August Schell Brewing (2022)

From your tappity-tap fingertips to Ted’s (or Jace’s) ears. Or eyes, as the case may be.

 

Hope so, there’s room for improvement w/ that site!

 

Vast understatement.

 

Curious how this new pils compares to their old Pils which at one point I think was termed a German Style Pils or something along those lines..I haven't seen it yet. Would gladly give it a try.

 

I find their disregard for the website entertaining. They're one of the oldest German breweries in the US, located in rural Minnesota. I mean, they have a fax number listed in their contact info!

 

Haha, I didn't catch that, that's awesome! Something to be said about living in the rural Midwest & 20-30 yrs behind!

 

To their credit, they had used a CB radio to keep in touch with their local delivery trucks, at least up to a few years ago.

(Not sure whether they still have the carrier pigeon coop up on the roof, though.)

 

Schell’s dispatcher: “Breaker breaker, ya git does keggers dropped off at da Lamplighter?”
Driver: “ya U betcha-10-4!!!”

 

Finally scanned an old Polaroid I found:


Deer Brand returnable bottles, circa 1986. Used to buy under the counter at a distro in Aurora, IL.

As far as I know, the only IL distro at the time to carry August Schell.

 

So the carrier pigeon statement is a funny, but the CB radio statement is true?

 

Well, I was only up on the roof, once (to look at the new silo), and the coop was definitely gone by then.

But I would think they mothballed the CB base station when they moved out of the old offices, by which time “chirp” phones were in fairly common day-to-day use.

 

Back on the topic of the newest beer to drop, No Frills is a very drinkable and “convincing” stylistic interpretation.

Used to be I would have a good idea of whose recipe it was (been a lot of talent down that way in the time that I’ve been paying attention, but Dave’s Not Here, man, and I no longer get the scoops in a timely manner), but whoever done the deed, done good.

It will be a regular for me, and thankfully it doesn’t have them funny sticky labels to peel-off before I crush me some cans for recycle day (Renew, renew!)

 

My bad the new brown ale was Utepils not Schell, but I am excited to find No Frills Pils

 

Ahh, that would probably explain why there’s no word on the Schell’s website regarding the “new brown ale”.
But still no mention of No Thrill Pils & their website still stinks!

 

I definitely understand being frustrated with a lack of information about a new product.

But at the risk of derailing this thread, what issues make their website stink? What makes the sites of other breweries better?

I've never been the most tech savvy person, so I guess as long as I can reasonably navigate a site and find the information I'm looking for, I'm happy.

 

The same video posted by @grantcty was on the website for a while. The real estate must have been taken up by the Bock Fest stuff. But yeah, there was no real info on the beer.

 

For me, it's that the site only lists the same 5 beers (OK, hyperbole there) and never anything about new releases, never anything about their sample box contents & the unique beers therein, etc.

Example: has anything, ANYTHING, from their "This is the pilot speaking" series ever shown up on the web site??? Not to my knowledge, it hasn't.

IOW, the site is a huge flagship billboard with no useful information.

Perhaps this information might be posted somewhere on facetwit, but it is a royal PITA to scroll back through time to maybe, maybe find something, all the while making the evil Herr Zuckerberg and his ilk richer with each click.

As to other brewer's web site, they are definitely a mixed bag. Some even worse than Schell's, but many do still make an effort to keep their websites up to date. The worst ones are basically just link pages to Untapped, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

 

No Frills Pils page at Schell's website.

Also this Schell tweet last evening (and a similar Instagram message).

 

Does anyone know how long ago it was that Schell's was able to fill growlers? I was sitting at an airport bar yesterday and they had a few on their shelves. I told my wife I'm guessing it had to be late 90's or early 2000's. Hey maybe they will be able to again if legislation goes through.

 

As I recall*, the growlers were made for demonstration and display purposes, but the brewery never filled them on site for sale to visiting tourists or to the local, general public.

So although a small number of empties may have been sold to the public (for example, from the gift shop, to collectors), most were used by the route sales reps for introducing their existing and new brands (to existing accounts and clients as well as to potential sales accounts), and for display purposes at point-of-sale, exactly as you saw at the airport.

I do know that they have been working very diligently and credibly to change the law and bring growlers to their own brewery and to the other large Minnesota breweries than can no longer sell growlers, owing to existing state law. It shouldn’t be too long before that change becomes a reality.

*This very same question (including an reference to the airport back bar display) was asked on the “old” Midwest forum, which is how I recall the answer.