August Schell Brewing Company

August 16, 2007
I took the tour here a couple of weeks ago and was fairly impressed with the experience. The beer is not the greatest, but the place is pretty beautiful and the tour well planned and carried out (the tour is constructed so that it is good for people interested in the beer, the history, and also children, as they can sample rootbeer when adults try the beer). Definitely worth a stop.

August 5, 2005 [ Updated July 12, 2006 ]
Ambiance? You drinking in the employee lunchroom. But the setting is probably one of the most beautiful brewing spots in America, carved into the middle of a hill, with lagering caves scattered all around. Nice little museum at the start of the tour, then a really brief visit to a small part of the brew works, and then you’re left in the taproom to sample everything they have until the tour guide comes to chase you away so the next tour can get in. No food, of course, and their beers are "common," but a great place to try them out.
Addendum, July ’06: I recently read they’ve revamped the tour, with a new visitor’s center/museum building and redone tasting room. Would love to get out there and try it again.

December 15, 2004
The second oldest family owned brewery in the country. Schell’s tries different things with their beers, but nothing highly adventurous. Outstanding location in rural Minnesota. The February Bock Beer Festival is a great time.

December 8, 2004
kind of a let down as far as you see very little of the actual brewery on the tour. But I like the musuem, but I am into vintage beer crap. Obviously schells is the beer they feed you so hope you like it, I do, but I am kind of a homer

November 4, 2004
Schell Brewery is in an aboslutely beautiful setting. Beware of the peacocks roaming the grounds! The tour is very good, and although somewhat lacking in the art of brewing, it is one of the only tours I’ve been on where they give you an in-depth history lesson on the brewery. In Schell’s case, it is very interesting due in part to existing during the Sioux Uprising and Prohibition. The samplings are strange: people sit at long tables and the table splits 2 bottles of 6 different beers. Stroll through the gardens and check out the deer park behind the mansion. The deer in it are decendents of the original deer.