News

Thank you to the more than 300 people who took part in the Bell’s to Bell’s bike ride this weekend. The 14-mile round trip went from the Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo to our brewery in Comstock and included a tour of our brew gallery and beer samples. All proceeds went to the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail.

We’re excited to announce that our General Store will be offering classes this summer on homebrewing, cheese making and draught line management. Each class begins at 6 p.m. and doors open at 5:45 p.m. Each class costs $10 per person and there is a limit of 12 people per class. Each participant must be 21 years of age and over. Below is a list of current classes. Registration is not yet open for all classes. Beginners Malt - June 6th 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 activates and beer samples help drive home one of the most important aspects of beer making. Get tickets. Draught Class -June 13th 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. Get tickets. Advanced Malt - June 27th Do you have a grasp on all things malt? Think again, join us for our Advanced Malt class where we will dive deeper into the wonderful world of brewing sugars! Some homebrew experience or our Beginners Malt class is required. Get tickets. Beginner Hops - July 5th (Monday, July 4th is a holiday) Beer wouldn’t be the same without those juicy, dank, delicious hops. Attend our Beginner Hops class to learn everything you need to conquer those green, resinous cones. Get tickets. Cheese Making - July 11th 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! Get tickets. Advanced Hops- July 25th Can’t get enough hops in your life? Dive deeper into this immense topic and learn the math and methods behind formulating your next, great, hoppy brew.  Get tickets. Yeast - Aug 1st Hands down, the most important ingredient in crafting a great brew are those tiny, delicious fungi. Come learn the basics of these tiny powerhouses we call yeast. Get tickets. Cider Making - Aug 8th Fall is right around the corner and few things scream chilly nights, changing leaves and crackling bonfires like a hard cider. We take you from the apple to pint glass in this hands on, informative class. Get tickets.            HOMeBrew 101 - Aug 22nd Want to start brewing your own beer? This introductory class will help get you started. We will cover the history, ingredients, equipment, and process of home-brewing. Get your brew on! Get tickets. Beer Styles - Sept 6th (Monday is Labor DAy) Can you name the differences between an American IPA, English IPA and a Belgian IPA? How about categorizing one of the over 100 BJCP beer styles? Come taste your way around the world with us while learning all about the styles of beer. Get tickets. Mead Making - Sept 12th Join us in learning how to make honey into happiness with our mead making class. This is your hands on opportunity to Wow you neighbors with your ability to craft a delicious glass of mead. Get tickets. Recipe Development - Sept 26th     Our recipe development class teaches you to become half mad scientist, half master chef. We combine hands on learning and the necessary brewing equations to develop your next great beer idea into a pint you can share with friends. Get tickets. Four Month Beginner’s Program Want to make your own beer at home? Do you have any idea what a yeast starter is? What about IBU, SRM, FG or OG? Learn all of this and much more with our four classes aimed at amateur home brewers. Join us for Beginner’s Malt, Beginner Hops, Beginner’s Yeast and Recipe Development over the next four months to start your way down the path of a true brewer.  Four Month Advanced Program Join us for our Advanced classes aimed at diving deeper into the wonderful world of Advanced Malt, Advanced Hops, Advanced Yeast, Beer Styles and Recipe Development. All we ask is that you already have a few batches under your belt, or that you have completed the Beginner’s class we offer for the class you want to attend. Take your brewing to the next level with our experienced staff. 

We’re proud to be a presenting partner of the 13th Gilmore Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, commissioning a new piece by legendary composer Michel Legrand and hosting two jazz concerts at the Eccentric Cafe.   “Kalamazoo has always been a great town for the arts — and having the Gilmore Keyboard Festival here is sort of our crown jewel,” said Larry Bell, founder and president of Bell’s Brewery.   The Gilmore Keyboard Festival is a three-week keyboard festival with nearly 100 concerts and more than 200 artists.   The finale will include the debut of our commissioned piece “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.”  It will be performed by Legrand himself with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.    Legrand has composed music for several films, and won Academy Awards, including for “The Windmills of Your Mind” from “The Thomas Crown Affair.”   “It’s really special to even be associated with somebody of his stature,” said Larry.    As of May 2, tickets are still available for this event. Check to see if tickets are still available.    Two concerts will take place at the Eccentric Cafe as part of the Thursday Jazz at Bell’s series. The Aaron Diehl Trio will perform May 5. and the Taylor Eigsti Trio on May 12. Both 6:30 and 9 p.m. sets for both artists are sold out.   “It’s great we’ve come so far as a company to host a couple of the events,” Larry said. “It thrills me to no end to participate in that and bring some jazz to Bell’s.”   The Legrand composition is the second piece we have commissioned as part of the Gilmore. In 2014, we commissioned with the Gilmore the piece “Ode to La Bruja, Hanon, Czerny Van Cliburn and little gold stars ... (or, To Everyone Who Made my Life Miserable, Thank You).” The tribute to piano teachers was composed by Michael Gordon for Grand Band.      

