Tell Me What You Know

A couple months ago, I got an email from a breweriana collecter in Florida who had come across a Schludwiller label. As Oregonians know, Schludwiller was the fictional California brewery mocked in 70s-era Henry Weinhard ads.

This raises a few questions. Among the most obvious: why would a fictional brewery have beer labels? The guy who queried me about this (Daniel) also wondered: "Why was a label made up for this beer? Did they use them on bottles in a commercial? And why was the name Schudwiller chosen?" All worthy questions.

Anyone have any clue? If you click on the label to the right, you'll see a larger version of it. I don't have any great reward to offer--just the satisfaction of visiting upon the world (and Daniel) your insight to this lost trivia.

The label is pretty amusing:
  • "Plywood aged for a real long time"
  • "Selected as one of America's beers at the 1967 World Series"
  • "A name in brewing for nearly one-half generation"
There's also a motto in Latin, "Quod nesciunt sibi damno non erit," which Daniel translated to (roughly) "Condemn not they who are ignorant," which is a high level of mockery by any standard.

So, what do you know about this? Reply in comments or via email. Any info will do; I think Daniel would even be happy if we pointed him in the right direction.