Daniel's in Hawaii at the moment, but while spending the night in the car after being evacuated from his hotel due to the tsunami alert, he had a moment to spare to answer some questions for Jimmy's No.43 in NYC.
1. Shelton Brothers were featured at the very first public tasting Jimmy's No. 43 ever held. What do you remember about that day?
Was that the Christmas/Winter beer tasting we did? If that's the one, the main thing I remember is that we never got paid for any of the beer. I later found out that it was all considered to be a generous "donation," which marks the occasion as the start of my now long and illustrious career in philanthropy. The other thing I remember from that day is that Jimmy introduced me to the handful of folks who came out to drink with us (Thanks, Malted Barley Appreciation Society!) as the guy who introduced him to good beer. He also described the way in which I did that, which was to sit, drunk, and verbally beat on him for having only junk on tap. "I thought you were a real asshole," Jimmy said later, in a voice that suggested that maybe the past tense wasn't entirely apt. But then I diligently followed up on a second trip by forcing him to down some respectable stuff. The next thing you know, we were teaming up to do a charity beer tasting, and the rest is history. This is a great example, by the way, of my patented sales technique. I love Jimmy at least partly because he's the one guy I can point to to demonstrate that the technique actually works.
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Posted by: Shelton Brothers
on Mar 15, 11 | 10:21 am | Profile
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This Christmas, we thought we'd share one of Dan's blog posts from our archives that captures the spirit of our beloved Belchertown to this day. Originally posted December 2006
Christmas transforms Belchertown, “America’s small town,” into one great festival of lights, and a generous, over-heaped smorgasbord of huge glowing plastic statues – bright figures of dogs, birds, moose, and more, all dressed up to resemble St. Nick, gently bobbing in the cold still air and reminding us of the true meaning of this Season.
Plastic is the stuff of Christmas, surely! Plastic, that happy derivative of crude oil pulled, with near-unimaginable sweat and ingenuity, from the very depths of the Earth! Plastic, re-formed and brought to life in China, that mysterious, unsleeping, heathen land where secular America’s Merry Christmas is lovingly manufactured! Plastic, in all the colors of the rainbow, everything in between, and then some! Ever since the Walmart Superstore opened over in Ware – just a short trip down Route 9, then take a sharp right down 32 – the spectacle just grows more wondrous with each passing year, spurred onward and upward by a friendly competition among warm-hearted folk all over town, perilously over-taxing the electrical grid to generate high-amp holiday feeling.
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Posted by: Shelton Brothers
on Dec 23, 10 | 5:31 pm | Profile
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Here it is folks: an article from The Valley Advocate that does justice to the Shelton Brothers mission. Not to mention, a photograph that does justice to brother Will's stunning good looks.
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Posted by: Shelton Brothers
on Dec 01, 10 | 3:29 pm | Profile
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The Lambic World is more divided, politically charged, and fraught with danger than the Middle East. So it's a really big deal when you get Armand Debelder (3 Fonteinen), Frank Boon (Brouwerij Boon), and Jean Van Roy (Brasserie Cantillon) together at the same table. In fact, it's never been done before.
On Wednesday evening, June 9th, as part of Philly Beer Week, these three greats -- indisputably the three most traditional and authentic producers of real lambic in Belgium -- will be gathered first to celebrate and praise each others' work. Liberal quantities of special beers from each producer will be passed around, including some extremely rare items being flown over to the U.S. for the occasion which will likely never be seen here again. There will be some artistically prepared foods, naturally. There will also very likely be some fireworks. Even at the top, not everyone sees eye to eye, to say the least. And there will probably some discussion, and some dirt dished, about what's going on in the darker corners of Lambic World. Dan Shelton, beer importer, lambic fan, and well-known pain-in-the-ass, will be hosting the discussion and doing his ugly best to make sure that the evening is not without controversy, just the way you like it!
It all happens under the wise and watchful eye of the Sphinx, in the Lower Egyptian Room in the depths of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Art. The ancient inhabitants of the Nile River Valley were of course the first great civilization to make an art and religion of brewing beer -- relying on unseen and then unknown wild yeasts to ferment their brew, just as the famous brewers and blenders of lambic beer in Belgium's Senne River valley do today.
You can't afford not to be there for this once-in-a lifetime happening:
Frank Boon, Brouwerij Boon
Armand Debelder, 3 Fonteinen
Jean Van Roy, Brasserie Cantillon
The Lambic Summit in the Lower Egyptian Room at the UPenn Museum
June 9, 2010, 7pm, Doors open at 6:30pm
The world's best lambic beer, and good food, served.
