Homebrewing

Things to keep in mind if you decide to enter this year's homebrew competition: 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 (starts at 11 a.m.) will help guarantee wort. We will start distributing wort at 1 p.m. 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 more than 200 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. The wort will be made with 100-percent Michigan Pale Ale malt. The initial OE of the base wort will be roughly 12 Plato (about 1.048 gravity), which will yield a knock-out gravity of 13+ Plato (about 1.052 gravity) after the final boil. Left unchanged, the fermentability will result in a beer with approximately 6% ABV. The wort will be minimally boiled and entirely unhopped, giving you complete freedom for recipes and allow your imagination to run wild from there. However, homebrewers will have to complete the kettle boil on their own systems. There are no restrictions or style guidelines for the final beer, so long as it uses the base wort from Bell's Brewery, Inc. Competition entries (four 12 oz. bottles) are due to the Bell’s General Store by 7 p.m., Sunday, October 29. For more on this year's competition, go here. 

The 8th Annual Bell’s Homebrew Competition Kick-off and Expo will be held this year on Sept. 9 at the Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo. The homebrewer who takes first place will get to brew their recipe at our original brewery to then go on tap next door at the adjacent Café. The first place winner will also attend the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado as our guest. That person will team up with us for the 2018 Pro-Am Competition and attend both the awards ceremony and members’ only session. We will cover the cost of airfare to Denver and back (must be within the continental U.S.) and provide lodging for two nights. “Our General Store has been supporting homebrewers for more than 30 years, longer than we’ve been brewing. We are extremely proud to be able to offer this unique opportunity to those who share the same passion that set us on our own journey,” said Laura Bell, CEO of Bell’s Brewery. As in previous years, there is no cost to enter the competition and the only requirement is that you use Bell’s wort, which will be available for free at the kick-off, while supplies last. This year’s Expo will run from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. and will feature Blichmann Engineering, Briess Malt, Pilot Malt House, the Brewers Association and others. Sign-up times for wort pickup will begin at 11 a.m. It will be distributed beginning around 1 p.m., first come, first served. In past years, more than 200 homebrewers have been able to receive wort. Competition entries (four 12 oz. bottles) are due to the Bell’s General Store by 7 p.m., Sunday, October 29. The 2016 winning recipe, from Evan Monroe of Three Rivers, Michigan, will be tapped for the first time at 2 p.m. on Aug. 13 at the Café. Freedom of Peach is a hoppy saison brewed with peaches. All are welcome and encouraged to stop by the Café and try this first-place homebrew recipe (those 21 and up, of course). Previous winners 2015: Bale So Hard, a Farmhouse Ale brewed with HBC 438 and Mosaic hops. 2014: Coffee Mustache, a California Common style beer brewed with coffee from Matt VanNatter. 2013: Proud Mitten, a dry hopped IPA/Pale Ale made with Centennial, Citra and Simcoe hops from David Lyman. 2012: Manden Med Leen, a black IPA brewed with Belgian yeast from Nick Rodammer. 2011: A Bit of Heat from Geoff Groff, brewed with paradise seeds, rose hips and habaneros. 2010: Oscar’s Folly, a collaborative IPA from Jarrett Cupp, Bailey Cupp and Paul Gentz. [[{"fid":"2943","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default"}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]  

This year's annual homebrew competition will kick-off on Sept. 9, 2017 at the Eccentric Cafe. As in previous years, wort will be given out on a first-come, first-serve basis beginning at 11 a.m. There is no cost to enter, the only requirement is that you use our wort (which is also free).  The homebrewer who takes first place will get to brew their recipe at our original Kalamazoo brewery to then to go on tap at the adjacent Cafe. They will also head to next the 2018 Great American Beer Festival in Denver as our guest. Bell's will provide travel and accommodations.  That person will also team-up with us for the Pro-Am Competition and attend both the awards ceremony and Saturday members only session.  This year's Expo will feature vendors like Briess Malt, Pilot Malt House, Blichman Engineering and more.  Stay tuned for more details! And if you are heading to this year's American Homebrew Association's Homebrew Con, stop by our booth and say hello!

