von Trapp rebrand

Who gives a shit if it is a male or “female beer”! It’s the quality of the product in the can that matters.

 

The /s means sarcasm, friend.

 

Your chronology is off. That first eBay link is an older "3 piece" steel can - C. Schmidt's & Sons had gone to a 2 piece can by the mid-1970s. And the second eBay link shows a can from post-1987, when the Schmidt's brand name was purchased by Heileman* - "La Crosse, WI" can clearly be seen. According to a Christian Schmidt Brewing Co.'s (<slight name change during that period) publication in the late 1970s, these were the can label changes from that period.

There is a Brenner commercial with that new label, dated 1979.


* Heileman wound up owning two brands with a similar name - Schmidt's (of Phila.) and Schmidt (Jacob Schmidt of St. Paul, MN) and they eventually "merged" them into one brand around 1992, to save money on packaging, etc. Oddly, initially they continued to brew two different recipes, the old Phila. recipe in Baltimore for the northeast and a different recipe for the mid-west, sold with the added "apostrophe S" name. Since Heileman spun-off the St. Paul brewery in 1990 (created the Minnesota Brewing Co.), the fact that that can says "La Crosse, WI" probably means it was from that era.

 

Frankly it seems odd that the /s would have even been necessary to see the sarcasm in your post, but here we are.

 

Right? Can't win'em all I suppose.

 

This seems like as good a place as any for this article, which does mention the rebrand.

Von Trapp recently celebrated a complete rebrand, moving toward a more straightforward packaging and logo that still evokes von Trapp’s crucial Austrian and Bavarian feel. “We’re helping usher in a new generation of beer drinkers,” says Sam. “Something that will resonate with more people.”

https://www.hopculture.com/von-trapp-brewing/

 

Well, this forum hasn’t talk this much about Von Trapp in a while, so I guess the rebranding might be working.

 

If only the rebrand included stamping packaging dates on their cans...

 

We in Maine can't really discuss as distribution is very limited ever since Craft went out of business a couple years ago. We lost Frost, Hermit Thrush, lost nation, and Four Quarters as well in that closure. A little Burlington beer was saved with a couple offerings of Von Trapp. But we can't complain when Fiddlehead and Hill are now around.

 

You also got some Russian River…

 

The BB date is still based on a suggested shelf-life of 150 days (so close enough to 5 months for easy math in the retail aisle) according to their recent pdf on the rebrand

Down here in NJ, I can usually find some of their beers on the shelves around 2-3 months after canning, like the sixpack of Vienna I bought last month with a BB of 05/11/24.

 

Well, since this thread's still around, I'll got a bit OT (again) and note my favorite campaign when a brewer changed the label of their flagship beer.


1965, so when most beer cans still had the same label on two sides of the beer can (before the UPC code and Health Warning took up space). The "Why?" ad explains that some drinkers (supposedly) told them the old red and black label "...doesn't describe the the beer; a light beer should have a light label." Somehow the large script under the logo, "Light Beer", wasn't enough to convince those drinkers...

 

Appreciate the info! I typically I just don't buy any beers that don't have a packaging date since I can't be bothered to look up the best-by math for that particular brewery (and I'm content enough with available beers that do have packaging dates). Will start considering von Trapp again!

 

Oh, yeah, I agree. I used to know a half dozen or so brewers' suggested shelf life periods for the "Best by" dating - most of them I don't even buy these days.

Would it have been all that much harder or more expensive for Von Trapp to add the bottom line in the brown section of the "fine print" area of the new can design? It might even sell some beer.

Hell, (right) AB even used to do it. Well, actually that was the opposite, but ya get the idea.

 

A part of me wonders if it's intentional. Perhaps it's aimed at the broader market who just sees that its within the best by date and buys it without thinking.

And for beer dorks like us, we might have stricter guidelines (for example, "I won't buy anything older than two months"). If we don't see the packaging date and only the best by, some of us might figure, ah what the hell, I'll buy it anyways.

 

Yeah, switching from a packaging date to a "Best by" date is more "consumer-friendly" (well, that might be the wrong term - is it "friendly" to a beer drinker when many European breweries are giving their beers 1 year - 18 months shelf life dates?)

AB even stated as much when they dropped "Born On" (obligatory for that stupid phrase), noting that most every other consumer food and beverage product uses a "Best by/Best Before/Use By" sort of date - and, after all, would you buy eggs or milk with a "Laid On" or "Squezed out of Cows On" dating?

But, in the case of breweries (because beer is more important that bread, eggs and milk) I think they should please us freshness-obsessed consumers and let us know both the packaging date and, OK, let us know their idea of their products' shelf life.

It's funny that many breweries claim they've done exhaustive aging and testing, warm and refrigerated, etc. - yet they all (domestic, that is) seem to come up with 3 - 4 - 5 or 6 months, often regardless of the beer itself (Bell's was a notable exception). What a coincidence! And many imports used to wind up at exactly 1 year. Go figure!

 

The words “drink fresh” are a red flag. There’s some sort of bizarre dynamic where “drink fresh” is frequently an indicator that the product isn’t date stamped.

 

Yeah, I had a discussion once in a thread about that - I'd never noticed it but, as the BA told me, it is used by a number of brewers who don't date their cans. So it's kinda of a sarcastic comment.

I saw Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA on the shelf the other day, for the first time in months. I noticed a new image on the sixpack with a QR code and the words "DRINK SOMETHING FRESH!" Looked at the date code - Canned in July.

So, I guess they were telling me to move along down the shelf and pick another beer.

 

I realize I’m very naive, but I’m honestly wondering what that QR code is designed to do for a customer.

 

I was just about to comment on the above & say "I think he was being sarcastic".....Some folks are just too uptight these days!