Events

Now in its fifth year, the Bell’s Homebrew Competition wort giveaway and Expo will be held on Sept. 13 at the Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo. To celebrate how this annual competition has grown and as a nod to our homebrewing roots, we have added something new. While the homebrewer who takes first place will still get to brew their recipe at our original brewery to then go on tap at the Café, they will also team up with us for the 2015 Pro-Am Competition at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. The winner will attend the GABF, the awards ceremony and the members only session as our guest. Bell’s will cover the cost of airfare to Denver and back (must be within the continental U.S.) and provide lodging for two nights as well. As in previous years, there is no cost to enter the competition and the only requirement is that you use our wort, which we provide for free. Previous winners are: • Oscar’s Folly, a collaborative IPA from Jarrett Cupp, Bailey Cupp and Paul Gentz. • A Bit of Heat from Geoff Groff that was brewed with paradise seeds, rose hips and habaneros. • Manden Med Leen, a black IPA brewed with Belgian yeast, from Nick Rodammer. • And most recently, Proud Mitten, a dry hopped IPA/Pale Ale made with Centennial, Citra and Simcoe hops from David Lyman of Kalamazoo. Multiple homebrew vendors will be present at the Expo to talk about their companies and products as well. The Expo will start at 11 a.m. and admission is free. This event is part of Bell’s week-long 29th Anniversary Celebration which also includes our annual Hot Dog Eating Contest in addition to performances by Leftover Salmon, Cash’d Out (a Johnny Cash tribute band), Monophonics and more. Competition entries (4 bottles) are due to the Bell’s General Store by Saturday, October 25. Winners will be announced on All Stouts Day, Nov. 2, also at the Cafe. Want to enter? Here is what you need to know. Sign-up times for wort pickup will begin at 11 a.m. Wort will be distributed starting at 1 p.m. Homebrewers should bring a sanitized vessel with them to transport their wort home. Buckets, carboys (please be extra careful handling glass carboys) and cornelius kegs are the most common vessels. You can leave them in your vehicle until it’s time to pick up your wort, but again, please sanitize your vessel prior to your pick-up time to help us make sure everyone gets their wort. Make sure to get there early, as supplies will be limited. Signing up early will help guarantee wort. You can send someone else to pick up your wort. We aren’t concerned with who takes it, just who turns in bottles to be judged in October. We do ask that you don’t bring friends or relatives who don’t brew, just so you can have an extra 5+ gallons of wort. We are relying on the goodwill of homebrewers to help each other out and share the wealth. Please help us make sure all who want to compete are able. You can add whatever you like to your recipe/submission. However, if your entry is chosen as the winner, we will have to be able to figure out a way to make your beer on a much larger scale. So please, take good, detailed notes of everything you do to the wort. We won’t know exactly how much we will end up with until the wort is made, but last year we were able to give 5 gallons of wort to 202 homebrewers. We hope to be in that ballpark again this year, but things happen during wort transfers that can affect that number. We recommend arriving early to sign up and make sure you get your wort.  

Now in its fifth year, the Bell’s Homebrew Competition kick-off and Expo will take place on Sept. 13 at the Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo. To celebrate how this annual competition has grown and as a nod to our homebrewing roots, we have added something new. While the homebrewer who takes first place will still get to brew their recipe at our original brewery to then go on tap at the Café, they will also team up with us for the 2015 Pro-Am Competition at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. The winner will attend the GABF, the awards ceremony and the members only session as our guest. We will cover the cost of airfare to Denver and back (must be in the continental U.S.) and provide lodging for two nights as well. As in previous years, there is no cost to enter the competition and the only requirement is that you use our wort, which we provide for free. Previous winners are Oscar’s Folly, a collaborative IPA from Jarrett Cupp, Bailey Cupp and Paul Gentz. A Bit of Heat from Geoff Groff that was brewed with paradise seeds, rose hips and habaneros. Manden Med Leen, a black IPA brewed with Belgian yeast, from Nick Rodammer. And most recently, Proud Mitten, a dry hopped IPA/Pale Ale made with Centennial, Citra and Simcoe hops from David Lyman of Kalamazoo. This event also coincides with our 29th Anniversary Celebration, Homebrew Expo, our 8th Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest, in addition to performances by Leftover Salmon, Cash’d Out (a Johnny Cash tribute band) and Monophonics and more. Competition entries (4 bottles) are due to the Bell’s General Store by Saturday, October 25. Winners will be announced on All Stouts Day Nov. 2, also at the Cafe. Want to enter? Here is everything you need to know. Sign-up times for wort pickup will begin at 11 a.m. Wort will be distributed starting at 1 p.m. Homebrewers should bring a sanitized vessel with them to transport their wort home. Buckets, carboys (please be extra careful handling glass carboys) and cornelius kegs are the most common vessels. You can leave them in your vehicle until it’s time to pick up your wort, but again, please sanitize your vessel prior to your pick-up time to help us make sure everyone gets their wort. Make sure to get there early, as supplies will be limited. Signing up early will help guarantee wort. You can send someone else to pick up your wort. We aren’t concerned with who takes it, just who turns in bottles to be judged in October. We do ask that you don’t bring friends or relatives who don’t brew, just so you can have an extra 5+ gallons of wort. We are relying on the goodwill of homebrewers to help each other out and share the wealth. Please help us make sure all who want to compete are able. You can add whatever you like to your recipe/submission. However, if your entry is chosen as the winner, we will have to be able to figure out a way to make your beer on a much larger scale. So please, take good, detailed notes of everything you do to the wort. We won’t know exactly how much we will end up with until the wort is made, but last year we were able to give 5 gallons of wort to 202 homebrewers. We hope to be in that ballpark again this year, but things happen during wort transfers that can affect that number. We recommend arriving early to sign up and make sure you get your wort. Still have questions? Just ask.