For the month of April, our General Store (both in-store and online) is offering a 15% off discount on some of our homebrewing supplies. This sale covers: All wheat malts and extracts Ingredient kits that have any wheat malts or extracts German and Czech hops Natural flavorings Fruit purees Online discounts will be made once items are added to your cart. Take a look at these and discounts on other homebrewing supplies here.  Happy homebrewing!

Before we were a brewery, we were a homebrew supply store. That's how our president and founder Larry Bell got his (and our) start. It wasn't until two years after the Bell's General Store opened that we sold our first official beer as a brewery.  More than 30 years later, our homebrew roots still run deep. From our support of the American Homebrewers Association to our annual Bell's Homebrew Competition, we offer support and advice to home brewers every day. So what better way to celebrate those roots than by offering some tips on how to make a clone brew of our American Wheat Ale? Plus, for our fans who do not currently live in an area where we distribute just yet, this is a great way to enjoy a taste of summer. As we have advised countless homebrewers before, there are certain things about our recipes that we keep close to the vest, but if you are looking to brew a Oberon clone of your own, here is some advice.  The malt bill is relatively straightforward: stick with 2-row base malt and a decent portion of wheat, something in the 40-50% range. Wheat can stick to a lauter, so use as much of that range as you can within the limitations of your lauter tun; adding rice hulls can help improve the flow. If you are going the malt extract route, there are manufacturers that offer various wheat/barley malt extract blends that will work just fine. A touch of caramel malt will be all the color you need usually. Aim for a target original gravity of around 1.056 and moderate fermentability. The ABV should be just below 6%. Oberon uses several hops, but the signature varietals are Hersbrucker and Saaz. Target roughly 30 IBUs. Don’t be lured into using coriander or orange peel: Oberon is made with just four ingredients (water, hops, yeast and malted barley/wheat). You can culture our house yeast out of one of our bottles if you're comfortable with that; it's certainly the preferred option for a solid flavor match. Otherwise, our General Store has found that most people looking to clone one of our recipes lean towards ale strains with a straightforward ester profile and good attenuation. You can find supplies on our online store, by using the links below - our General Store is a great resource for ingredients and homebrewing supplies.  All grain ingredient kit Extract ingredient kit Here's to the next batch! 

We don’t offer our house yeast for sale. But since we don’t filter any of our ales either, you can harvest it directly from the bottle or can. Any of our non-Belgian ales are good candidates for this. If you can get your hands on them, Oberon or Amber Ale are all good choices. What you will need: 1-3 bottles of beer, a vessel, a flame source and the same ingredients required to build a yeast starter. DIRECTIONS Refrigerate your bottle or can of beer for one week. Make sure you have a nice slurry on the bottom. Two to three bottles cans will yield better results. Open bottle or can and sanitize the lip with a flame. NOTE: You may also want to spray sanitizer on and around the cap before opening. Gently pour the beer into a glass, leaving the sediment (yeast) in the bottle or can. Swirl the sediment/yeast in the bottle and re-flame the lip. Pour sediment into a sanitized container. Grow your yeast using a stepped starter – start with 75ML (about 1/3 of a cup) of wort, then let ferment for two to three days. Then add an additional 750ML of wort and let ferment an additional two to three days. [[{"fid":"1980","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default"}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]  

Hop rhizome pre-orders are now open. You can select from seven different varieties from Hop Head Farms in Hickory Corners, Michigan: Centennial Cascade Chinook Glacier Magnum Crystal They will be harvested and available in early to mid-April. Orders are due by March 31.  Please note, rhizomes are available for in-store pick-up only (at the Bell’s General Store in downtown Kalamazoo) and cannot be shipped. For more details, go here.

