Another presentation of a beer that has been sent to me by the brewer’s rep for my comment.

Spoetzel Brewery of Shiner, TX has sent me lots of their specialty beers. This time, they sent a nice little presentation in a wooden box for S’More, the seasonal to mark their 111th year of brewing.

The presentation includes four bottles of the beer in question. As well as the supplies for making S’Mores: skewers, a small bag of marshmallows and graham cracker, and a chocolate bar from Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue, a specialty chocolatier that selects their own beans and roasts them in a brick barbecue pit over hot bricks and stones. And a lot of paper excelsior which I just now realized would make excellent kindling when it’s finally warm and dry enough to do S’Mores.

But first, let’s dive into the beer: This does not identify a base style, and it certainly isn’t based on the usual base chocolate malt beer, like a porter or a stout. Some sweet chocolate in the nose, kicked up by a slightly tan head over the brown of a Newcastle ale. The chocolate is the first thing I taste as well. Kind of like biting into a chocolate-marshmallow Easter egg. A regular brownish ale with added chocolate, not very strong or sweet, so the hops are doing their job. A marshmallow fluff note comes up midway down.

I tend to want to contrast beers with the food I’m pairing, so I don;t know if I’d have this with s’mores. There’s a light and not-to-sweet chocolate bar and marshmallow flavor that makes this stand by itself.

Now, for some reason, there were two PR people from Shiner sending samples to beer writers and reviewers. And somehow, they ended up sending me two of those presentation crates. I’d sure like to give one of these away, but shipping would be rather expensive. So I must limit participation in this giveaway to people in Cook, DuPage or Will County, so I can bring the box over some weekend, meet in a bar or brewery (heck, even a coffee shop, if you’d rather), and just hand it over. I assure you, the fancy chocolate bar will be included. The graham crackers may have been busted up in transit, though, and the marshmallows will be stale, but sticking them over a fire might help. I will post to my Facebook fan page when to PM me to request the Shiner package, as seen in the photo above. The winning entry will be chosen admittedly arbitrarily.