With additional content by the Dining Companion
The Dining Companion -
The pretentious craft beer movement & WOB:
I have a working knowledge of beer. I by no means consider myself an expert
of anything more than what I like to consume. I remember with a sense of irony
the days of my dad & uncles having Schlitz, Hamms, Olympia, PBR & Old
Milwaukee in cans long before they were ‘recreated’ for the younger crowds. I
enjoyed many a ‘craft’ beer in the day. The craft beer was of the variety or
type referred to as ‘Bock’, and it was brought in the form of Leine’s
returnables that my dorm neighbor from Wisconsin preferred to stock. ‘Bock’ for
those not in the know was the variety of beer that German monks brewed for lent
for consumption whilst fasting.
Leine’s Bock has long disappeared. I had long forgotten the taste of a bock
beer until about 12 years ago when I ordered the happy hour special at a bar in
San Antonio TX. It was there that I was introduced to the local ‘cheap’ beer
referred to as a ‘Shiner’. I was somewhat familiar with the name of the other
Texas beer -Lone Star (they made ‘generic’ beer during the early 80’s), but had
never tasted a Shiner as I recalled. Shiner ordered as a ‘Shiner’ is Shiner
Bock. By the time I had finished my first one, I had totally recalled the
Leine’s of old and was hooked.
To this day I enjoy Shiner. When I’m in Texas, I enjoy sitting on the patio
with a pitcher of it front of me. When I’m not where I can get it on tap, I
actively seek places where I can enjoy a bottle of it. When I can’t find Shiner
by name, I can be satisfied by some other brand of bock, if it can be found,
which leads me to the second part of this story.
Apparently there has been something called a craft beer movement in the
past few years. I don’t follow these things, and I’m not hip enough to be
included in the know. I am familiar with the product of smaller breweries. With
this I mean August Schells, Spoetzl (home of Shiner), & Sam Adams. I am
also familiar with home brewing via my brother. The craft beer movement has led
to product in the market place known as the ‘gastropub’, specifically for this
writing ‘World of Beer’.
It appears that one of the draws of a ‘gastropub’ is their large selection
of beers. I am familiar with this concept as well. Before the gastropub, it was
called Old Chicago. My main problem with Old Chicago and the new gastropubs is
what they consider ‘cool enough’ to stock. Now let’s be clear, when they talk
about having 400 different beers, that ain’t what they have on tap, it's bottles
kept in the cooler.
Specifically this World of Beer has 40 beers on tap. This time of year,
its Octoberfest themed beers or maybe something fall or pumpkin inspired. Not
what I was interested on this day. Prior to coming to this location, I checked
their website for beers I would be interested in trying specific to this
location. When I checked for bock, only 1 bottled selection came up (nothing on
tap). Several doppelbocks came up, but I don’t care for doppelbocks much after
a bad experience with a triple bock. With only 1 bock choice, I picked a couple
of schwarzbiers as fall back choices.
I tried the bock choice; it wasn’t bad, but nothing special. I tried 3
other beers. The first was 1 of the schwarzbiers I had written down prior to
coming. Two of my other written down ones weren’t in stock. Two remaining were
recommended by the bartender. The first was good, the other one wasn’t. The
food overall was pretty good & I leave it to the HappiTraveler to sum up.
Now this leads me to my rant about craft beers, gastropubs and what they
stock. What pegs the cool meter enough to get a place on your menu? It can’t be
the size of your brewery. As I look over the glass face cooler in front of me,
I see plenty of brewers the size of MillerCoors, but with foreign names. I see
Paulaner, Heineken and Hacker-Pschorr, but no Shiner. It also can’t be for
variety or uniqueness of brew. Shiner has really good seasonal or limited run
brews easily equivalent to the Abita varieties you stock. I guessing you don’t
stock Shiner because the brewery doesn’t have a cool name like SweatySock or
CoolChinHair and is older than 10 years. The irony of your PBR tall boys is
lost on me.
This leads me to recall the ultimate in pretension. It was not World of
Beer, WOB is a poser compared to The Friendly Spot in San Antonio. At
Friendly’s you could get Shiner Ruby Redbird on one of their 75 taps in back,
but if you wanted Shiner Bock, you had to consume it from a bottle obtained at
the front bar (you heathen).
The HappiTraveler -
The Dining Companion had a short list of things he wanted to try. Some of the beers on his list were available and some that he tried were recommended by the bartender. (I'll pause here to give a shout out to the bartender Andrew(?) for being friendly and knowledgeable about what he sells)
I did order a couple of things from the WOB's tavern menu. A pretty decent burger and a huge Bavarian style pretzel. The picture below won't properly convey the size of that pretzel. The thing was as big as a dinner plate. It came with mustard and I added a house-made cheese sauce. I loved it.The burger was really flavorful and cooked properly. The Chimay cheese was one I hadn't tried before. I'll be searching it out in the shops now that I know of it.
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CHIMAY BURGER - Fresh Angus beef burger piled high with Chimay Classique
cheese, sautéed mushrooms, & caramelized onions. Served on
a brioche bun with house-made Chimay sauce.
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GERMAN PRETZEL - A WOB original & tavern favorite. A giant Bavarian pretzel baked
soft on the inside, crispy on the outside & salted. Served with
house-made stone ground mustard.
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