"Against the Grain and Dauntless Distributing Announce Shelton Brothers’ Festival Events."

This press release is presented verbatim. If you're attending the Friday and/or Saturday evening sessions of The Festival, say hi, because I've volunteered to work both.

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Against the Grain and Dauntless Distributing Announce Shelton Brothers’ Festival Events

2011 marked the beginning of a partnership unlike any other in the beer industry. Kentucky’s most unique craft beer distributor, Dauntless Distributing, and Louisville KY’s first brewer owned and operated brewery,Against the Grain, opened for business and joined together to help in the expansion and evolution of the bluegrass beer scene.

Watch our video here. <---- font="">

That same year, world-renowned beer importer, Shelton Brothers, held their first beer festival. The Festival, as it’s simply named, is the world’s greatest and smallest artisanal beer, cider, and mead festival.

The 5^th annual Shelton Brothers’ festival will be held in Louisville KY October 28-29. This coincidence has made it possible for Dauntless and Against the Grain to highlight their unique five-year friendship and ability to host the world’s greatest beer festival. Together they’ve planned a host events leading up to the fest and a plethora of after parties during the weekend. They also brewed a beer with Mayor Greg Fischer to welcome brewers and attendees from around the world coming to Louisville KY for The Festival. The beer is a pale ale brewed with pineapple, as a symbol of welcome.

Shelton Brothers' Festival Events 

For more information surrounding The Festival events please reach out to Kayla Phelps atKayla@dauntlessdistributing.com.

For questions about events at Against the Grain please contact Katie Molck at Kmolck@atgbrewery.com.​

Shelton Brothers, and The Festival in Louisville, 2016.

Tim Eads of Starlight Distribution handles Shelton Brothers in Indiana, and Michael Minton (Dauntless) in Kentucky. I saw them both during Session Beer Day, and it goes without saying that they're slap happy excited about The Festival 2016 in Louisville.

I am, too. Just because I'm a "shift to local" kind of guy doesn't mean I've forgotten the power of Shelton's book.

NABC's Pizzeria & Public House has bought a lot of Shelton Brothers beers over the years, and I'll be forever grateful to Dan Shelton and his wife for devoting the better part of a day of their time in Bamberg, 2009, for brewery tours at Spezial and Mahrs. It was an unforgettable day.

For once, even I can hardly wait for a festival.

THE FESTIVAL 2016

We’re excited to announce that this year’s Shelton Brothers Festival will take place in Louisville, Kentucky!

What: The Festival 2016, presented by Shelton Brothers

When: October 28 and 29, 2016

Where: Copper & Kings in Louisville, KY

The world’s greatest and smallest artisanal beer, cider, and mead makers will join us to meet festival attendees and share their stories and knowledge. You’d have to spend months and countless dollars for a chance to meet this many world-class brewers. We’ve saved you the trouble and the expense — they’ll all be on hand personally to talk about their work and to pour for you. And many will be creating special brews specifically for the event — you won’t be able to find them anywhere else!

Admission to the festival gets you our special-edition sample glass, plus the opportunity to meet the best beer and cider makers in the world. The cost of admission also goes to covering the costs of the festival, including bringing these incredible brewers in from all over the world.

Every producer listed will be on hand to talk about their creations. Never before have this many small-batch artisans been gathered together in one room — well, maybe at last year’s festival.

The list of participating breweries is pending, but keep checking back. You can expect the very best local, domestic, and international producers. Here’s what we poured last year.

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Dry-hopped Clausthaler, or Hopster from Shelton Brothers?

I wasn't expecting this Clausthaler tasting to be a success.

