Shiner trip

A while ago we took a little trip to the Shiner brewery in Shiner Tx. I just got around to blogging about it. It was a great trip. Lots of fun!

Shiner is about a 1.5 hour drive southeast (towards Houston). We seldom go in that direction. We usually head west to the hill country. 1 hour east of Austin is starkly different than 1 hour west of Austin. Here we saw lush green flat farmland (not that different from Wisconsin or MO). To the west, the desert/hill country begins. It is hilly, brown and desolate. We saw some real live Texas longhorns on the drive in. The beef sighting made us hungry so we decided to stop in Lockhart Tx (the capitol of Texas BBQ) for lunch. In Lockhart there are 4 world famous BBQ joints to chose from. Smitty's, Chisholm Trail, Black's (the oldest run family bbq in Tx), and Kreuz Barbeque (since 1900). There is some contention as to which is the best as you might imagine... We didnt know which to go to so we just flipped a coin and landed on Smitty's.

You walk in the backdoor at Smitty's, and it is like an oven. Right next to the ordering line is the wood fire spewing into the hallway. By shoving the wood in or pulling it out they adjust the temperature of the pits. They have one HUGE chopping block where all the meat is cut. The chopping block is basically dripping with meat juice. It is simultaneously mouthwatering and revolting.



We ordered brisket (of course). It is the true measure of how good a bbq place is. On top of that we got some beef ribs and sausage links. The brisket was good..maybe even exceptional, but not Coopers good... Coopers remains unsurpassed.

Here are our friends Mark and Kelly tackling some beef ribs. The Ribs were pretty awesome, probably the best I have had (with the caveat that we don't order them very often when brisket is available)
The sausage was as greasy as it gets... It was like eating Landjäger but only with more fat. For those unfamiliar with landjaeger, we used to see it occasionally in German settled Wisconsin towns; it is like beef jerky dripping with grease. That is the easiest way to describe it.



MMmmmmmm BBQ close up....

After that we took off to Shiner to visit the brewery (actually we had to stop at Walgreen's for some dental floss first).
Shiner is a very small town, the brewery basically runs the town, it is the biggest employer etc.

Here we are hanging out outside the gift shop waiting for the tour to begin. You get about 2 pints of free shiner when you visit. Whoo hoo!!

The gift shop/beer garden was great! We had a lot of fun while waiting. Roxanne was embarrassed as I couldn't keep my hands off this pretty little number...

Here is cowgirl Roxanne getting ready to mosey on over to the brew house for a tour. .......

They don't allow pictures inside the brewery (for some reason we couldn't discern, its not like beer making is an industry secret or anything) The inside was a lot like the Capitol Brewery in Wisconsin they had huge copper kettles where they did all their fermentation. They also had bottling at the facility. We got to see the bottling process. It was neat.

After the tour we stopped at Howard's which is a gas station/convenience store/beer garden in Shiner. They have $1.75 pints and a neat area out back to sit, chat and drink. You have to question the logic of a serving cheap draft beer at a gas station, but this is Texas. Thankfully Kelly served as our DD. On the way home we stopped for a game of pool at a dance/pool hall in Mustang Ridge (Yes that is the actual name of the town). We had to stop as we could tell it was recently a shed/garage that looked something like this. Texas ingenuity had converted it into a pool hall/dance hall . . . .awesome.