The Spoetzl Brewery: A Historical Context
The Backdrop of Texas History
The first cannon fired in the war for Texas’ Independence...was just a few minutes from Shiner to the west, in Gonzales, Texas. On March 1, 1845, the joint resolution of Congress framed the terms for the annexation of the Republic of Texas into the United States. The new state’s population, excluding Indians, increased by more than seventy thousand during its first five years in the Union. On March 2, 1861, Texas joined the Confederacy... and sent tens of thousands of men to battle. To grow and prosper, Texas would need to bring in new people to do the hard work and exert extreme efforts to make it great and take great risks. “For the new and the older Texans, the years following reconstruction were a period of disruption and change, bustle and promise. Things were not settled. The decision to build a spur line on a railway could transform the economy of an older village, or could leave it a ghost town.” (1)
The place that was to become Shiner was blessed with fertile ground, ample water, and a location that was accessed by future rail traffic. The older town of Half Moon, Texas physically moved to become sited on the rail line a half mile south…and was named “Shiner” after citizen Henry B. Shiner, who donated land to the town in exchange for having it become his namesake.
Emigrants of Europe
German influences in Texas remain strong, from the days of formation of the German Adelsverein (Association for the protection of German Immigrants in Texas), and are documented in Adolf Paul Weber’s two volumes, Deutsche Pioniere: Zur Geschichte des Deutschthums in Texas (1894; San Antonio) and in later literature such as The History of German Settlements in Texas 1831-1861 by R. L. Biesele, and Journeys into Czech-Moravian Texas by S. Gallup. The isolated windswept port of Galveston, located on the Texas Gulf Coast, served as the entry point, our own “Ellis Island”, for tens of thousands of immigrants from many parts of the world between 1850 and 1920. Bohemians from the mountains came to Texas. As did many Germans, joining Baron von Braunfels in his new settlement or to smaller places.
Prior to 1840, few in Bohemia thought of emigrating (2). Bohemia experienced a wave of prosperity after the Napoleonic wars. In 1840, however, blighting droughts visited the country (3) and there was a failure of the potato crop. The first Czech to leave Kutná Hora, as the gubernatorial passport of 1845 shows, was an innkeeper Pospíšil, and the second, cabinet-maker Fürst. The passport cost fifty florins in silver. Trespassers incurred the risk of being shot by grenzjägers if one attempted to cross the policed border without a passport.
In 1847, thirty-nine men of the Thirty-fifth Pilsen Regiment (Khevenhüller) escaped to America from the Mainz fortress… including Tuma, the orderly of General Uhlmann of the artillery (4). Many more followed. But in the end it was the farmers who would take the greatest chance at life in America, taking few necessities besides family and their know-how to places such as Shiner, Texas.
The concentration of Bohemian farmers in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas was very evident, with four fifths of the 18,094 farmers of the first generation in the United States being found in those States. Texas held one sixth of all émigrés (5). These new American farmers, and millers, stone masons, carpenters, musicians, physicians and others brought with them a rich heritage of rich lager beers, and knowledge of how to brew lager beer, too. Where they settled, good lager beer flourished.
Early History of Texas Brewing
Texas’ commercial history is relatively recent, but rich in success built from hard, diligent work. Commercial brewing in Texas has its origins in 1850, near Houston. The 1860 Texas population census listed eleven breweries in Texas. Houston had three that were producing an estimated total of 4,300 barrels of beer annually. The number of Texas breweries had increased to twenty-seven by 1870. In 1875 the Brewers License Tax Records of the Internal Revenue Service indicated that there were forty-four breweries licensed to sell beer. The number of breweries increased to fifty-eight in 1876, with a production of 16,806 barrels. Beginning in 1877, however, the number of Texas breweries steadily declined. In 1879 there were twenty-seven, with a total production of 7,749 barrels. The decline continued throughout the 1880s. By June 1889 the state had only eight breweries operating. The largest in 1878 was Menger's Western Brewery of San Antonio with a production of 1,666 barrels a year. It was followed by the G. F. Giesecke and Brothers Brewery of Brenham (1,137 barrels), the H. L. Kreisch Brewery of La Grange (774), and the Lorenz Zeiss Brewery of Brenham (722).