We are thrilled to announce that Bell’s beer will head to The Lone Star State in early 2017.  “We’re looking forward to making all kinds of new friends and reconnecting with our Michigan and Midwest transplants,” Bell’s Vice President Laura Bell said. Our entire portfolio, including year-round and seasonal beers, will head to Texas. “This process will follow the same timeline we have followed for other new state launches,” Bell said.  “We will start with making sure we have Bell’s representatives in key areas, then we will begin searching for the right distributor partner who will help us maintain the quality and customer service that are central to who we are,” she said. Texas will be the eighth state we add to our distribution footprint following Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, South Dakota, Nebraska and West Virginia in 2016. Additional details will be announced here and on social media as they become available.  Applications are being accepted for our first sales position based in Texas – a Regional Business Manager. Details can be found here.

Update: Poolside will start shipping in mid to late June. We are excited to announce another new addition to our specialty packaging lineup for this year. Poolside Ale (5% ABV) will debut in 12 oz. cans, packaged in six-packs, this May. It will also be available on draught. This limited specialty beer will ship to all states we distribute to. It is the third new specialty beer to join our Release Calendar for 2016, following announcements for Quinannan Falls Special Lager and Hopsoulution Double IPA. “Poolside is a beer we haven’t seen for a while. It was incredibly well received and we thought it was the right time to bring this seasonal favorite back,” Bell’s Vice President Laura Bell said. A refreshing Belgian-inspired Wheat Ale, Poolside is fermented with Montmorency cherry juice made from cherries grown near Traverse City in northern Michigan. Our Cherry Stout is also made with this local ingredient. It adds a subtle tartness and bright counterpoint to clove and other fruit aromas that result from the Belgian specialty yeast strain used to ferment this beer. “It’s very drinkable and a great addition to our summer can lineup,” Bell said. Additional details will be shared at here and on our social media as they become available.

Oatsmobile, our new dry-hopped session Pale Ale, is now shipping. Coming in at 4.3% ABV, Oatsmobile is perfect for any occasion. The blend of Equinox, Crystal, Mosaic and Glacier hops create a complex aroma that drives this beer. It can be described as having peach, mango, tropical and floral notes. The oats give the beer more body than most other session Pale Ales. Both naked oats and flaked oats are used to brew this beer. This is our first new year-round beer since 2010. This beer began in 2013 at our downtown Kalamazoo brewery as Oat Ale as a way to explore the use of oats in a pale beer. It then evolved into Boiling Pot, which added hop aromatics. Boiling Pot was a favorite on draught at the Eccentric Cafe and at special events and tappings.

We are proud to share that for the second year in a row, we have been named one of the Best and Brightest Companies To Work For® in West Michigan. The National Association for Business Resources annually recognizes the most influential, trend setting companies regionally and across the country. We were also named as one of the Best and Brightest Companies To Work For® in the U.S. by the MBPA this past December. “It's our employees’ collaboration, dedication and passion that makes our company the amazing place to work that it is,” Carrie Yunker, Director of Human Resources at Bell’s said. The competition identifies and honors companies who display a commitment to excellence in their Human Resource practices and employee development.  “We’ve said it before, happy people make great beer. Taking care of our extended Bell’s family is crucial and a very important piece of who we are as a brewery,” she said. An independent research firm evaluated us on key measures in various categories including Compensation, Benefits and Employee Solutions; Employee Enrichment, Engagement and Retention; Employee Education and Development; Recruitment, Selection and Orientation; Employee Achievement and Recognition; Communication and Shared Vision; Diversity and Inclusion; Work-Life Balance; Community Initiatives; Strategic Company Performance and the Best of the Best Small Business, Medium Business and Large Business. “Companies that recognize that their employees are the key to their success achieve staying power. Our 2016 winners create their human resource standards to ensure employee satisfaction and they set standards for every business to aspire toward,” said Jennifer Kluge, President and CEO of the MBPA, in a press release. An award ceremony, honoring this year’s recipients and awarding this year’s new elite awards, will be held in Grand Rapids in May.

