The best beers...imported by hand.
What exactly does that mean, and how do we do it?
The best beers are brewed with a sense of place, a distinctive house character, and an appreciation for tradition, value, and/or the natural art of beer-making. Most often, this is expressed in breweries producing less than 5,000hl per year, though some brilliant exceptions exist, especially in Germany.
Beer should have depth, texture, and nuance – it should sometimes even be a little rough around the edges. There are a few (very few) exceptions to every rule, but generally speaking, that means the following about a brewery’s beers:
- Brewed in small batches using traditional methods
- Unsweetened
- Unpasteurized
- Unfiltered / Bottle-conditioned
- Little to no use of spices or adjuncts
- Slow-fermented
- Distinctive house yeast or yeasts
- Dry as opposed to sweet
There’s no miracle to importing good beer – just hard work and a lot of travel. We specifically seek out unmanipulated beer, generally looking to small breweries with craftsmen taking seriously their passion for a natural, traditionally-made product.
Shelton Brothers is the only beer importer with these specific criteria for hand-selecting what we offer to our customers. We’ve turned down offers from large European breweries, and we’ll do it again. We’re only interested in bringing you the very best.
pilot) and to pour his delicious wines for our guests. It's hard to believe that it's been 14 years since he and his wife Anne-Marie founded their winery 