HAS DRY-HOPPING SAVED NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER? AN EXPERT WEIGHS IN, by Mike Pomranz (Food and Wine)

Over the past couple decades, craft beer has undergone a creative renaissance. But its ugly cousin, non-alcoholic beer, refused to keep pace. Even though NA beer is actually growing in popularity—its sales are up 80 percent from five years ago—it's rare that anyone tries to revolutionize brewing techniques or flavors. Occasionally, though, someone will come along and say they have achieved the impossible: a NA beer that actually resembles beer. The latest group to make that claim is Radeberger, claiming most people can’t distinguish its Clausthaler Amber Dry Hopped from regular beer at blind tastings. I wanted to put that claim to the test.

Just moments after reading the preceding, I received the periodic Shelton Brothers e-newsletter, and was intrigued to see this thing called Hopster.

Here's the promo from Belchertown.

Lastly, we have a truly momentous announcement -- our first non-alcoholic offering!

We never planned to go into the soda business, but Hopster was just too good to pass up. This concoction -- is it a sparkling water? a tonic? a soda? -- is produced in Bavaria at the Kondrauer Mineral-und Heilbrunnen, which blends its award-winning mineral water with tea and lemon essence and a distillation of essential Hallertauer Traditional, Taurus, Perle, and Cascade hop oils. Its strikingly spritzy, fruity, and gently bitter aroma is followed by a dry, clean, lemony palate. Refreshing by itself, it's also the perfect mixer, and an excellent non-sugary, non-alcoholic option for the hop-loving teetotaler or designated driver! Our first shipment of 865 cases sold out in two days.You'll want this.

Hopster is available in 250mL bottles.

It makes sense. I may be compelled to mix some with gin and see what happens.

Three rare lagers from the Kout na Sumavě brewery are coming to the Public House.

Kout na Sumavě brewery's Pale 10º, Pale 12º and Dark 18º lagers will be tapped and ready at opening on Monday, December 17.

As Westvleteren 12 mania grips the populace, my attention has been diverted toward the noble brewing heritage of Central Europe, and the manner by which a newer generation of brewers are reclaiming it. Perhaps my choice of reading lately, Joseph Roth's "The Radetzky March," has something to do with it.

Appropriately, three rare kegs have been delivered to NABC's Pizzeria & Public House. They are imported from Czech Republic by Shelton Brothers, via Starlight Distribution, and are from the Kout na Sumavě brewery: Pale 10º, Pale 12º and Dark 18º lagers.

Without the ability to produce steaming platters of roasted pork and knedlicky (dumplings), we're trying to devise a plan for dispensing these much anticipated beers. Here's the official press release from Shelton Brothers; stay tuned for our plan of action. Don't worry; we'll be quick about it.

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Kout na Sumavě

The once-proud Czech beer culture has taken some massive hits since the fall of communism. The largest national breweries have been swallowed up by mega-conglomerates and countless regional pivovars have been shut down, never to return. The traditional and distinctive Czech pivo -unpasteurized, earthy, soft, and complex- has been replaced with fizzy and bland "international lager"-beer devoid of local character meant to appeal to the mass market.

Thankfully there has been a revolt. Czech beer enthusiasts have let it be known they they want their national drink back. In a trend mirrored around the globe, new microbreweries and brewpubs are springing up all over the country. The entrepreneurial enthusiasts starting up these companies are having little trouble locating eager master-brewers who'd lost their jobs in the corporate purge -brewers who know how real Czech beer should be made.

Kout na Sumavé, a small town in the Bohemian Forest near the German border, was a prosperous center for beer production until it's local pivovar was shut down by Pilsner Urquell in 1969. Years later, Jan Skala, who as a young man had worked in the brewery, hatched a plan to revive beer-making in the town. Skala bought the brewery building in 2003, took two years to clean and renovate it, and in 2006 brought in Bohuslav Hlavsa, a master-brewer in the former Pivovar Domazlice (which had also been also shut down by Pilsner Urquell), to create a new line of traditional Czech beers. It was a huge investment, and the company struggled to survive. The undeniable integrity and quality of it's products has gradually earned Kout followers, and awards, in it's home country and abroad. Kout has won Best Beer medals four times in it's native Czech Republic, and has also received honors in France and Italy. Meanwhile, though not available domestically, the beers have attained a cult following in the US, where afficianados have rated 3 of them as being among the top 10 from the Czech Republic.

