The Royce Files

 2020 certainly will certainly pass with no one grieving its' departure. What felt like nearly a whole decade of ordeals and intrigue and unrest, I will gladly place that volume on the backside of the bookcase never to be opened again. One hopes 2021 will not be the sequel although in some respects it could be and perhaps for years to come. The impact was a large meteorite in the groin. Methinks I rambled on too much. It is was it is. In this new covidian era, you better watch out and you better not cry, 'cause the Santa drones are coming to town. And man are they ticked!    This is quite honestly the pandemic Santa we needed- harmless and antiseptic. That is unless you believe this is the ticked off Santa drone. Then you can just stay home. Coal for you.  On to other items. Namely signs of beer. A mid-century clock promoting the beer of choice of your fathers and grandfathers if they lived up in Minnesota or the Dakotas. As a child I only recall 3 brands of bee...

It is the dead of winter and what should one do? Grab a fine winter ale while they are to be had (such as Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale .) and read a bit about what signs of beer I have found in my varied travels. The entry today takes us back to late summer and the Minnesota State Fair. O'Gara's has quite the setup now at the fairgrounds. What used to be the St. Bernard's dining hall has been transformed into pub-like beer hall with plenty of wood trimmings and signage. While on my stop there I had breakfast and not beer. Not sure what Phil would say about that. Our sign however is not of the Smithwicks or Guinness or eve the Finegan's kind. Instead it comes from the brewery known as Schell's- that claims to be the 2nd oldest family owned brewery and is the largest brewery in Minnesota. You can read the details here . Over a 150 years of brewing- surviving prohibition and the big beer aquisition era. I have sampled some Schell's but have not really set...