Mistakes happen all of the time, in both life and in brewing. Sometimes, nothing good comes out of them, and other times, mistakes result in something so amazing that we could not have planned. The good kind of mistake happened for our 2016 Employee Homebrew Competition winning beer.   “Pedal to the Kettle was a total accident,” said Jon, a brewer at Bell’s and team captain.  But a happy accident. A kettle soured beer, Pedal was brewed with pediococcus, an organism that is commonly used for sour beers. It produces the tartness we know and love in sour beers. Homebrewing is an important part of Bell’s culture and we want to make sure every employee has a chance to experience what sparked the love for brewing for so many, including our Founder and President Larry Bell, more than 30 years ago.  For the third year, we've hosted our annual Employee Homebrew Competition. Teams are made up of employees from different parts of the company. More than 89 Bell's employees participated in 17 different teams. In addition to the captain, Jon, winning team included Elanor, web developer; Tania, organizational development manager; Andrew, bartender and Shelly, tour manager.  Like most teams, the group met for a shifty to discuss their plans for their beer. They decided quickly they wanted to brew a style none of them had tried before, and decided on a sour. They also wanted to focus on fruity and tropical notes. "When we sat down, we thought ‘why not take all the big trends that are happening now in beer and push them together?’” Jon said. “So we can get hoppy beers, we can get sour beers and throw a great big Frankenstein out to the world.” [[{"fid":"3721","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":4480,"width":4480,"style":"width: 480px; height: 480px; float: right; margin: 10px;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]The plan was laid out for brew day. Then the mistakes started happening. First, the planned grain bill wasn’t milled, so they used another set of grain Jon had for a different batch he was planning. With a totally different malt profile, they began brewing in Jon's yard over an open flame on a July evening. But then, another mistake: they ran out of propane and weren’t able to get to a boil before adding the souring agent. Given the timeline of the competition, they couldn't make a proper sour, which can take anywhere between three months to three years.  “A kettle sour knocks away 99 percent of the process that goes into a sour,” Jon said. So the beer soured over two days before being fermented with brewers yeast, giving some of the sour flavor in significantly less time. By the end of the brew, they had to MacGuyver several things. Their tools included a hairdryer, and a repurposed cooler hooked up to a Raspberry Pi programmable computer. But it all worked out. "When we sat down and tried it, we were unanimous,” Jon said. “This is the beer we have to enter because it is too good to not enter." Although accidents abound, it ended up creating a beer none of them would change. In fact, our brewers worked to recreate it when they brewed it in downtown Kalamazoo at our original B1 brewery. Pedal to the Kettle will be going on tap soon at the Eccentric Café -- keep an eye on our tap cam. [[{"fid":"3488","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default"}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"},"link_text":null}]]  

From the basics of malt to setting up a home draught system or even making cheese, our General Store staff have a number of classes planned to help you make it through the cold winter months.  Beginners Malt Sunday, February 12th                Learn the ins and outs of all things grain! We will cover the basics of how beer gets its sweet goodness. Hands on demonstrations, class room activities and beer samples help drive home one of the most important aspects of brewing, malted barley. Cheese-Making Saturday, February 25th Do you like cheese? Of course you do. Do you want to learn to make it at home? Of course you do. Join us for our cheese making class where you will gain hands on experience crafting your very own cheese! Advanced Malt Saturday, March 11th Do you have a grasp on all things malt? Think again. Our Advanced Malt class  will dive deeper into the wonderful world of brewing sugars! Some homebrew experience or our Beginners Malt class is required. Draught Class Saturday, March 25th Want to bring the bar home? Now you can! Sign up for the class that will teach you everything you will need to know on how to set up a home draught system and how to trouble shoot those pesky kegerator problems. 

Buy a homebrewing equipment kit from the General Store or online from December 1 -January 8  and receive a free ticket to our Brew Your First Batch: An Intro to Homebrewing class, on January 9 at 6 p.m. We have a number of different equipment kits that come with an assortment of items to help you get started with your first batch of beer. We will explain every item that comes in the kits as well as brew a batch of beer. Check out our standard kits below: BASIC BREWER'S BEST BEER BREWING EQUIPMENT KIT Ferment in a plastic bucket, then go straight to bottling when fermentation is complete. DELUXE BREWER'S BEST® BEER BREWING EQUIPMENT KIT W/ GLASS CARBOY Same equipment as Basic Kit with the addition of a 5 gallon glass carboy (secondary vessel) and carboy accessories. DELUXE BREWER'S BEST BEER BREWING EQUIPMENT KIT W/ BETTER BOTTLE Same as the Deluxe Kit but with a 5 gallon plastic carboy rather than a glass carboy.