Beer Run Blog

Three Cheers for Shelton Brothers and its Jaw-Dropping Collection

Of all the ways to express why Shelton Brothers is America's best beer importer, two moments in particular stood out from a gathering held Friday in an out-of-the-way, semi-decrepit warehouse in north Denver.

One came from Yazan Karadsheh (pictured at left), the founder of Carakale Brewing Company — the first craft brewery in Jordan — who explained how he overcame bureaucratic hurdles, faux competition from big beer and a bout with a black camel spider to establish his business locally. And as he poured a coffee porter brewed with date molasses and cold-conditioned with roasted cardamom and espresso beans, you realized how far the brewing ethos has spread and how it's worth seeking delicious beer in far-off regions to educate ourselves on the bevy of flavors we have yet to try.

The other came as Topher Boehm, head brewer for Wildflower Brewing & Blending of Australia (pictured below), ruminated on creating simple yet spunky wild ales and then re-fermenting them with pinot noir grapes through a process called carbonic maceration where the fermentation literally begins within the grape. The resultant ale was complex yet still supremely easy to enjoy, offering wine characteristics that coalesced with the underlying beer flavor to bring out the best of both worlds.

You could go on about the treasures that were poured at the Shelton Brothers Festival at Denver Rock Drill by 105 different breweries — about half of them domestic and half from from four  continents — but the aggregate impression was this: Shelton Brothers is rewarding daring and creativity. And by signing small breweries from around the world because of their willingness to do things that set them apart from most everyone else in the craft-brewing scene, this Massachusetts importer is spreading the gospel of beer in a way that even the loudest craft-beer evangelists can't.

While many of the beers in the Shelton Brothers collection rarely make it outside their home countries or even their home states, having a distributor allows them to make appearances where they otherwise may not, whether at a two-day event like the Shelton Brothers Festival or at tappings and tastings around the Great American Beer Festival or Big Beers Festival in Breckenridge. Yes, you want, after tasting one sip of Trillium Brewing's Triple Seesaw boysenberry/raspberry/blackberry saison to beg that it find a permanent tap handle in Denver; still, there is a satisfaction in knowing someone can get it here if absolutely needed.

Diving into Shelton Brothers' domestic collection creates a map of hidden gems that you want to seek out when traveling the country. There, for example, is Big Island Brewhaus from Waimea, Hawaii, whose gose fruited with the Brazilian grape jaboticaba brings a new taste to the genre, brilliantly tart and yet refreshing. Or there is Kent Falls Brewing of Connecticut, which artfully blended three years of spontaneously fermented beers into Everything Is Everywhere, which is sugary, tart and sharp without being overbearing in any of those traits.

And the worldwide offerings quite simply ramp up one's level of education. Swiss brewery Trois Dames' Foret Noir bursts onto your tastebuds with an astonishingly tart taste of fermented cherries that peels back to reveal malty and even chocolaty layers of an imperial stout. And after you sense something is just rawer and simpler about the salty and tart flavors in a Ritterguts Gose from Germany, you realize this is very literally the brewery that created the oldest gose style in the world.

You may not have frequent direct contact with beers distributed by Shelton Brothers, but the fact that these guys are doing what they are doing inspires other brewers to create their own unique libations, knowing that fellow style pioneers have found an advocate willing to send them far and wide. And that may be the greatest lesson one can take from a couple of hours of drinking beers whose names and reputations you largely don't know, only to find each are brilliant in their own way.

Labels: Big Island Brewhaus, Carakale Brewing, Kent Falls Brewing, Ritterguts, Shelton Brothers, Trillium Brewing, Trois Dames, Wildflower Brewing & Blending