Tickets $60, Available at the door
Reserve Tickets Online
Posted by: Shelton Brothers
on Jun 03, 10 | 7:42 pm | Profile
3 Comments | Archived under: Tastings, Notes, and Beers
Check out Beer Sessions on Heritage Radio Network:
http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/episodes/690-Beer-Sessions-Episode-6-Jim-Barnes-Cory-Bonfiglio
Our friend Ray Deter - of d.b.a. in Brooklyn - guest hosts and contemplates the mysteries of Fantôme.
Posted by: Shelton Brothers
on Apr 13, 10 | 5:14 pm | Profile
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Dozens of Shelton Brothers and hangers-on are off to Chicago this week for an extended drinking session. It's called the Craft Brewer's Conference.
Just like last year in Boston, lots of our beer-friends from around the U.S. and around the world will be there with us, including brewers, importers from Europe and Japan, and notable beer enthusiasts.
Brewers we expect to see include, in no particular order:
Luke Nicholas (Epic Brewing, New Zealand)
Carl Vasta (Tuatara Brewery, New Zealand)
Mikkel Borg Bjergsø (Mikkeller, Denmark)
Anders Kissmeyer (late of Nørrebro, Denmark)
Stephane Ostiguy and JF Gravel (Dieu du Ciel!, Quebec)
Kjetil Jikiun (Nøgne Ø, Norway)
Jacob and Morten (Amager Bryghus, Denmark)
Frederick Tremblay (Microbrasserie Charlevoix, Quebec)
Bob Sylvester (Saint Somewhere, U.S.)
Bryan Baird (Baird Brewing, Japan)
Narihiro-San (Ise Kadoya, Japan)
Yvan De Baets (Brasserie de la Senne, Belgium)
Nino Bacelle (Brouwerij De Ranke, Belgium)
Peter Scholey (Ridgeway Brewing, U.K.)
Ron Jeffries (Jolly Pumpkin, U.S.)
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Posted by: Shelton Brothers
on Mar 31, 10 | 2:06 pm | Profile
3 Comments | Archived under: Travel
De Ranke H.O.P. Flower Power!
Nino and Guido, meet the Partridge Family . . .
That's what this label looks like, anyway.The quintessential fake-family/fake-rock band's fake-psychedelic mini-bus makes its way through a veritable shit-storm of what almost looks like marijuana, but is in fact Nino and Guido's absolute favorite flower -- fragrant, spicy, Hallertauer Mittelfrüh hops. You all remember the Partridges, surely. (You know, Danny Bonaducci's first band?) And if you're reading this, you already know Nino and Guido pretty well. So how did this artistic collaboration come about?
Admittedly, the old Belgian beer appreciation group, De Objectieve BierProevers ('Objective Beer Tasters') has never been among our faves at Shelton Brothers. With their glossy magazine, their suit-and-tie corporate guy at the top, and their tendency to lend support to, and take money from, big Belgian breweries making increasingly bland and lifeless beer, they were definitely going in a direction quite different from ours. But Carl Kins, whom we bump into regularly along the beer geek circuit, from Denver to Copenhagen to Bamberg, is one of the good ones. He doesn't wear a tie, and he doesn't care for big-brewery dreck. He just loves beer, and he loves hops too much -- just as Nino and Guido do -- so, naturally, when he started up his own splinter group apart from the OBP, he had to come up with something yielding the acronym H.O.P.: Heerlijk Objectief Proeven -- which translates approximately as 'Delicious Objective Tests.' You have to be Flemish to understand, I guess.
A few years ago, the O.B.P. lost the guy with the tie, and became a new group called Zythos that cares more about beer than the "beer business." We go to their festival in March every year.
Meanwhile, Carl and his H.O.P. people wanted a limited edition beer to celebrate their fifteenth anniversary this year, and of course they wanted it to be supremely hoppy. They settled on an idea that's been a minor trend in the U.S. and the U.K.: wet-hopping, which is the addition of fresh hops right from the fields that haven't been dried, as hops normally are. To make Belgium's first ever wet-hopped beer, H.O.P. turned to Nino and Guido of De Ranke brewery, the only place in Belgium that makes a point of using only whole hop flowers, all the time. (You will recall that Nino and Guido were the geniuses who, in 1996, invented XX Bitter.) It just happens that 2009 is the 15th anniversary of De Ranke, too, so this collaboration makes sense for at least 15² reasons.
