Schell Dark

Brewed by August Schell Brewing Company
Style: Dunkel
New Ulm, Minnesota USA

The whole point of a craft beer is to experience the flavor and body that macros don’t see fit to brew into their beers, right? So why does Schell make this thing? Who knows. What we do know is that it is NOT dark. It’s very medium in color, but light in every other aspect: flavor, aroma, palate. This is a macro-brew masquerading as a specialty beer. A crummy marketing gimmick that I had assumed the otherwise laudable people at Schell were above. The other Schell products I’ve had have all been, if not necessarily superlative, at least solid entries into their respective styles. This beer is an abomination and should be discontinued immediately. It can only appeal to wanna-be beer snobs who think it looks cool to drink a craft brew but can’t handly any more flavor than Bud carries. Avoid it.

Like the commercial description says, Schell’s Dark ’does not have all the flavor and heaviness’. That doesn’t mean it’s flavorless, but it is much light than one would expect from a dark beer, though still it tasted OK. The color is more red than brown, but still attractive. Typical light head when poured. A beer to break in someone who’s been raised on supermarket beers.

Another Schell sampler courtesy of Slikwily. Thin head out of the bottle. Much thinner than my previous beer. Good Flavor, good malt and hop flavor. Not as dense as I was expecting. Nice beer. Very drinkable. Another good effort.

Red/Brown Coloring. Small Head that doesn’t last long. For dark beers, this one is far to transparent and uneventful...for a beer that says ’Dark’ that you can pound away, pick this one up...otherwide it’s not a turn-on

Color is a clear orangish cherrywood color, it could be darker with more brown, pours out to a medium beige head that fades quickly, no real lace sticking. Aroma is quite sweet and fruity with dullish apple and pear, a malty nose, touches of dry nuttyness, but it has a bit of a souring smell and reminds of flat white wine or something. Interestingly off. Taste comes across quite thin and far to sweet, malts are in flavorful amounts but not in a good way by any means, very light and twingy with a watery mix of white wine fruityness and dulled crispness. Feel is watery and thin, characterless and boring. Boy, a disappointing beer at best.

I thought this was some pretty good stuff. This was the cheapest of the Schell beers at the liquor store so I tried it and was somewhat impressed.

Bleh. Dark? You’ve got to be kidding. It barely has any more flavor than Schell Original. I find the commercial description amusing: "The perfect beer for people who want a specialty craft beer, but may not want all the flavor and heaviness." Well, believe me. If you want to avoid flavor and heaviness, this will work fine, but there is nothing specialty or craft about this. If you like "real" beer, and want to try Schell, stick to a specific defined style. (Alt, pale ale, pilsner, whatever...)

For a dark beer, this is not very dark. In fact it is closer to an amber. Copper color with poor head retention. Initial head is quite white. Soft lager aroma with no pronouncement of its arrival. A sneaky lager that remains hidden. No sweetness. Bubbles on the tongue with just maybe a goodbye of hop bittering, but maybe that’s my imagination. I love the Gardens, but I don’t think that I want to be drinking this one in them.