’s as rich as Shiner’s heritage while it lasts- once it’s gone, you’ll have to wait until next year for another birthday surprise.
To celebrate the 106th birthday of the “Little Brewery” in Shiner, we crafted this special limited-edition brew that’s a sweet treat for all. Brewed with chocolate malt and real cocoa, this year’s Shiner Birthday Beer is a delicious out with a soft creamy head, chocolate aroma and taste and a slightly sweet finish. Drink this beer that’s as rich as Shiner’s heritage while it lasts- once it’s gone, you’ll have to wait until next year for another birthday surprise.
3.4
187 reviews
Shiner, United States
Community reviews
Poured from a 12 OZ bottle into a pint glass.
Aroma- has a big chocolate aroma, very nice.
Appearance- Pours a dark brown to almost black in color. It has a small beige head.
Taste- Is mainly a cocoa flavor with some malt thrown in, OK, flavor
Palate- This is a medium bodied beer with light carbonation.
Overall- A slightly above average beer, I have had several better brands and styles from Spoetzl. I was hoping for more flavor for this.
bottle @ Party Town / Florence KY --- Nearly opaque black color, tan head that drops to a full rim head, sprays of lace. Aroma of malt and chocolate. Taste is rich, creamy, roasted malt that has solid overtones of chocolate. Bittering may be present, but it seems more a function of the carbonation than specific hops. Taste is toward the sweet, for sure, but it isn’t overpowering, and it is easy to quaff. One of Shiner’s best.
Tap at the ginger man in Austin with commonmac. Black with small off white head in pint glass. Dark chocolate nose. Weirdly almost sour at first, then the creamy sweetness I expected. Chocolate. Fast finish and medium body. If it didn’t have that weird start I would have been a fan.
Opaque, sparse lace.
Chocolate nose.
Medium body, intense flavor, flat and lean mouthfeel, low carbonation and alcohol heat, short palate.
Low acidity, moderately bitter, dry.
Intense chocolate and roast flavors.
Rather unbalanced and weak.
Presentation: It was poured from a brown 12 oz bottle into a tulip glass. The label lists the abv at 5% abv and there is a nice short description of the beer on the back label.
Appearance: The body has a very deep dark brown to almost black color. It is topped off with a small light tan head. This head settles quickly leaving just a light ring of foam at the edge of the glass. There is a little glass lacing at the top of the glass but it is mostly slick and slides down the sides of the glass.
Smell: The aroma is full of chocolate and dark cocoa powder like character.
Taste / Palate: The flavor starts off with notes of milk chocolate which blends into dark cocoa powder notes. The base malt is a bit light for me and I also pick up a slight hint of the hops but not enough to really add significant depth of flavor. It has a medium body and mouth feel with an average easy drinking character.
I don’t drink beer with a twist off cap, but as so many people were ooohing and aaahing over this, I thought I would at least give it a go to check out the buzz and what it was all about.
Force of habit has me using a bottle opener anyway, and once the lid is peeled back, I find myself craving a cup of coffee to go with the cocoa-intensive cookies pouring from the neck. The aroma is one basic track...cocoa, chocolate and milk chocolate covered chocolate. The head is substantial and porous, khaki in color and a bit soft. I’ll be surprised if it lasts long. The body is thin and I expected so much more depth to the fluid that it’s disappointing. I know that a sweet stout is generally a bit thin in body, but with the rich chocolate aroma, I couldn’t help but expect "thick". The sweet brew has enhanced the of dryness over the flat of my tongue, and the carbonation brings the brew dancing throughout my mouth; lively but a tad fizzy for my liking. The head has stayed quite strong throughout and is still very impressive!
The flavor is crispy chocolate biscuit cookies, something akin to a chocolate digestive, but without the ooey gooey side. A bit too thin to remind me of a Tootsie Roll, but toasty malts, chocolate and the dark berry that almost any true chocolate will carry with it is there attempting to pull it off anyway.
The aroma gets me, but I’m not going to run out to buy this again. It’s too thin and the bright carbonation isn’t exciting to me. Very one-dimensional. It’s probably a great beer to drink at the end of the night, when you’ve run yourself out of amazing bottles and you just need dessert. Also, nice little gimmick for the Birthday Beer Drinker!
Sample at 69 Taps. Dark brown pour with a thin tan head that dissipates quickly to an outer ring. Small patches of lacing. Roasted malt and sweet chocolate in the nose. Light-bodied with a milk chocolate and roast malt character. The finish is sweet with a chocolaty aftertaste. Pretty one-note but decent overall.
Shiner... I mean Spoetzl, made a delicious Chocolate Stout to celebrate it’s 106th anniversary. Amazing!
I really enjoyed this one. It didn’t impress me much at first, but after a few sips, it develops a great flavor profile that made me think of banana split: a chocolate, banana, nutty kind of flavor.
Bottle - Nice dark pour with a chocolate cake icing aroma. And it goes downhill from there as it doesn’t taste as good as it smells. Still some chocolate in there but mostly thin and watery. Has a finish that tastes like medicine. Worth a shot but I wouldn’t look for a second one.
12oz bottle from Crossroads. Pours dark brown/almost black with a large foamy tan head. Aroma of strong chocolate cake batter, ashy burnt malt, and caramel. Taste mimics the nose, with lots of artificial chocolate and vanilla.
Draft at Milkboy. Opaque black pour with a fizzy/foamy off-white head. Big chocolate aroma. Tastes of chocolate as well - but the body feels ridiculously watery. Nice tinge of bitter cocoa drying in the finish - but unfortunately feels like a great shot of chocolate stout added to a full glass of club soda. So ... if you are into that OK - but to me woefully lacking!
