Bell's Brewery

Bell's Brewery, Inc.

Location	Kalamazoo, Michigan
Opened	1983
Annual production volume	31,500 Barrels (as of 2002)
Active beers
Name Type Third Coast Beer Golden Lager Amber Ale Amber ale Oberon (formerly Solsun) Wheat Ale Pale Ale Pale Ale Two Hearted Ale India Pale ale Porter Porter Kalamazoo Stout Stout Best Brown Ale Brown Ale Winter White Ale Wheat Ale Bell's Special Double Cream Stout Stout Cherry Stout Stout Java Stout Stout Third Coast Old Ale Barley Wine Expedition Stout Imperial stout Bell's Beer Pilsner Consecrator Doppelbock Doppelbock Sparkling Ale American tripel Twentieth Anniversary Ale Amber ale Batch 7,000 Ale Stout Batch 8,000 Ale Witbier Lager Beer ? Hoplslam Ale Double IPA Hell Hath No Fury ... Ale ? Octoberfest Beer ?

File:Bellsoberon.jpg

A bottle and box of perhaps Bell's most popular and publicized beer, Oberon.

Bell's Brewery, Inc. is a brewery located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which produces the Bell's brand of beers.

History

Larry Bell founded Kalamazoo Brewing Company in 1983 as a home-brewing supply shop. In 1985, it began to sell its own beer, producing 135 barrels in its first year. These first batches of beer were brewed in a 15 gallon soup kettle and fermented in open fermenters covered with Saran Wrap.

The brewery today consists of two separate brewing facilities, the original Kalamazoo Avenue facility, and the state-of-the-art Krum Avenue Plant, in Comstock Township, Michigan, which opened in 2002. The Kalamazoo Avenue brewery contains an attached pub – Bell's Eccentric Cafe – and a store which sells Bell's beer and apparel, as well as homebrewing supplies. Former Bell's brewer Tom "Elvis" Fuller now owns the formerly Bell-owned Old Hat Brewery in Lawton, Michigan.

As of 2005, Kalamazoo Brewing Company changed their name to Bell's Brewery, Inc., reflecting the name by which most people refer to the brewery.

Availability

While the Pale Ale, Porter, Kalamazoo Stout, Third Coast Beer, Amber Ale and Two Hearted Ale are available year round, the majority of Bell's beers are seasonal. For example, Oberon Ale is available from April through October and Best Brown Ale from October through March. The Stouts are available on a schedule similar to that for the Best Brown. Others like the Consecrator Doppelbock and the Sparkling Ale are single batches released once a year.

Bell's beer is currently distributed through an eleven state region. The states included in the region are Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Iowa. Distribution to Virginia and North Carolina were added on November 1 2006. Distribution to Iowa was added in late 2006/early 2007, although on a smaller scale due to Iowa's restrictive liquor laws.

In 199X Bell's was sued aledgedly for the 'Solsun' name of its front runner seasonal summer brew by Molson Canadian. Now Oberon has taken over in Michigan and the surrounding states as the premier summer wheat beer.

Bell's was formerly available in Illinois, but was pulled from the market on October 12 2006. In accordance with a 1982 Illinois law which protects the interests of beer distributors (the Beer Industry Fair Dealing Act), the Chicago distributor (Union Beverage) attempted to sell its Bell's distribution rights to a competitor, Chicago Beverage Systems (CBS). In meeting with CBS executives, owner Larry Bell became concerned that his full product line would not be adequately represented by CBS. Having no legal ability to prevent Union from selling its distribution rights, Bell chose what he saw as his only recourse — to pull his products from the entire Illinois market, which represented over USD $1.3 million per year for Bell's Brewery. Due to the vagueness of the law, which does not specify a "lapse period," it is likely that if Bell's ever attempts to return to Illinois distribution, Union Beverage's parent company (National Wine and Spirits) will have the right to demand substantial compensation from the distributor.

External link

• Company website