schmidt's bavarian ale? Do they still make this stuff?

Schmidt's (the Philadelphia one, not the Minnesota one) did make a Bavarian Beer (not ale), a label they picked up from the Duquesne Brewing Company of Pittsburgh, PA. Nice enough can (similar to the old Busch Bavarian from A-B and several others) but the beer was probably just another discount brew.

Schmidt's ales went by the name of Schmidt's Ale, Tiger Head Ale and

20th Century Ale (and maybe a few others over the years, including McSorley's for awhile there...)

BTW, the Minnesota one was spelled Schmitt's. Makes it less confusing, if only (very) marginally so.

-Steve

Oh, yeah? Didn't realize that (but their beer didn't make it to the East Coast, except when the "can collecting" fad hit, and their "outdoor scenes" series cans (with probably out of date beer in them) started turning up.

I note that every book on beer, brewing and breweriana spells it "Schmidt's" or "Schmidt" as did the brewery on every item like this neon-

or the many cans on this page:

as well as the local paper:

but mistakes happen, I guess.

(I think the main "difference", at one point, was that the St. Paul brewer dropped the "apostrophe s", while Schmidt's of Philadelphia didn't. Once the brands were both owned by Heileman and then Stroh, they were sort of "merged" into one, with the same beer & label design sold in both markets, IIRC.)

IIRC, the PA beer was Schmidt's and the other was Schmidt (without the 's).

Schmidt's (Philly) also made Schmidt's Classic, which I guess was their attempt at a premium beer, like Michelob is supposed to be to Bud.

Eventually, yeah. But, like many brewers, the St. Paul outfit didn't drop the "apostrophe s" until the post-War period- in Schmidt's case, in the late 50's. (See the neon I linked to here-

"City Club" was the name of their beer at the time.)

Yeah, a lot of national and regionals tried (and most failed) at a "super premium"* beer like Michelob. Pabst had Andecker, Schlitz tried Primo & Erlanger, Stroh had Signature (and eventually bought Augsburger), etc.

More famously for beer lovers in the pre-micro days, Schmidt's of Philadelphia bought the Adam Scheidt* brewery of Norristown, PA and continued to brew their famous Prior Beers which, supposedly, were from Czech recipes, either on a "contract brewing" deal or, at least, for an importer of Czech beers who had difficulty with beer shipments during WWII. The "light" (in color) was just another beer by the 60's, but Prior Dark had a long history of being a rare classic, on draft and in bottles. IIRC, it could still be found in some of it's old markets (upstate NY, for one) several years ago and was being brewed by Matts (I assume Pabst owns the brand, but you never know).

• My favorite trivia for the Adam Scheidt Brewery was that it had amber glass windows in the bottling department- at least, according to a history of Schmidt's of Phila.

>

I don't get your point.

I'm an idiot. I mixed up another Minneapolis/St Paul business with that name that did spell it Schmitt. Problem is, that's a music store. Nothing to do with beer.

-Steve, who should have googled "Schmitt" last night

Sarcasm (and, IIRC, some time on my hands while the coffee brewed, so I did a few searches, mostly to check on the whole "aspostrophe s" deal).

That is, UNLESS, your comment is also sarcasm, and, then, well...never mind .

Well, not exactly. Music and beer are two great passions of mine, so I can see them being confused, I suppose. (HopDevil and Richard Thompson, perfect together.) How 'bout that as a thread, rather than the dull old "what beer goes with such-and-such food"- what style/brand of beer goes best with what genre/musical artist?