Bell's Brewery

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Bell's Brewery, Inc.
Location	Kalamazoo, Michigan
Year opened	1983
Annual production	91,000 Barrels (as of 2007)
Active beers
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 ("Lager of the Lakes")	Lager
Hopslam Ale	Double IPA
Hell Hath No Fury ... Ale	American Dubbel
Octoberfest Beer	Amber Lager

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.

1 History
2 Availability
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 late March 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 a thirteen state region. The states included in the region are Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Florida, Virginia 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. Distribution to Florida was added in 2007.

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.^[1]

In early December 2007, Bell's re-entered the Chicago market via two new distributors by creating three new beer brands, Kalamazoo Porter, Kalamazoo Royal Amber Ale, and Kalamazoo IPA. This was done for legal reasons: since each beer avoids the use of the "Bell's" name and logo, and uses a different recipe from previous Bell's brands, Larry Bell contends that these are not the same beers that were assigned to his former distributor. Nevertheless, Bell says he "expects to be sued by his former distributor, National Wine & Spirits."^[2]^[3] Initially, only the Royal Amber Ale was made available, in draft only, at about a dozen Chicago-area locations.^[4]