Schell's Pils Retired?

I don't have an Instagram account, would you share the language or post that you're referring to?

 

No I'm pretty sure Grain Belt is doing fine

 

I wonder what will replace it. Or if they'll replace it all.

 

We need an explanation about this........

 

They’re a ship without a rudder.

Unless you consider $20.00 sours to be a rudder ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ?

Good luck to ‘em, I say. Especially as they begin to kick all of their old “Craft” brands to the curb in favor of flavor of the week Taproom creations. Or maybe not.

 

That is mighty cynical of you Chaz. If they retire the Hefeweizen or brew it in such limited quantities to make it a search to get some, then I would agree with you.

 

Schell's Pils, IMO, is good, but not great. (My view has evolved a bit to that position ...)

Heck, it is not even the best German Pilsner Schell's has made recently. (That honor, IMO, goes to the 2016 one-of Fresh Hop Cascade Pils).

American beers of the style that I have tried that I judge to be superior include:
pFriem Pilsner
Breakside Pilsner

(there are obviously plenty that I have NOT tried, so ...)

Heck, from their portfolio, I'd even rather drink Firebrick and Fort Road than Schell's Pils.

IOW, in my view, it could do with an update.

 

I've always thought it was odd given all the love here for Schell's Pils, and my love for Schell's, but I was never a fan of it. I'm in agreement the @MNAle in that Schell's makes much better pilsners than their standard Pils, and I've always gravitated toward those.

 

A new IPA will be in the market soon.

 

Has Schell's ever made an IPA? I know there was an IPL.

Wish they made a solid year-round Kolsch. Not sure why that's never happened. And Zommerfest never did it for me when it was around.

 

My post was rather off the cuff, and though I often forget to clarify my statements, I thought I’d do so in this instance.

August Schell is my favorite brewery, and Pils / Pilsener is my favorite beer style.

That being said...

Despite being widely known as one of the longest-running Pilsener style lagers brewed by an old-line, regional American brewery, it was rare that I’d see Pils on draught or in a six-pack at a single unit retailer. This is especially if it wasn’t included as part of a larger selection of the Schell Craft line. Whenever I saw it, I always ordered it or bought some to take home. After all, it may not have been the very best example of the style, but it did have a pedigree.

Nowadays, with more Minnesota breweries brewing and packaging more examples of the Pilsener style than at any other time in recent memory, Schell’s Pils has become lost in the shuffle.

I will personally miss it, but maybe they’ll bring it back, or even replace it with one of their other Pilsener style recipes?

(For what it’s worth I’d be very surprised if they decided to drop their Hefeweizen.)

My remark about the higher priced sours was a rare instance in which I call it like I see it.

The Starkeller taproom (as with the downtown bars) was packed at each of the last two Bock Fests I attended. Downtown, locals and fest-goers are bellied-up to the bar at Smiley’s, the bowling alley, etc, but they’re drinking Deer Brand, the Craft brands, and Grain Belt - not downing a couple of bottles of Lunar Interference.

For all I know the 750s now bring in more money than the Craft line, but as to the day to day reality, I have no idea. For all I know those are still hand-bottled (in which case you truly do get what you pay for), but it’s the last style of beer I’ll reach for when I’m in the mood for a beer.

Ultimately it’s the brewery’s decision to do what they want to with their product line, their tank space, their human resource and labor pool, etc, and I trust them to do what they believe is right.

 

I think Schell’s has the best seasonal lineup available in MN. I drink more Bock, Hefeweizen & Oktoberfest than any other seasonals. I also love most Stag offerings so I’m definately a Schell’s huge fan. However, I tend to stay away from the year round offerings so if any changes happened to those I’d be fine with it.

 

If they brought back that pilsner sampler from a few years ago I wouldn't be disappointed.

 

Yeah, that was the first thought I had, too; I'd say it was the longest-lived current US brewed all-malt pilsner, having first been released in the mid-1980s when Merchant du Vin picked up a couple of Schell beers for national distribution. The other being the first US Weiss Beer of the "modern era" (or maybe tied with Anchor for 1st.)

 

According to @bergbrew the 1984 version was 100% six row. I thought that was interesting and made me wonder how clear the beer was, and if it was, what steps they took to make it clear. And also if the stability was short lived, only possible to uphold for a short period of time (the kind of shelf life one could imagine draft beer having back in the mid 1800s).

 

Yeah, I was going to mention that I seemed to remember bergbrew mentioning the beer had been tweaked over the years. (Not even sure, now that I think about it, if it has been continuously brewed since the the 80s?).

Really, when you're talking about most any +20 year old brand, I guess you gotta distinguish the "label" from the actual "recipe" - but, so often, the record on the latter is pretty hard to come by. I'd have guessed it was the hop schedule that changed - didn't recall at all the 6-row usage.

 

Yes, the current version of the Pils is being retired, and our new Keller Pils will be released to market the beginning of March. Craft beer has changed a lot since we first launched our Pilsner in 1984. The recipe has evolved over the years, and this is the next ideration of the Pils as we continue to change with the times. The next version will be brewed with 100% Weyermann Barke Pils malt, hopped with German Saphir and Callista hops, and dry hopped with Callista. 35 IBU’s and 5% abv. Also part of the evolution is the switch to cans, which began with Bock, and will continue throughout all of our craft beers as we run out of our current packaging.