Appearance: Dark black body with a creamy very light tan head.
Aroma: I get a chocolate aroma but not like regular chocolate...kind of like a chocolate tootsie roll pop. It does smell good.
Taste: Definite chocolate flavor. There isn’t much complexity to the beer...it’s more like a chocolate soda.
Mouthfeel: The mouthfeel is very poor. It is probably the greatest detriment to this beer. It is very thin bodied and watery.
Overall: It really gets the chocolate "check in the box" but there is no base beer to set as a canvas. It’s just a watered down chocolate drink. It really is unfortunate because the chocolate stands out and would probably work great on a beer that has some flavor and body. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Poured from a 12 oz can. Aroma is chalky and somewhat chocolatey. Flavor is surprisingly boozy at first, cherry and a bit fake chocolate-like. Feels a bit watery and chalky in the finish.
12 oz can. Aroma: malty and roasty, with hints of chalk, dried marshmallows, cardboard, and last year’s cheapass milk chocolate Easter candy. Taste/Palate: thin, creamy, and sweet.
Aroma, wow, smells like chocolate syrup, based on the aroma, I could’ve given this a perfect rating, but, not so fast...Appearance is very dark, black even, Head is interestingly more off white than tan like you’d expect. Head doesn’t last long...Taste is pretty good. Not as chocolately as you would think after smelling it. I’ll call it cocoa. It’s sweet, but not sweet enough....Mouthfeel, meh, not what I would call a stout, it’s a little too thin, a little too watery, and a little too dry. Overall, I would certainly get this again. Since it’s a limited beer, I may go and buy some more. I like it, and I think you will too!
more of a chocolate brown ale than a chocolate stout moderate roast and there is chocolate in the flavor pallet is on the thin side and thus lacks the thick rich flavor of the best chocolate starts ok for an inexpensive beer
Location: Bottle shared at Max and Andy’s Tasting, 2/28/15
Aroma: For some reason, this smells like almost exactly like a rainbow cookie to me
Appearance: It pours a brown color, with a light tan head
Flavor: Taste-wise, it is very sweet and pretty much right on the nose
Palate: Feels smooth and clean, with a soft carbonation, and a very smooth finish
Overall Impression:
This is not too bad at all actually. For some reason I enjoyed the cake aroma. I mean shout out to my NY/NJ/Boca folks out there, you guys know that bakery rainbow cookie/cake, and this beer is it. Tastiest thing I’ve had from Shiner.
A: chocolate milk. A: dark brown pour with minimal head. T: sweet milk chocolate, tastes like birthday day cake. P: medium bodied, slightly thin. O: not bad, too much to drink a lot of though. A little too sweet.
Thick creamy head on this one. Nose is rich sweet and great. Yup chocolate dominates. Thin powdery mouthfeel at first. A bit better as it warms. Tastes a bit like a milky latte. Okay. Bottle from tops in fredonia.
A good yearly effort from Shiner. My fiancé loves this beer as it loaded with chocolate and finishes strong in that aspect. If the chocolate aspect was a little less strong I would enjoy it more.
Bottle poured a dark brown with a two finger tan head. The malty aroma was like a rich chocolate bar and cake frosting. The sweet taste had a rich hot chocolate and chocolate cake flavor that slightly lingers. The texture was creamy but thin for a stout and the body was light to medium. As a birthday beer it met expectations of something sweet and delicious.
Bottle at Paul’s for Andy and Max’s Fantasy Football winnings tasting. Pours a clear cola brown with a thin white head. Smells of chocolate cake, roast, cocoa. Medium bodied, tastes of chocolate cake batter, chocolate frosting out of the can. Flavors continue into the finish.
One of the best stouts I’ve ever tried. First aroma was like brownie cake, later I also felt hot chocolate and malt notes. In taste you can’t taste alcohol, it is hidden well. Head was creamy and tasty. I wish I could get this beer back in Poland!
bottle shared with hakes at club w, nice chocolare bar aroma, taste is chocolate, sugar, goodness, I like it!
12oz bottle poured to a tulip. Nice thick tan head with good retention. Extensive lacing. Smells of dark chocolate, cocoa and fudge. Black and opaque color. Tastes like a chocolate on chocolate cake, very chocolate with little to no bittering. Watery mouthfeel that detracts from the whole beer. Otherwise delicious with a sweet finish. Cheers!
Pours a thin head on a black body.
The aroma is dark chocolate, a little mint, and roasted malt. Rich but nice.
The taste is mildly sweet, with an undercurrent of bitter chocolate flavor.
The texture is smooth.
The great chocolate aroma but downplayed chocolate sweet flavor make this quite drinkable.
Bottle->nonic. Deep brown with huge frothy tan head. A: strong chocolate. T: chocolate, hint of mint, metal. Thin. Ultimately unpleasant, with a medicinal quality.
12 oz bottle- Pours almost completely black with a small creamy light tan head that sustains decently. Aroma is cocoa, toffee, sweet and sugary, milk duds. The taste is milk duds right off the bat, sweet, some dark chocolate in there as well, generic malt, tastes like a milk stout with chocolate. Body is light and carbonation is fine. Not bad. The sweetness of the beer starts to wear on me fairly quickly, had to lower my taste and overall one each, just a bit too sweet for me.
A surprisingly tasty entry from Shiner channeling fudge iced chocolate cake. The aroma and flavors are spot on here, but a thin lackluster body takes away from the experience. Nonetheless kudos to Shiner for trying something clearly outside of their wheelhouse, and largely succeeding. Very drinkable and a fine dessert beer, or just session it at the company holiday party.