Good to know that. They looked like the ones from the Starkeller when I was at Black Frost. Glad to hear they are not the same ones.
Boy it's been years, but I worked for a small distributor that had the Grain Belt label in the late-80's for one summer. Pretty sure Heilman had it at the time and Grain Belt Golden was the basic version of the label. Premium the step up. Kind of like Michelob was a step up from Bud. I had both back then and Premium was better (or at least I thought it was...maybe because of the labeling?)... Neither were what they were in their hey day and I doubt they were original recipes... Heilmann had a ton of labels and the thought was they put the same beer in a lot of the labels.. I would love to know how it tasted when it was brewed at the original Grain Belt brewery but that was before my time. Would also like to know if the current Premium is based off the original recipe or not...my guess is it is not but I could be wrong..
Grain Belt Golden was the "original" version brewed by the Minneapolis Brewing Company before prohibition. The current "premium" version that Schell's brews was introduced after WWII as a lighter option to cater to changing tastes. Out of curiosity I contacted Schell's a decade or so ago to ask if they even had the "recipe" for Golden and the reply I got back said they did as they had acquired the recipes and labels for Golden, Premium and Light from the defunct Minnesota Brewing Company that had been operating out of the old Schmidt brewery in St. Paul.
That makes sense b/c Grain Belt bought the Kiewel Brewery in the late 50's. A few of the old timers in Little Falls, (not many left anymore) stated they enjoyed GB Premium b/c it reminded them of Kiewel Super White Seal beer, (which was the last beer developed by Kiewel Brewery in 1943).
I don't know the current status of the Cyprus tanks, but knowing Schells they will be put away and repurposed at some time. Hadn't they been put away for 30 plus years before Starkeller opened.