Shelton Brothers is extremely excited to announce the arrival, for the first time, of Kout in America. In early November we will be offering a very limited number of 20L kegs-just 40 each- of the Koutska 10º ( 4% ABV, the golden flagship beer, named the best Czech beer in summer 2012), the Koutska 12º ( 5%, the somewhat weightier and hoppier version of the 10º, named Lager of the Year in 2010), and the Koutska 18º ( 8 %, the brewery's rich, dark specialty lager, requiring over six months maturation, which won best Czech beer awards in 2007 and 2008). This is traditional Czech beer, made the old way-according to 200-year-old recipes-with it's own well water and all-local barley and hops, using either double or triple decoction mash. It's also open-fermented and unpasteurized-subsequently it has had to be shipped in cold containers, door-to-door, from Kout na Sumavé to Shelton Brothers, to preserve it's unique quality as a "real lager". We are now taking pre-orders, and hoping to ship all the beer out to accounts immediately following it's arrival in our warehouse.

See photos from Kout and some of the other Czech breweries we visited on our Flickr page.

Three cheers: Starlight Distribution brings Shelton Brothers back to Indiana.

Vows of silence aren't helpful for a quasi-journalist, because it means you can't possibly get credit for the scoop, but the wonderful outcome in this case is far more important than the pathway to it.

With postings at Hoosier Beer Geek and Indiana Beer reporting the news, and Todd Antz divulging an inaugural shipment to Keg Liquors, it can now be disclosed publicly that the Shelton Brothers importing house is once again legal in Indiana, and its portfolio will be handled by a start-up wholesaler just a few miles up the Knobs from NABC: Starlight Distribution LLC. They'll be carrying other lines, too, although at this precise moment, Shelton's the thing.

Given the good people involved with Starlight Distribution, and the increased availability of some of the world's finest beers in the neighborhood, this must be judged one of the top stories of the year.

Now, "here" this: With NABC's two brewing locations, Starlight Distribution's advent, and Keg's New Albany location set to open later in November, Floyd County becomes a go-to, good-beer location in metro Louisville. Not only that, but River City Winery is down Pearl Street from the new Keg Liquors, Huber Winery/Starlight Distillery is just across the Clark County line, and yet another local winery, Indian Creek, sits on the Floyd/Harrison border.

Now, if we can only coerce the supremely talented local cidermaker Bob Capshew to move from crafting cider vinegar to commercial production of genuine Floyd County drinking cider ... but surely the day will come.

Sandkerwa NA 5 at the Pizzeria & Public House begins on September 12.

NABC’s Sandkerwa NA is our Bavarian-themed draft beer “tap takeover” festival. It originated five years ago as a tribute to Bamberg’s annual late August street festival of the same name.

In the beginning, our aim was to source imported specialties from Bamberg and Franconia, and by doing so, to celebrate the Bavarian brewing and stylistic heritage at the Pizzeria & Public House. Like most other such endeavors, Sandkerwa is evolving, owing both to intent and circumstance.

Two years ago, the Shelton Brothers importing company made Anstich kegs available for the first time, and we repeated the Anstich emphasis in 2010. It’s hard to imagine a better way to honor Franconian brewing than Anstich kegs, which are gravity-pour barrels. The innovative Shelton program made it possible to obtain freshly filled kegs from small Franconia breweries that otherwise didn’t export, or exported very little.

Unfortunately, Shelton and Cavalier Distributing have not yet been able to completely iron out their various issues, although I’m told that talks are ongoing to get Shelton’s unparalleled line back into Indiana. I’ve asked whether any choices from the forthcoming Anstich shipment have a chance of reaching us for Sandkerwa’s 5th edition, and the reply: Not likely.