For more than 30 years, we have focused on brewing beer that follows the vision of our President and Founder, Larry Bell. Our dedication to quality begins with sourcing the finest raw ingredients and continues into our brewhouse, our quality lab, all the way to your glass. We are continuously adding to, and refining our process in every aspect to ensure and reinforce those expectations of quality. As we continue to brew the best beer we can, we wanted to make sure our packaging reflected the quality of the beer inside. Over the past year, Larry Bell and our Vice President, Laura Bell, have been working with a team to look at the imagery of each beer in our family. We want to make sure our packaging and logo maintain the heritage and vision of our brands while highlighting the style of each beer, in a way that is consistent with who we are as a brewery. Today, we are very excited to share a first look at both before they begin to roll out later this year. Our logo is changing to better reflect the Bell’s name and the branding that we are so proud of. Certain brands will also change to highlight the flavor and characteristics of the beer inside. We are thankful to the artists who created the iconic art featured on so many of our brands. They have helped showcase our creative side and in turn, helped our brewery grow. Fan favorites, like the Two Hearted Brook Trout and Oberon Sun are not going anywhere. They will actually be displayed more prominently. While being respectful to those works of art, we also want to pay homage to where we’ve been. In line with our commitment to quality, we want our packaging to reflect the beer inside by highlighting styles and descriptions more clearly. The essence will remain the same. That will always be a part of who we are. In keeping in mind our commitment to sustainability and our environment, these changes will be introduced over time to cut down and eliminate waste. We’re proud of where we’ve been and are just as excited about where we’re going. This is the culmination of 30 years of inspired brewing. Our anniversary and Funvitational were just the beginning of the next chapter for our family-owned brewery, one that we are excited to share more about in the months ahead.

We are proud to partner with The Kansas Craft Alliance to bring Bell’s beer to the great state of Kansas. Our entire portfolio, based on availability, will begin shipping in late May for release in June. The Kansas Craft Alliance was formed in 2009 through an established distributor partnership that maximizes brand exposure with unmatched support throughout the state of Kansas. Commitment to craft beer growth and consumer education ensures outstanding results and strong relationships with customers and supplier partners. Distributors Included in the Kansas Craft Alliance are: City Beverage Company, Inc. Crawford Sales Company House of Schwan, Inc. O’Malley Beverage of Kansas, Inc. Strathman Sales Company, Inc. Wil Fischer’s Distributing of Kansas, LLC Western Beverage Inc. Flint Hills Beverage, LLC – Osage City Flint Hills Beverage, LLC – Manhattan Seneca Wholesale Company, Inc. Vidricksen Distributing Company, Inc. Eagle Beverage, Corp. We will also be heading to Nebraska, South Dakota, Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia and Louisiana this year. By the end of 2016, we will be distributing to 30 states, in addition to Washington DC and Puerto Rico. Launch celebrations are also being planned. Additional information will be shared here and on our social media as it becomes available.

We are proud to announce that we have chosen distributor partners for the great states of Nebraska and South Dakota! Johnson Brothers of Nebraska will distribute our beer in Nebraska and Johnson Brothers of South Dakota will distribute Bell’s beer in South Dakota. Both are subsidiaries of Johnson Brothers. Our entire portfolio will begin shipping to both states beginning in late May. Bell’s beer will also head to Kansas, Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia and Louisiana this year. By the end of 2016, we will be distributing to 30 states, in addition to Washington, DC and Puerto Rico. Launch celebrations are also being planned. Additional information will be shared hereand on social media as it becomes available. ABOUT JOHNSON BROTHERS: Founded in 1953, Johnson Brothers/Artisan Beer Company is a family-owned Craft Beer, Wine, and Spirits distributor with headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. Over the past 10 years, the company has quietly built a reputation as one of the top craft-beer distributors across the country. With a high focus emphasis on education, each state employs a highly trained sales staff led by Certified Cicerones. With state-wide distributorships in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Wisconsin; the Johnson Brothers/Artisan Beer Company is proud to bring quality craft beers to its local beer consumers. The company celebrated its 60th Anniversary in business in 2013.