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3.13.2007

SXSW REPORT: Lone Star Beer

CHICAGOANS HAVE THEIR OLD Style, Minnesotans have Grain Belt Premium and Texans have Lone Star Beer. I don't think they have an official sponsorship, but Lone Star may as well be the official beer of South by Southwest. It's available everywhere here (and, incidentally, at the Triple Rock Social Club) and just one sip is enough to give anyone who's come to SXSW a kind of contact high.

So what's it got to recommend it? Pretty much the same downhome appeal that leads Midwesterners to champion any of the aforementioned brands, or Pabst Blue Ribbon or any other such low brow beer that isn't a Lowenbrau. It's as much a statement of non-conformity as it is a statement of a populist sentiment. It ain't something so disgusting as Bud Light or Coors Light, but it's not so pretentious as even a Sam Adams. It's not so much a flavor experience as it is a vessel for good times.

All that being said, it tastes a heck of a lot better than PBR, and it's not nearly so sweet as Premium. It's got a little more on the ball than Old Style as well. Somehow, without being tremendously distinctive, it manages to be just pretty good at a whole lot of things. Like a five-tool player on a baseball team, you want it around when you need something for any occasion. Better yet, it's the Shane Battier of beers: A solid team guy whose stats don't accurately reflect his immeasurable contribution to the team. Plus, Battier plays for the Houston Rockets.


Lone Star Beer and Shane Battier, we at the Bottle Gang salute you. (McPHERSON)

DISCUSS LONE STAR, AND OTHER REGIONAL BEERS, IN OUR FORUM.

4 comments:

Aaron said...

Folks in the cities looking for Lone Star outside of the Triple Rock can get it in 12oz can at Psycho Suzi's. Other than those two spots I don't recall it being served much elsewhere around here.

For good reason as far as I'm concerned. ;-)

Dirty Dan Sin said...

I missed SXSW by a week last year, instead showing up for the Lonestar RoundUp HotRod show. I decided that I preferred local and equally omnipresent Shiner Bock to LoneStar.

steve mcpherson said...

I had some Shiner Bock tonight, and found myself wanting it to either be darker or lighter. I like porters and brown ales, but I just couldn't figure it out. I can't see myself drinking a lot of it. Of course, I can't see myself drinking a lot of Lone Star, either. Generally, I favor Smithwick's, Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale, Bell's Two-Hearted Ale and Otter Creek Copper Ale, which you can't get in the Twin Cities, godammit. Dear Chicago, get me some Otter Creek.

Mike said...

Memories; cold Lonestar and a chicken fried steak in Threadgills on North Lamar; it's the closest you can get to heaven. If only I could have been there when Janis sang.
Anyway Lonestar IS the national beer of Texas; Shiner Bock was looked down upon by all the Coor's drinkers; heck what do they know about beer! You remember the joke: What do Coor's beer and a guy and his girl making babies in a boat on an lake have in common? The answer: They're both F***ing close to water!Well I digress. Shiner is brewed in Shiner, Texas, a a part of Texas settled by Germans others moved on to New Braunfels,the whole area has German souding towns, there I go again digressing, anyway that in that part of Texas, as I recall, even back in the late 1980's had a huge population of folk who spoke a german dialect very distinctive and very Texan. Well let me tell you they brewed beer like they did in Gremany, wholesome and good tasting.I used to like Shiner bock cool but not iced. Cold beer is fun but it's hell on the taste buds.My aunts father in law was 90+ years old in 1989, he was born and raised in La Grange, Texas. Never went any further afield than Houston and never drank any beer except Shiner, he also spoke really bad English.