Seeing as there’s no sense in crying over spilled “ungespundetes” Lagerbier, we’ve adapted Sandkerwa to fit what we can do, as opposed to what we can’t do.

The starting date will be Monday, September 12, at the Pizzeria & Public House. In addition to our usual Schlenkerla, Eric and Ben have pre-ordered Oktoberfests from America and Germany, and as augmented by beers representing other Bavarian (and greater German) styles, these will comprise the bulk of the Sandkerwa program for 2011.

On Saturday, September 17, the NABC will take the occasion of Strassenfest at the New Albany Riverfront Amphitheater to debut our first-ever batches of Helles and Marzen, both brewed with Andechs yeast. There’ll also be Keller Pils, and possibly Smoked Abzug.

As an added bonus, we’ll tap an Anstich keg of Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche – delicious oak-smoked Rauchbier, which comes to us from the B. United importing firm, which still is going strong in Indiana.

Shelton’s absence from Indiana hurts, but it does not kill, and therein lies a valuable lesson. As much as we miss Shelton’s wonderful portfolio, and wish for it to return, there are so many fine beers available nowadays that the wait is far from intolerable.

When the Anstich kegs arrive, Sandkerwa can begin.

According to Matt Dinges of Shelton Brothers, the anticipated shipment of rare Franconian Anstich kegs has arrived on the East Coast. As I write, wheels are turning to get these gems from port to Public House.

Anstich kegs are 20-liter, gravity-feed kegs with no CO2 used to push the beer. We'll set them on the counter behind the bar, punch a hole in the top, and use the rubber mallet to insert a tap.

As I learned last Christmas while in Bamberg, the procedure is this: Shelton Brothers conceives of a brewery wish list, and the importer’s contact on the ground, Urban Winkler of the Weissenohe brewery, attempts to source the Anstich kegs. I joined Urban and Dan Shelton at Spezial (and later Mahr’s) for beers, and got the complete lowdown on how it works.

Consequently, after learning that Shelton would be bringing another container of Anstich kegs into America in August 2010, I decided to change the way we do Sandkerwa NA. Originally, we tried to run Sandkerwa NA, a draft-only celebration of Franconian and Bavarian beer styles at the Public House, in late August to coincide with the fest’s run in Bamberg.

Henceforth, the annual arrival of the Anstich kegs will determine the dates.

I’m told that the target for delivery to Indianapolis is next week, which (with luck) will yield Anstich for us by the following weekend. Therefore, let’s hope that Sandkerwa begins on Thursday, September 9. This isn’t firm, and I’ll provide updates as necessary.

There’ll be a few kegs on normal CO2 pour, and there’ll be one Anstich keg tapped on Thursday, two on Friday and one on Saturday until they’re gone. This translates into 40 half-liter pours, each keg.

Of course, like cask-conditioned ale, they’re not meant for keeping overnight, and so the price point again will be held to the minimum. I’d like for it to be $5 per half-liter if at all possible, but I cannot say with certainty until the invoice comes through. For both Shelton and NABC, these Anstich kegs are labors of love, not engines for massive profit. Fresh Franconian lagers poured this way are revelatory, as many customers last year will attest.

Matt Dinges says that the only description he’s received to date of the Anstich styles is, “yeasty lager,” which I take to mean that the Anstichs were filled from the lagering cellars of participating breweries without any filtration that might normally occur prior to packaging, with final maturation in the keg as they’re shipped, which sounds marvelous to me. Here is the preliminary list of breweries. I will fill in the information blanks as we get closer.

Anstich

Ahornberger
Bayer
Beck
Gunther
Huppendorfer
Lowenbrau (Buttenheim?)
Monchsambacher
Rossdorfer
Weissenohe (two varieties … Annafest coming later in the fall on another shipment)

CO2

Monchshof Fest
Weissenohe Altfrankish
Weissenohe Monk’s Fest

Today's Anstich keg at the Public House: Rothenbach Märzen.

