P A G E 6 B O R D E R B A T C H B R E W I N G S
As I sit here pondering life thru beer goggles over a Lakemaid I can’ t believe that it’ s almost the Fourth of July. For starters a little aside on Lakemaid. This afternoon I finally got my 49lb. Muskie. Been trolling for that for awhile. Still looking for a decent size Catfish & have yet to land a Smallmouth Bass. The other evening I was enjoying a Lakemaid with fellow Border Batcher Chuck Fowler before a local small town huh-rah-rah event. If you must know it was Medford’ s Straight River Days. Over that pre-event Lakemaid Chuck proclaimed something to the effect of,“ this is the perfect marketing plan, I don’ t see why every beer doesn’ t have‘ babe’ labeling.” Now he may of said something like“ Babeling” or I might just of heard that, given the slurred speech / hearing that often accompanies a few beers in the system. Regardless, I think he’ s definitely onto something. Look for Chuck in his new Lakemaid t-shirt that his family got him for Father’ s Day. Now that’ s love. And as far as the event, well it was way better than I expected. Chuck had to twist my arm a bit to get me to go as I intended to do some home brewing chores that evening. Overall given the questionable live music performance, domestic beer choices, & the fact that Chuck’ s wife Amy tried to make venison out of a couple of fawns on the way to Medford, I ended up having a really good time. Thanks Chuck for dragging me out of the brewing cave!
Onto something of more substance. Well probably not, but I needed a segue for the change of subject. I should have mentioned above that I was pondering life thru beer goggles under my new lid. Yes, there’ s a story about that. I don’ t recall where it begins, but I’ m fairly clear on the middle & the end seems to make sense. My new“ lid’ is a vintage look Schell’ s Brewery ball cap. I’ m certain than many of you were accustomed to seeing my smiling skull beneath a Guinness cap in numerous Border Batch photos. I don’ t recall the exact setting but I’ m pretty sure it was a Bock Fest about two or three years ago( if you have substantial proof to the contrary keep it to yourself- this is MY story & I’ m stickin’ to it) that Col. Tom challenged me as to why any self-respecting Border Batch would be wearing a Guinness hat in the first place. In my best Irish brogue I responded that when Schell’ s produced a Dry Irish Stout that’ d I’ d retire that old Guinness hat in favor of something a bit more New Ulm appropriate. Now I’ m sure that by now most of you are aware of the fact that Schell’ s has brought back the rather popular Snowstorm of 2006 as a year round specialty craft beer labeled as Schell’ s Stout. True, it’ s not my stout of choice i. e. the Irish variety, but I’ m so darn proud of Schell’ s stepping outside the mold as a brewery producing mainly German styled beers that I fulfilled my pledge early. As far as Sweet Stouts go, Schell’ s Stout is a fine a beer as one could ask for & best yet as breweriana collectors, Schell’ s has graced us with beautiful packaging for this brew. If the latest rendition of the Dark label & this Stout label are indication of what the near future holds, I think we are in line for some stellar pieces with long term future interest. Notice I didn’ t say value. They may well have value( pretty much anything remotely collectible does), but I think the true measure of the advertising is in it’ s artistic value not it‘ s monetary value. I’ ll shout it from the top of my soapbox & Jay’ s too if I can knock him off long enough to have my say, that these last two labels have top notch artistic value. If either of them was produced as a can during the correct time frame for the lastest COY( Can of the Year) contest, then the Border Batch would be handing Ted back to back trophies at Stubie Fest this year. WARNING: Extreme point of view approaching. Personally( no offense to the companies & designers involved intended), but the offerings for COY this year disinterest me so much that I have no compulsion what-so-ever to cast a vote.
Since we’ re into the part of the article where I tell you what I really think, I’ ve got to add a little bit about world beer styles here. Some time during the Day at August Schell Weekend Extravaganza Tom, Jay & I had a little go around about Stouts. You might even go so far to say that it was borderline heated. Or at least as heated as anything can get between Outlaws. No surprise Tom & Jay weighed in for the corner of the malty sweet goodness of English-styled Sweet Stouts & myself, as the Irish underdog, pulling for the dry roasty bitterness of the Irish Stout. Advocate what you will, but after much debate we resolved on the age old & well respected conclusion that,“ You like what you like, & that’ s why there are so many styles of beer to choose from.” And that to me sounds like the wisdom of great bar room philosophy. I suppose now that I’ ve given in to the change of headgear early, that when Schell’ s finally comes out with that Irish Stout that I’ ll have to get our resident artist to design me an Schell’ s Irish Stout / Schell’ s Outlaw tattoo!