This photo comes with a disclaimer (what doesn’t these days?) but that doesn’t change the basics. Me, wearing an August Schell Brewing T-shirt, at Zion National Park.
Schell, of course, is the brewery name on everybody’s lips after Jace Marti’s great post on the company’s Facebook (it drew 150 comments) that provided significant perspective to the “Craft vs. Crafty” kerfuffle.
Schell brews excellent beer, but drinking it will always be better because we visited the brewery in New Ulm. Definitely a “beer from a place” experience. I own the T-shirt (which is looking a little weary these days) because it was a prize given out during judging for the Upper Mississippi Mash-Out in January of 2008. When you signed in to judge that entered your name in a drawing. If it showed up on a list after a round of judging you could pick out a prize. Mine came up rather late, so I was plenty happy to see the T-shirt still there.
A few months later we were at Zion in southern Utah — the final shakedown cruise before our grand adventure. I was waiting for Daria and Sierra to return from a side adventure when I heard somebody behind me say, “I have to take a picture of that.” I realized I was “that.” She didn’t care that the T-shirt was from one of America’s oldest breweries, just about the message, “It’s always happy hour somewhere.”
After Daria and Sierra and returned we headed out I told them about what just happened. Daria made me go back and sit down. The result was the photo you see. Thus the disclaimer.
I love the brewery tshirts with great slogans on them. I have one from Hastings, Michigan’s Walldorf Brewpub. The back says “Shut up and drink your beer.”
August Schell was one of those brands Merchant DuVin made available all over the country back in the mid-80s — pre Micro Boom®.
It was one of the beers that turned my head to beers that had a little more character and started my ball rolling toward better stuff and “regional” breweries.
Today they brew some terrific to-style specialties and seasonals that I’m always happy to see on a shelf.
BA be damned, Schell makes good beer, no matter the status.
Best use of “kerfuffle” ever.
@SteveH
Right on! Consumers are more and more caring about the quality of the beer they drink, and less and less about labels and hype dictated by trade organizations.
But regarding the hackneyed term “brewed to style”, I say __who cares__. Beer “styles” always have been and will continue to be open to interpretation, and there are few if any hard, fast rules (despite efforts to insinuate BJCP definitions into the world off commercial beer, and only confusing the general public. BJCP guidelines are, after all, only for homebrew judging).
Didn’t mean to sidetrack the conversation, but since the damage is done I will tip my hat to Lew Bryson for coming up with a better and more meaningful term: “brewed _with_ style”.
And _that_ is something Schell’s does quite well indeed.
Let the BA shoot themselves in the foot by excluding Schell’s from their club. It’s the beer that matters more than any of the BA’s hype.
” BJCP guidelines are, after all, only for homebrew judging”
You can say that, but they use commercial examples to back up their style guides.
That said, this is not an discussion over to-style (but that is often my own guide for picking a beer), as you said — it’s about quality over all — and Schell has it.