It proved to be somewhat of a surprise yesterday when Jeremy, our day man at the Public House, leaned over and began pouring a glass of Ahornberger from the Anstich keg.

It had been billed as a Märzen, and described as "malty, hoppy, and dark." One out of three isn't bad; the liquid filling my glass was straw golden in color and not at all overtly hoppy. It was soft and malty, and given the Bavarian habit in recent years to brew ever less colorful Märzens, perhaps still somewhere in that category, albeit tenuously.

However, as good as it tasted -- fresh, perfectly conditioned and perfect for kocking back a few if there'd been time -- it was not what we'd been led to believe. Later in the evening, Matt Dinges of Shelton Brothers confirmed that he'd received a similar comment from another account, and would look into it.

Reading between the lines, it would appear that the Shelton shipments of Anstich kegs are being sourced in the Franconian field, as it were, by Herr Winkler of the Weissenohe brewery. The batch we're pouring now was sent with only numbers on the kegs, a (hopefully) matching list, and brief descriptions of "amber" or "dark." There certainly is room for discrepancies in the system, and I'm sure Shelton will rectify any that appear ... like yesterday's golden dark beer.

Meanwhile, it's another day, and time for the next Anstich: Rothenbach Märzen. Here are the importer Dan Shelton's notes:

Founded in 1886; makes 15,000 hectoliters a year. Yet another family-owned brewpub, a picturesque place in the tiny town of Aufsess, in the Fränkische Schweiz -- the Franconian Switzerland. (There's nothing at all like the Alps here, so the name is a little over-blown.) We've never had the Märzen, which is highly recommended by our Franconian connection at the monastery brewery in Weissenohe.

Here are links to the Rothenbach web site (in German), and RateBeer's compendium of Rothenbach brands.

I'm biking to the Public House now for a quick quality control sample, and will revise this post if new information surfaces.

Anstich kegs are back! Six more Franconians are making their way to the Public House.

The afternoon was spent researching the latest shipment of Anstich kegs from Shelton Brothers, which Cavalier Distributing in Indianapolis will be conveying to the Public House in time for pouring on Thursday, December 10.

If you’re just joining us, we had riotous fun in September and October during NABC’s Sandkerwa NA, an annual celebration of the Franconian brewing ethos. Our homage was immeasurably enhanced by the Shelton Brothers importing company, which has begun importing rare Franconian lagers in 20-liter, "Anstich" kegs. One after the other, the kegs comprising the first batch were drained, and we simply had a marvelous time drinking them.

These are gravity-feed kegs with no CO2 used to push the beer. Just as in Franconia, we set an Anstich keg on the counter behind the bar, punch a hole in the top, and use a rubber mallet to insert a tap at the bottom. Once tapped, the 40 half-liter glasses of beer therein must be consumed forthwith, or the remainder will go flat. Because of this, we'll again be selling these special beers at a special price: $5.00 per half liter.

Each of the six Anstich kegs we’re purchasing is described as Märzen, so I’ve included only the brewery’s name in the tentative schedule that follows (except for Weissenohe Monk’s Fest, which we had previously on CO2 pour).

Following the tapping schedule are excerpts from the importer Dan Shelton’s notes on the beers, which provide basic information on the breweries and their beers. I now understand that Shelton works with Urban Winkler of the Weissenohe brewery to source these great beers, and my thanks go to him, Dan Shelton, Matt Dinges and everyone else who are making these shipments possible. It's been my favorite new development in a year packed with them.

Ahornberger on Thur., Dec. 10
Rothenbach on Fri., Dec. 11
Hartmann on Sat., Dec. 12

Then, later:

Lang-Bräu on Fri., Dec. 18
Günther-Bräu on Sat., Dec. 19
Weissenohe on Wed., Dec. 23

Ahornberger
Brauerei Strössner, founded in 1739 in Ahornberg, is a good-sized family-owned brewery making 80,000 hectoliters a year. It is located in the far north of Franconia, north and east of Kulmbach. They do a bunch of seasonal variations on their basic Landbier ('country beer'), including the Märzen, which is described as malty, hoppy, and dark.

