Beer of the Weekend #85: Shock Top Belgian White

Awesome pic. I stumbled on it while looking for a Tiger Hawk logo to make my BeerAdvocate profile pic (despite what I said in my last post). I just thought I’d include it in this week’s BotW for shits and giggles.

The beer this weekend is Shock Top Belgian White brewed by the Michelob Brewing Company (aka Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V.) of Saint Louis, Missouri.


It was not my first choice. I endeavored to sample Alaskan Summer Ale, a kölsch brewed by the Alaskan Brewing Company. I’ve been dying to try a kölsch, but it was not to be this week because BevMo! didn’t have any. Grrr. I didn’t have my Red Label box (to carry half liter bottles) so I decided to get a domestic wheat. There was a small Shock Top display behind me as I turned away from the Alaskan brews and I became interested. I knew it was more of a macro, but I’ve been curious since I first saw it about a year ago. There’s a small convenience store on Main Street in downtown HB that has a Shock Top neon sign, and I remember seeing a flattened Shock Top case one morning along Beach Boulevard when I was walking to the bus stop. I thought about buying Widmer Hefeweizen as I retrieved a sixer from the fridge, thinking I should support the smaller, west coast brewer, but I chose Shock Top based on past inquisitiveness. I regretted that decision before getting home.

Last year, when InBev basically swallowed A-B, I forswore to never again buy beer brewed by A-B. My boycott was not because Americans no longer owned the brewery, but because of the greed of August A. Busch IV, the company’s CEO and great-great-grandson of founder Adolphus Busch. The motherfucker sold out. He chose money over tradition, family, and the people of Saint Louis. However, I forgot all about that until I was driving down Indianapolis Avenue. I ground my teeth and my gut became heavy with shame. I should have bought the Widmer Hefe, but what’s done is done; I’m not one to waste beer, even if it’s from the evil empire.

(In my defense, it’s going to get harder and harder to avoid beers brewed by subsidiaries of Anheuser-Busch InBev. Labatt Blue, Hoegaarden, and Sol are all beers I’ve sampled and all beers brewed by breweries owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.)

Basically, I’m not expecting much flavor or complexity; I’m anticipating something along the lines of Blue Moon. I’m not saying that because it’s from A-B, but because of the orange slice face on the label and carrier. Sheeeeeee-it. Shock Top is the kind of beer you get garnished with an orange slice at a bar. But, it’s never wise to judge a beer by its label, so I shouldn’t dismiss Shock Top until I’ve tried it.

Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. There’s a cryptic batch code on the neck label, but no freshness date.

Appearance: Poured into a 300 mL weizen glass. The bottle and carrier say Shock Top is unfiltered, but it looks like it was passed through something. It’s hazy at most. The color is orange-ish lemonade. Two fingers of head rose but dissipated quickly to leave a ring around the edge.

Smell: My first whiff was…soap. Bar soap. It’s like an orange scented Irish Spring. Thankfully, it dies off to reveal a strong, sweet scent of cara cara oranges. Reminds me of Blue Moon, but not as good. No wheat or yeast.

Taste: No soap, thankfully, but it is surprisingly schpritzy, like mineral water. Lemon citrus and orange. Not much going on.

Drinkability: I won’t be buying Shock Top again, but I’ll have a heart since college football started: it’s inoffensive and drinkable, which it is.

Fun facts about Shock Top:

-Price: $7.99/sixer.

-Serving temperature: 45-50°F.

-Alcohol content: 5.2 percent ABV.

-Food pairings: The Michelob website lists Chevre cheese as a “complement” (“This strong-tasting cheese’s sweet, nutty undertones and slight crunchiness highlight the fruit flavors of Michelob Wheat’s hefeweizen style”) and recommends Paella as a meal (“The flavors of rice, saffron and olive oil that create the base of Paella serve as a worthy partner to Shock Top's citrus and coriander notes”).

-IBU: 10

-Gravity: 12.7

-Oddly, the Michelob website recommends Shock Top be served in a pilsner glass. Huh? Still stranger is this vague line in Shock Top’s Wikipedia profile: “Shock Top Belgian White is commonly served with tall, wide-mouthed glass.”

-Meet the brewmaster!


Favorite past time: Sporting his beer bling and rolling in zee hay.

-Michelob is the Cadillac of A-B, and this shows why:


You’d never get that kind of thoroughness on a sixer of Bud Light. Of course, there’s no information anyone would need to know about Bud Light, but still.

-According to the beer’s Wikipedia page, the shock in Shock Top refers to the name given to a harvested bundle of wheat. Similarly named are the Wichita State Shockers.

-Shock Top was introduced in 2006 as a seasonal brew. It proved so popular that A-B decided to brew it year-round in November 2007.

-This is amazing: at the North American Beer Awards, Shock Top (then named Spring Heat Spiced Wheat) won the gold medal in 2006 and bronze medal in 2007 in the Belgian Wit category.

The Quiet Man’s grade: C.