The best beers...imported by hand.

What exactly does that mean, and how do we do it?

The best beers are brewed with a sense of place, a distinctive house character, and an appreciation for tradition, value, and/or the natural art of beer-making. Most often, this is expressed in breweries producing less than 5,000hl per year, though some brilliant exceptions exist, especially in Germany.

Beer should have depth, texture, and nuance – it should sometimes even be a little rough around the edges. There are a few (very few) exceptions to every rule, but generally speaking, that means the following about a brewery’s beers:

• Brewed in small batches using traditional methods
• Unsweetened
• Unpasteurized
• Unfiltered / Bottle-conditioned
• Little to no use of spices or adjuncts
• Slow-fermented
• Distinctive house yeast or yeasts
• Dry as opposed to sweet

There’s no miracle to importing good beer – just hard work and a lot of travel. We specifically seek out unmanipulated beer, generally looking to small breweries with craftsmen taking seriously their passion for a natural, traditionally-made product.

Shelton Brothers is the only beer importer with these specific criteria for hand-selecting what we offer to our customers. We’ve turned down offers from large European breweries, and we’ll do it again. We’re only interested in bringing you the very best.