Innovation

Side Yard Ale is a brand new beer that brings together every part of the brewery in a unique and fresh package. Side Yard was brewed with Chinook hops from our very own hop yard. The hops were harvested and added to the kettle within four hours. After fermenting, the beer was then packaged and released exclusively on draught at the Eccentric Cafe and in cans at the Bell's General Store. Those four-packs of 16 oz. cans sold out that day. The end result was a juicy, soft, tropical, fruity integration of two styles of hop-forward IPAs – Harvest Ales, and New England (or hazy) IPAs. This small, one time batch was brewed on our Pilot Brewhouse, a huge part of our continuing focus on brewing innovative and experimental beers. “It's awesome to think about the fact that these hops are grown right here by my peers and co-workers, my friends, people that I love, and that this is gonna end up in our beer,” said Andy Farrell, Brewing Innovation Manager. “So in this beer, it's really interesting that we're gonna be using fresh, wet cone hops picked right out of our field; we're going to use cone hops as part of the dry hop, and a number of pellets as well: so we're really celebrating the hop in this beer in all of its forms.” [[{"fid":"7782","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"}}]] Our hop yard was first planted in 2014 and this is the first year the harvest was used in a beer release. The hops are harvested by hand and sent to the nearby Hop Head Farms in Hickory Corners for processing. “We're super excited about that aspect,” said Jake Grevenstuk, Lead Land Steward at Bell’s. “It helps bring everything into perspective, knowing that our efforts are not in vain… I think ultimately, the hops themselves wanna be in a beer, and we wanna see them go into a beer.” For future Eccentric Café exclusive releases, check out the Bell’s General Store and follow the Cafe on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).

For 13 years, nearly every bottle of our beer was packaged in one room. Now, we’re turning it into our new pilot brewery to help us continue our focus on innovation. Work continues this Spring on our new 12.8 barrel pilot brewing system in our Comstock Brewery. This new, additional brewery will allow us to continue to innovate and experiment with new recipes on a smaller scale. "This space will give us flexibility and an amazing venue to create and learn,” said Andy Farrell, Brewing Innovation Manager. “We expect to create new and interesting beers while maintaining the high quality standards that Bell's is known for.” The Comstock Pilot Brewery is located in our original bottling hall, where every bottle of our beer was packaged between 2003-2016. With tanks made in Michigan, Wisconsin and Germany, the new system is similar to our other brewing systems, to help make it easier to scale up to our 50 and 200 bbl systems. “We will also be using the space for brewing research, and optimization opportunities,” Farrell said. “We are excited to see what interesting beers come out of the pilot brewery, and look forward to sharing them with our fans."   The brewery will have its own mill room and fermentation cellar, which includes wood foeders for sour and wild beers. There will also be a specialty bottling line with the capability to fill 12 oz and 750 ml bottles. The six person innovation brewing staff is made up of veterans at Bell’s, and includes a sour beer specialist and a barrel specialist. This project is part of of $7 million of total investments being made in Comstock and Kalamazoo this year. A smaller 3 bbl pilot system is also being installed at our original Downtown Kalamazoo brewery next to the Eccentric Café. [[{"fid":"7111","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"}}]]  

Tasting Notes:  Dry-hopped lager with herbal, noble hop character and a slight caramel sweetness. HopfenDunkel, a dry hopped lager, translates literally to "hop dark" in German. We are utilizing our European style lager recipe while using European hops for the kettle and dry hop, hence the German play on words for the name.  The copper-colored beer has a 5% ABV, medium bitterness and an herbal, green tea like hop character. The slight sweetness  of the malt and herbal, noble character play well of each other in the finished beer.  Check out our beer finder to find HopfenDunkel near you, or check to see if it's on tap at the Eccentric Cafe with our tap cam.

This post is part of an occasional series looking at the beers we develop at our original brewery, or B1. Tasting Notes: Bright, vibrant, dry-hopped ale; sour and funky  Dry-Hopped with 9 different hops from both the U.S. and Australia this wood-aged, vibrant beer is a sessionable, sour ale.  This beer was fermented inside a more than 30 year-old oak foeder (wooden fermentation vessel), where wild yeast imparted the sour and funky flavors.  The wild yeast fermentation comes from Brettanomyces or "Brett" yeast that grow naturally within the wood vessels. Although many breweries strive to keep this yeast out of their tanks, we embrace its presence in our foeders.  This beer, and many like it that come out of both our original brewhouse and Comstock Brewery, illustrate our commitment to artisanship and innovation.  Check out our Tap Cam to see if this beer is available at the Eccentric Cafe, or take a look at our Events Calendar to see if an event near you will be featuring it.  WHAT IS A B1 BEER? B1 is how we affectionately refer to our original brewery in downtown Kalamazoo, located adjacent to our pub, the Eccentric Cafe. This is where we got our start and where we still develop new recipes, experiment with new varieties of hops and brew small batches of specialty beers like The Wild One and Mango Habanero Oberon today. Most of the beers brewed there are typically only available on draught at the Cafe, but from time to time they do make their way to special events.