Shiner 102 Double Wheat doesn't dubbel the fun

After returning my tux from the wedding, I swung by H-E-B, which I discovered last Christmas, is the bees knees of beer selection in Houston. They have many Texas brews and a noteworthy amount of national craft brews, including a surprising amount from Brooklyn Brewery. They also have a solid selection to build your own 6 pack, which is a novelty to me. I have never seen this in California, New York, Washington D.C. or Utah (4 states I've visited).

I chose an assortment of Texas beer and California beer because ironically, I came to Texas to buy Cali beer because I've never seen it out there. It's called Beer Camp from Sierra Nevada and it's a pretty neat concept that is essentially like winning the Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka's factory:  Sierra Beer Camp. You apply via a video by mid July and in August this year, you and a chosen select travel to Chico, California, and spend a weekend brewing a beer which your group conceived. The flavors available here were a Black Juniper Ale, a California Common, and a Weizenbock. I also picked up two brews from the Real Brewing in Blanco, Texas.

With no time to drink I headed to the Astros game. It's been a while since seeing Minute Maid Park (originally known as Enron Field, not so much anymore). And oh how times have changed. Only two people on the team are hitting greater than .300. The Astros Pitcher had the only RBI for the day, after he cranked the first pitch of his second at bat 367 feet into the right field bleachers. After going ahead 2-0 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Astros middle relief blew it. The story of the Astros sad year so far.

Can't complain about the seats though!

Back home I ran outside to play with our yellow lab, Snowball, and within minutes I was soaked. The high today was 96 degrees! And there's bugs in Houston. California has spoiled me so badly that I forgot how nasty it could get even on a beautiful day.

Snowball needed a cool-off pretty quickly, as did I, so I returned to open the Shiner 102.

Even in her old age, ain't she cute?

Shiner's latest anniversary brew is a 6.2% Double Wheat with Saaz and Washington Golding hops, a malted wheat ale. Their first anniversary beer, 101, was a pilsner and was quite delicious (Shiner 101).

It's a slightly sweet and malty, but overall bland. I wonder what kind of yeast they used because it has no banana or clove characteristics of a german hefeweisse or the tartness of an american wheat. As it pangs my heart to rag on my two hometown favorites, this Shiner 102 is as bland as the Astros offensive power. THE ISLAND rating