Rothenbach
Founded in 1886; makes 15,000 hectoliters a year. Yet another family-owned brewpub, a picturesque place in the tiny town of Aufsess, in the Fränkische Schweiz -- the Franconian Switzerland. (There's nothing at all like the Alps here, so the name is a little over-blown.) The beers tend to be very solid, if perhaps uninspired here, but we've never had the Märzen, which is highly recommended by our Franconian connection at the monastery brewery in Weissenohe.

Hartmann
A small inn and brewpub, founded in 1550, right on the narrow winding highway that runs parallel to the new A70, about 20 kilometers out of Bamberg, Upper Franconia. They make 15,000 hectoliters, all consumed locally, in the Franconian way. They have a wide range. For what it's worth, this is 3 Fonteinen brewer Armand Debelder's favorite place when he visits from Belgium, and its beers are the main inspiration for his Beersel Lager.

Günther-Bräu
In little Burgkunstadt, just outside of Kulmbach, in Upper Franconia, this is one of three small family-owned brewpubs in a town of a few hundred people. Makes only 6000 hectoliters a year. Founded in 1840.

Lang-Bräu
A small but ambitious brewpub in a very tiny village in the far east of Upper Franconia, founded in 1853. Makes 15,000 hectoliters a year. For better or worse, they make a very big range. They seem to crave attention, and get it with some gimmicky things like Erotik Bier, with a label that stops just short of being pornographic, and another beer named for the latest Pope, Benediktus XVI. For some reason, they also put the labels on their dark and light wheat beers on upside down. The Märzen label is properly staid.

Weissenohe Monk’s Fest

That's not your Danish grandfather's lager, is it?

Yesterday I braved the snarling backhoes that are preparing the foundation for the gleaming new Keg Liquors and shopped for a couple of bottles of beer of the sort that owner Todd Antz stocks, but we don’t carry at the Public House. Rest assured, there are plenty. Todd’s been doing a better job of staying abreast of bottled beer, while my focus has been on draft for dispensing on premise.

One of my two final choices was North Bridge Extreme by the Norrebro Bryghus in Copenhagen, Denmark, a city that once was a frequent haunt of mine back in the day when the only beers available were narrow product lines of (mostly) lagers produced by the combined might of Carlsberg and Tuborg, and a few others from other Danish locales. My, how things have changed …

In fact, my old friend Kim Andersen has long urged me to make a return visit to Copenhagen (I’ve failed to do so since 1999), and as much as there’d be no reason whatsoever to doubt the sagacity of Kim’s intimate knowledge of the explosion of craft beer and brewing in his hometown, there simply hasn’t been the chance to go back. This oversight may soon have to be rectified.

Allowing for my small overall sampling, surely Norrebro’s version of a California-style Double IPA is the best I’ve tasted from a European brewery. At 9.5%, it hovers on the edge of barley wine. English malt gives it the richness that I believe is necessary in such a well-hopped beer. Delicious, complex and damned near thirst quenching … and mind blowing to contemplate it being brewed in Copenhagen.

If my recollection of the city is correct, Norrebro means “North Bridge,” presumably in reference to the moats and waterways once ringing the center of town, and if my fuzzy math is right, the brewery is producing about 2050 barrels a year in the American sense. To compare, NABC will brew roughly 500 barrels in 2008, and BBC (Main & Clay) I’d guess to be above 5,000 (corrections appreciated).

Now I’m researching Mikkeller, a roving duo of former homebrewing Danes turned professional, who brew American styles at various places in Denmark, Belgium and perhaps elsewhere. Both Mikkeller and Norrebro come to you courtesy of Shelton Brothers Importers, and the available styles are rare, indeed, so be sure and make friends with Todd.