Millionth Case of Schell's Beer
WHO: Some of the 44 fulltime employees, and fifth and sixth generation
members of the family that has owned Schell’s since 1860…..
WHAT: Loading millionth case of Schell’s beer on to colorful, museum-grade (circa
1880’s), beer wagon – and PULLING the wagon out of the Schell’s visitor center Museum….
WHEN: 12:00 Noon Wednesday, December 12, 2007
WHERE: The August Schell Brewing Co. campus above Cottonwood River, New Ulm, MN.
WHY: Part of the countdown to Schell’s 150th anniversary in 2010.
After the ‘pull out,’ and a light lunch in the new Visitor Center rathskeller, with ‘bar food,’ suds or 1919 root beer for media - the Millionth Case will be taken to downtown New Ulm and symbolically distributed to establishments along historic Minnesota Street
and other places in town.
How was ‘the millionth case’ calculated?
In nearly 150 years of brewing, Schell’s beers have been put into many styles of containers for the consumer: buckets(!), kegs of several sizes, glass and plastic bottles, and several style of cans.
The millionth case equation comes from computing 13.78 cases per barrel (31 gallons) of production; and though it may not be the warmest time of the year – the obvious time to applaud beer, the production mark occurs in this middle week of December.
Some historic perspective:
- When Schell’s started making beer in 1860, there were only 32 states in the Union. It took three months to sail from the east coat to the west coast.
- It would be years before the Pony Express, or a coast-to-coast telegraph line.
- There were NO STATES west of Minnesota, along the American-Canadian border, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. [Oregon and California were states, but there was no state of Washington].
- The Civil War had not yet started…Custer was still alive…there was no transcontinental railroad linking the east coast to the west coast.
- The ‘Sioux Uprising’ – in which New Ulm was burned – spared the brewery,
for reasons that are not clear.
Here are some web addresses that covered the event:
http://www.kare11.com/video/player.aspx?sid=489723&aid=59171
http://www.keyc.tv/article/view/133448/
http://kstp.com/article/stories/S283752.shtml