The smallest documented brewery, owned by W. F. Both and Company of Weatherford, sold forty-nine barrels in 1878. Total production for all of the breweries in the state that year was 10,050 barrels (7).
The ruins of a noted Texas brewery is not far from Shiner in LaGrange. The Kresiche Brewery operated from 1872-1884; in 1882 it was the third-largest brewery in Texas. But when stone mason and founder/brewer Heinrich Kreische passed away in 1882, the successful brewery failed. Then, as now, quality brewing and success from it are the consequence of great care and commitment…often from the dedicated brewmaster at the helm.
The Little Brewery in Shiner, Texas
Shiner was incorporated in 1890 by German and Czech immigrants. In its 96 years, the brewery had starts and stops which one can find in its name:
- Shiner Brewing Association 1909-1914
- Home Brewing Company 1914-1915
- Petzold & Spoetzl 1915-1918
- Spoetzl Brewery and Ice Factory 1933-1934
- Spoetzl Brewery 1934-Present
A group of Shiner businessmen incorporated Shiner Brewing Association in 1909, with Herman Weiss as the first brewmaster. Weiss had closed his brewery in Galveston (Weiss and Sons brewed “Belgian White and Brown Beer” (8)) to move to Shiner. The founders offered the plant for lease again in 1914. Kosmos Spoetzl, a German immigrant brewmaster situated in San Antonio, learned of the Shiner operation and co-leased the facility with Oswald Petzold with an option to buy in 1915. Spoetzl had attended brewmaster's school and apprenticed for three years in Germany and worked for eight years at the Pyramids Brewery in Cairo, Egypt, and then worked in Canada before moving to San Antonio in search of a better climate for his health. He came with the recipe for a Bavarian beer made by his family from malted barley and hops.
Kosmos Spoetzl bought a Ford Model T, and with a couple of kegs iced down in the back, he drove the country roads offering thirsty farmers ice-cold beer. Spoetzl produced "Old World Bavarian Draft," which was a heavier all-malt German-style lager. Besides the Pearl and Lone Star Breweries, the only other breweries in operation in Texas in 1890 were a few small, locally operated enterprises that were sustained by loyalty, low prices, and fresher products. Of the thirteen Texas breweries that were operating in 1890, only Lone Star, the San Antonio Brewing Association (Pearl), Herman Frank, the Dallas Brewing Company, and the Texas Brewing Company in Fort Worth survived intact until Prohibition in 1919.
Life After “The Great Experiment”
After Prohibition the number of small specialty brewers like the Galveston Brewing Company and Spoetzl Brewery continued to decline, as national plants such as Anheuser-Busch and Miller moved into Texas. Texas progressed from a production rank of twenty-eighth among the states in 1878, when it had roughly thirty-seven breweries, to second place in 1983, when it had only six breweries. Those six were Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Schlitz, Lone Star, Pearl, and Spoetzl.
In Houston, the Anheuser-Busch brewery opened its doors in 1966 with the capacity to produce 900,000 barrels a year. The Miller Brewing Company bought the Carling Brewing Company in Fort Worth in 1966. After a $12 million expansion, Miller began brewing its own brands in 1969. In 1966 the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company began producing a million barrels a year in its newly opened Longview facility.
Kosmos Spoetzl never went more than 70 miles in any direction for business. Spoetzl also changed the name (but not the recipe) to “Texas Special Export.” Kosmos died in 1950 and his daughter Cecilie—“Miss Celie”—inherited the brewery.
Challenge and Opportunity
The Spoetzl Brewery started in 1909 by the Shiner Brewing Association in Shiner, was operated by the Spoetzl family from 1914 to 1966, when it was sold to William Bigler of San Antonio. It was sold again in 1984 to a consortium of native Texans. In the 1970s and 1980s the brewery's Shiner Beer and Shiner Bock had less than 1 percent of the Texas market. In 1983 Spoetzl produced 60,000 barrels of beer. Production was only 36,000 barrels in 1990. Sales improved after Carlos Alvarez of San Antonio acquired the brewery in 1989: Production grew to 100,000 barrels in 1994. Ten years later, production was nearly three times as large as in 1994.
Please Visit Us And Enjoy a Brew!
Brewery tours are available Monday through Friday at 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The hospitality room is open Monday through Friday, and after the tour come and enjoy a cold Shiner beer.