Shiner Brewers Pride Belgian Blonde
Spoetzl Brewery

Taste: bready semi sweet, honey, with clean easy finish. Same with the sweet honey nose. Deep golden hue, clear, nice refined head and some lace. Medium body. Crisp and an easy drinker. 10 IBUs

 

it's back again! this time made with Burleson honey

pours a mostly clear deep gold body with an orange-ish tinge and a cream colored foam head that billows and falls immediately, simmering to a thin halo, and leaving occasional specs of lacing behind as it goes

aroma is lots of robust and floral honey as well as clove and vanilla

taste follows that straight on. huge dose of carbonated honey - a rich and robust honey with a little spice to it, enhanced by notes of clove and the Belgian yeast and vanilla

mouthfeel is high carbonation and medium body, running prickly and crisp before finishing dry and spiced

overall:
very interesting entry. the honey angle was really well done, balancing what could have been too sweet with a robust and rich kick, before getting additional complexity and ultimate balance with the Belgian staples. it's certainly next tier for this brewery in my opinion. my only complaint is the way the thing looks - just not as exciting as most Belgians on market.

From the bottle, it poours a clear amber color with a modest head, soon diminishing to a few islands. In the nose, it is slightly funky. In the mouth, it is plain and slightly malty. Perhaps the bottle was a bit old...

 

 

 

Appearance: Very hazy golden peach glass holds a thin white cover that rings and gives a little lace.

Aroma: Banana, slight funk of overripe peach, banana bread, clove. Heavy yeasty esters of fruit that block out any malt notes. Light almost metallic note

Taste: Mineral water, earthy hops, tangy bitter lime peel, all on a fairly thin malt base, at least relative to the amount of flavors going on. I don't think this is the house yeast, maybe something Belgian.

Mouthfeel: Firm carbonation goes a bit prickly, medium body goes very dry quickly.

Overall: Style? Belgian Pale? Almost a Saison character. I am generally not a fan of Belgian Pales and prefer it when they go big, and ecclesiastical. What this isn't is a Shiner wearing a Belgian hat, they went authentic and fairly bold with this. If you wrapped a little brewery in the outskirts of Brussels label on this, I wouldn't have blinked at the taste. That said it starts getting a little heavy once the carbonation bleeds off. Cheers to Shiner for one to go to school on.

 

 

 

This is a real nice beer from Shiner. Poured from a bottle into a tulip glass. Cloudy yellow color with a nice white head and good lacing. Sweet fruity smell and taste. Nicely dry and lemony. Something I would get again.

 

 

 

Poured from bottle into Celis tulip, 2 finger soapy cream colored head recedes down to 1/2 finger and hangs around, good lacing. Hazy golden in the glass. Smells of fruity belgian yeast esters (I am excited), bready grain and lemon. Taste is what I want it to be, has some fruity yeast esters, sweet belgian candi sugar and some light notes of citrus, almost lemony. Nice job Shiner, but please don't make this a one and done. Very good drinking 6% beer. Going to haul this with me to the sushi restaurant tonite. The only thing I would change would be to make it a tad bit dryer/crisper, but I can live with that