  We are proud to partner with local, state and regional organizations to host a Great Lakes Gala in the Bell’s Beer Garden next month, Sept. 14, at the Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo. Everyone is invited to join us from 1-4 p.m. to learn about the Great Lakes and how to protect them. Admission is free, but there will be a suggested donation of $10. We will match what is donated up to $2,500. Money raised will go to Alliance for the Great Lakes, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, the Kalamazoo Nature Center and the Michigan Environmental Council. The speakers for the afternoon will be: Sarah Reding, Vice President of Conservation Stewardship, Kalamazoo Nature Center Jack Schmitt, Deputy Director, Michigan League of Conservation Voters James Clift, Policy Director, Michigan Environmental Council Joel Brammeier, President & CEO, Alliance for the Great Lakes They will talk about how their organization works to protect and restore the Great Lakes as well as Michigan’s other exceptional water resources. Kalamazoo’s own Great Lakes Grass will perform traditional bluegrass throughout the afternoon and beer specials along with a raffle are planned as well. “There are quite a few people working to protect, inform and educate the public about this valuable resource and we want our community to come out and meet them,” said Larry Bell, founder and president of Bell’s Brewery. “The Great Lakes, this region, has always been important to me and we need to work together to invest in them now and make sure they are protected for future generations,” he said. The Gala will cap a week-long 29th anniversary celebration for the brewery that will also include a movie in the Bell’s Beer Garden, a performance by Leftover Salmon at the Eccentric Cafe, the annual Bell’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, this year’s Homebrew Competition kick-off & Expo and more. Additional details for those events is also coming soon. Caption: Great Lakes Grass performs during the 10th Annual Bell's Beer Garden Opener. Photo by Eric K. Fischer.

This summer, we’re joining Sierra Nevada for Beer Camp Across America, a multi-weekend traveling beer festival taking place in seven cities across the country. With more than 700 breweries and at least 1,300 craft beers on tap from nearly every state in the country, Beer Camp Across America promises to be the largest craft beer celebration in history. In conjunction with the festival tour, the Beer Camp Across America collaborative 12-pack includes 12 different beers including two beers packaged in cans. The Beer Camp Across America variety pack is out now and also includes Allagash, the Asheville Brewers Alliance, Ballast Point, Cigar City, Firestone Walker, New Glarus, Ninkasi, Oskar Blues, Russian River, 3 Floyds and Victory. Our contribution, Maillard’s Odyssey Imperial Dark Ale, is a robust dark ale layered with complex malt flavors of toffee, caramel, chocolate, coffee, and dark fruit. This malt-focused concept spawned a daunting grain bill featuring 10 different grains including pale malt, Munich, chocolate malt, oats, dark wheat and roasted barley for a rich, semi-sweet and intense experience.  The name honors the Maillard reaction—the “browning” of sugars and amino acids—that creates the wonderful caramelized toffee-like and roasted flavors so abundant in this beer. We have are participating events in a quite a few different states including Michigan, Florida, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina and Illinois (Chicago/Midwest festival).

We are celebrating diversity at this weekend's Kalamazoo Pride, June 13 and 14, at Arcadia Creek Festival Place and marking our second year in a row sponsoring this event in our hometown. Proceeds will go to support the Kalamazoo Gay Lesbian Resource Center - this is the KGLRC's largest fundraiser of the year. Sparkleberry Ale will return and Bell's Lager along with Kalamazo IPA and Oberon will be on tap all weekend long. In addition to a great music lineup, we're also giving away six Bell's Summer Swag Bags. To win, all you have to do is take a photo of yourself at Pride with anything related to Bell's. Then post it to either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #lovewhoyouare and tag us (@BellsBrewery on Twitter and Instagram OR Bell's Brewery, Inc. (Official) on Facebook). One winner will be announced on stage during Pride at 6:30 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Friday as well as 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. For more information on tickets, the music lineup or anything else, please visit kglrc.org/pride. Hope to see you there!  

Bikes and Bell’s have a long standing relationship. From sponsorships (Iceman Cometh Challenge and the Copper Harbor Trails Festival, for example) to bike parking at the Café, we have always supported those who travel by gears. We will continue that tradition during Kalamazoo Bike Week. Below is what we have planned at the Eccentric Cafe. In addition, anyone who rides their bike to the Café during Kalamazoo Bike Week (and can prove it) will get a $1 off their beers during their visit. And, as always, if you forget your lock, just ask the bartender to borrow one. For more on Kalamazoo Bike Week, go here. Cheers and safe riding. May 13 Kalamazoo Bicycle Film Festival – Bike Shorts, 6 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. (must be 21 or older for later showing) Details: This festival is a celebration of bicycles and the culture that surrounds them. The films will feature a wide spectrum of experiences, stories and images of bicycling. Some will make you laugh. Some will make you think. The common theme is that they are all for, about or inspired by bicycles. Admission is $5. Read more about the films here. May 17 Annual Bell’s to Bell’s Bike Ride, noon (registration), 1 p.m. (ride begins) Details: We are challenging our employees to ride to work instead of driving during Kalamazoo Bike Week. The goal? 455 miles or the distance from our Comstock brewery to the future site of Upper Hand Brewery in Escanaba. You can help us ride back and raise money for future Kalamazoo River Valley Trail expansions. All you have to do is join us for our annual brewery to brewery bike ride – a 14 mile ride along the KRVT and some surface roads that will begin at the Café, head to our Comstock Brewery for a tour, then head back to the Café for a ra­ffle and drinks. Bring your ID, bike lock and helmet. Suggested donation is $10.

Here are photos from yesterday's release at the Eccentric Cafe in downtown Kalamazoo.