Nino and Guido used Brewer's Gold and Challenger hops for bittering, and Saaz and Mittelfrüh for aroma. The hops added "wet" were also Mittelfrüh. They were picked in early September and tossed into the brew kettle hours later, on September 4th. The first thing you'll notice is a very green, herbal, almost stinging hop wallop. That's the flavor of perfectly fresh Hallertauer hops.
According to Nino:
"We put an enormous amount of 80 kg of wet hops in the kettle. The whole village of Dottignies has been smelling for 2 days. ('Smelling' is maybe not the good word; maybe 'aromatised?'). I think it is the first wet hop beer or Harvest Ale in Belgium. And the taste and aroma are wonderfull!!!"
This hoppy, hoppy, hoppy beer is roughly in the style of a modern saison. Moderate alcohol, at 6%, earthy, sharply bitter, and wholly refreshing. Emphasis on bitter, actually . . .
Thank you Carl. Thank you Nino. Thank you Guido.
This beer will never be made again. We've only got 1200 of the 750ml champagne-type bottles. So if you see it, buy it (before it's gone forever). Regrettably, distribution will be limited to only a handful of states, the ones that have no blood-sucking label registration fees. If you're not living in one of those blessed states, lobby your state legislature now to repeal the label registration laws!
Meanwhile, stay tuned for the daughter of Flower Power, a beer to be named Saison de Dottignies. With luck we might see this in the early Springtime.
P.S. Before some ignorant beer writer starts calling this beer another 'Belgian I.P.A.,' we want to remind everyone that the Belgians have a proud tradition of extremely hoppy, if not over-hopped, beer that goes back much further than the American I.P.A. phenomenon, which is, by our reckoning, not much more than 25 years old. XX Bitter is not a 'Belgian I.P.A.' either. Nino and Guido don't like I.P.A.s. XX Bitter is an attempt to create the ideal version of the beers that Nino and Guido drank in Belgium, before commercialization ruined everything. Any beer that calls itself a Belgian I.P.A. is just pandering to the narcissistic American market. Don't buy it!
Posted by: Shelton Brothers
on Dec 11, 09 | 7:11 pm | Profile
389 Comments | Archived under: Tastings, Notes, and Beers
We're in the ugly uphill climb of the holiday beer-shipping season, but we must take a little time out to announce the U.S. debut of a brand new brewery that we're excited about.
La Companiya Cervesera del Montseny -- known to friends simply as CCM -- is Spain's first bona fide craft brewery. They've sent us three of their beers, which are available now.
  
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Posted by: Shelton Brothers
on Oct 04, 09 | 2:42 pm | Profile
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A quick note to let everybody know that Bryan Baird will be visiting Denver this week, as well Ron Jeffries of Jolly Pumpkin. Daniel & Tessa along with a couple others of the SBs crew will also be there.
Thursday night we will be in the basement of the Falling Rock Taphouse, for what will surely be a nice quiet evening of intimate conversation ;) We will have some beers from some of our favorite US brewers there: Jolly Pumpkin, High & Mighty, St. Somewhere, Smuttynose, Pretty Things, Pizza Port (Carlsbad), Modern Monks. We will also have some other "American" beers from Dieu du Ciel and Trois Mousquetaires. Remember, American doesn't just mean the US!
We will also have some beers from the first craft brewery in Spain: Cervesera del Montseny.
We'd love to see everybody there. Any US brewers out there who would like to talk about export or possible collaboration brews around the world should definitely look us up. Shoot an email to matt AT sheltonbrothers.com and we can try to arrange something! Please insert the appropriate symbol for the letters AT.
Prost!
Posted by: Shelton Brothers
on Sep 23, 09 | 10:32 am | Profile
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Next week in Boston is the Craft Brewer's Conference. Lots of brewers, distributors and other industry folks will be converging on Beantown for the event. As Boston is basically our backyard, we decided we would make sure we entertained everybody. So, we've rallied the troops, Shelton Brothers-style. Below is a list of brewers we work with who will be taking part in our festivities, followed by the main events Tuesday night at the Other Side Cafe (407 Newbury Street, on "the other side" of Mass Ave.
Boston, MA), and Wednesday & Thursday nights at Deep Ellum (477 Cambridge Street, Allston, MA):
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Posted by: Shelton Brothers
on Apr 12, 09 | 4:34 pm | Profile
8 Comments | Archived under: Tastings, Notes, and Beers
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