Schell Dark

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

Bottle courtesy of MatSciGuy. Pours copper with a small tan head. Smells earthy with some dark fruity hints. Tastes of roasted malt and spicy with some nice caramel hints on the finish.

One of my favorite commercial descriptions to date: "The perfect beer for people who want a specialty craft beer, but may not want all the flavor and heaviness." (My italics added.) What’s the point of drinking a beer if you don’t want "all that flavor?" Well, Schell delivered as promised.

Nice deep caramel color, but little of any head. (What’s the point of looking too good?) Faint aroma (Who cares?) consisting of a sweet, lightly toasty malt. Watery. (Just right!) Not too sweet, just some dry toast with a little syrup and no discernable hops. (Hops? We don’t need no stinkin’ hops!) The finish is lightly sweet and fades quickly. (Right on target!)

As I wrote above, Schell delivered as promised.

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Brown with a hint of orange in color. Small bone colored head. Light dry caramel aroma. Sweet dark candi flavor with a herbal hops finish. Lacks balance. Somewhat salty and metallic.

Draft at Old Chicago in SD. Clear dark brown color with an average frothy white head that diminished slowly with fair lacing. Moderate toasted malt aroma. Medium body with a sticky texture. Medium sweet flavor with a medium sweet short finish. My expectations were not met.

Out of the bottle. Almost no head. Dark red amber. Aroma of caramel and lemons. The taste is slight caramel with some light citrus. It has the metallic aftertaste that others have mentioned. A decent light beer, but nothing special.Trying this again in 2006 and have the same rating. Now it comes in a clear bottle.

Picked up a 12-oz clear bottle. Oh oh, hope this one does not turn out to be "Skunky." Pours a clear copper brown brew (could use some more dark malt to be considered a dark beer) with a think, fast dissolving head. Lacing is fair. Aroma of bubblegum, brown sugar, some caramel and sweet flowery hops. Taste is sweet on the tongue, some caramel and a light citrus aftertaste. A little extra carbonation on the palate but still within a "dunkel" category.

In a clear bottle ... it looked brown in the bottle, but up to the light in the glass it was shiny red. Medium poofy tan head. Sweet malty aroma. Likewise sugary-sweet malty flavors, almost raisiny. Just an OK offering.

Pours a dark brown color, but still transparent, with no head. Barley any aroma, but some slight malt. Kind of a mildly sweet malt taste. There really isn’t much here to write home about.