Shiner 777 IPL
Spoetzl Brewery

Appearance: Hazy orange amber glass holds a cover of sticky tan lace.

Aroma: Worty, with earthy hops.

Taste: Malty, worty, little under attenuation that goes a bit orange peel. There's a firm hop presence but it's very old world, very dusty, not citric or pine. English IPA profile. A tonic water pilsner undertone comes through when all the sugars wear off, which takes a while.

Mouthfeel: Medium heavy body (rare for Shiner to get above medium), slick texture, oily finish.

Overall: I like my IPAs West coast, and so I haven't really enjoyed beers in the Imperial or Double Pilsner style. This goes in the same bag, so if you like this kind of beer, I can recommend you try this as it's clean and well executed. But, it's not my cup of tea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

12oz bottle. Poured out a clear, golden orange color with a good-sized, head of white foam. It smelled woody with toasted caramel and malt. Piney and woody taste with sweet caramel and bitterness.

 

 

BOTTLE: 1 pint 8 fl oz. Brown glass. Twist-off crown cap. Ran me ~$3 at a Whole Paycheck in Austin, TX.

"India Pale Lager aged on Oak staves." 7% ABV. Brewed with 7 hop varieties (Crystal, Cascade, Nugget, Sterling, Mt. Hood, Golding and Willamette." 70 IBU. (Get it!? 777!)

Tastes quite bad, probably because of the scatterbrained hop profile. Cactus juice, sticky artificial lime juice, 6-row, herbal hop flavours...this is just a mess. Tastes like someone added Rose's lime juice to a syrupy Mexican lager.

Horridly imbalanced, lacking any discernable focus or intentionality in terms of its flavour profile. Far from refreshing, but then they must've known it wouldn't be when they brought it in at 7% ABV.

Mouthfeel is sticky, coating, and generally off-putting in spite of being the usually approachable combination of smooth and wet. At least it's not overcarbonated.

Overall, it's badly executed across the board, and it's difficult to discern what they were really after with this beyond the marketing gimmick of the three 7s corresponding to numerical information about the beer's ingredients. Like Schmaltz Brewing's gimmick-ridden anniversary beers, Spoetzl has prioritized the quantity of ingredients as a marketing shtick over the quality of the actual beer. Poor work from Shiner...one wonders if the "Brewer's pride in every drop!" isn't just an assistant brewer's urine.

D- (1.82) / NOT RECOMMENDED

Pours a slightly hazy amber color with a finger width foamy head. Head recent is decent. Lacing is good. Has a slightly sour aroma to me. There is some breadiness and caramel. Aroma is not that strong. Very malty taste. Bready and caramel. Mild grassy hop. It is a little bitter at the end. Light to medium bodied with moderate to heavy carbonation. Better than I expected.

 

 

 

12 oz. bottle poured into pilsener
(July 11, 2017 born-on date printed on bottom of bottle)

L: clear copper-gold topped by massive, thick head of beige foam that is super sticky; as it poured it looked a bit misty in the glass, but it's not misty ... not crystal clear but close; keeps a sudsy skin and thick collar with plenty of activity in the glass; no major lacing after the big stick off the head but still a work of art

S: mango-caramel ... full malt takeover, super sweet

T: mango-caramel at first, but the hops still have enough life in them to offer a good backbite that's earthy; no oak or wood character anywhere unless you take a massive gulp, which you'd never do with a 7% ABV brew, but if you did you'd taste a big chunk of burnt BBQ pit wood ... a bit too charred but still tasty

F: pretty light and crisp for 7% ABV ... the brewer nailed the lager part here

O: tastes more or less like the average American DIPA; that's disappointing because there's little "lager" and absolutely no "pilsner" here, but that's to be expected with this style; Shiner did get the "lager" part right with the look and mouthfeel, and it's feel is light and crisp enough that I'd love to try a super fresh version of this beer -- my bottle has experienced a massive malt coup d'etat, but the bitter backbite says the hops once held bigger sway months ago; unless the oak is adding to that bitter backbite, there's no oak here ... again disappointing but (double again) the bottle's almost 5 months old, and it does still have a ton of flavor