A Visit to Bells Brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan

With a rich history in brewing that dates back to 1985, Bell’s Brewery has made expansion an important initiative this year. Over the past few months Michigan’s oldest craft brewer has entered five additional states. This includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, and Utah with the only remaining state that’s left is Hawaii.

We recently visited the brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan to take part in Oberon Day, that just so happens to be a state holiday. Yes, Governor Whitmer made the proclamation on March 21, 2022, honoring Oberon Ale as the beer celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. Now Oberon Day takes place on the third Monday in March.

Bell’s Brewery was founded by Larry Bell as it began its brewing operations in 1985 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. For the past 38 years, Bell’s Brewery has been expanding and along with it, being recognized as one of the top breweries in the country. But it was 40 years ago when Bell founded the company as it was a homebrew shop for its first two years. To this day, Bell’s General Store continues to sell homebrew supplies to the homebrewers of Western Michigan.

When Bell began brewing, his first professional beer brewed was Amber Ale. He brewed this on a 15-gallon soup kettle. According to Ray Bristol, one of our brewery tour guides, “Bell produced 130 barrels of beer his first year.” Quite the accomplishment for what was essentially a homebrew kit!

He continued brewing on this system for the next four years until he signed with a distributor in 1989. Bell then upgraded to a measly 2-barrel brewhouse. Then three years later the brewhouse was upgraded once again, this time to a much more efficient 15-barrel system.

This also happened to be the same year when Oberon Ale debuted. But back when the beer debuted in 1992 this Belgian inspired American Ale was known as SolSun. This name lasted until 1996 when it was changed to Oberon Ale. This change was due to a trademark dispute from Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, the makers of Sol.

Since its inception 31 years ago, Oberon Ale has gone on to become a reflection of summer in Michigan and across the Midwest. The beer is a seasonal release, only available for six months from March through September, but accounts for 25% of the brewery’s annual sales. Yes, Oberon Ale is a beer that brings a variety of beer drinkers together.

The beer is so popular that about a decade ago, Bell’s Brewery decided to host Oberon Day at its Eccentric Café in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This unofficial start to spring brings many Oberon fans together for a day of festivities and to get the season’s first taste of Oberon.

Now held on the third Monday in March, Oberon Day was proclaimed a Michigan holiday on March 21, 2022 by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. It’s not like any employer honors it but quite a few Michiganders flock to Kalamazoo for the day. Last month’s Oberon Day saw about 5,000 attendees brave the cool mid-40 degree weather for an outdoor and indoor festival featuring the first pours of Oberon in 2023.

“Oberon Day is for the brewery’s fan base,” exclaimed Kevin “Stutch” Stuchell, Bell’s Senior Brewer. “Oberon is a Belgian inspired American ale that utilizes spicy hops.” It is pretty much the official summer beer of Michigan!

The 2023 edition of Oberon Day began at 10:00am with the raising of the Oberon Flag outside the Eccentric Café. Leading up to the flag raising, the Great Lakes Brass performed their New Orleans inspired music to the early revelers. From there, the first Oberon was served, each with an orange slice that was cut from one of 7,000 oranges used for the day!

These Oberon fans were treated to eight special one off variants of the popular American Wheat Ale. In addition to the longstanding Oberon Ale, the taps at the Eccentric Café were also serving these Oberon’s – Creamsicle, Chipotle Lime, Watermelon Basil, Raspberry Hibiscus, Pineapple Jalapeno, Fruit Punch, Peach and Blood Orange.

We perused this list and enjoyed that Pineapple Jalapeno, Blood Orange, Chipotle Lime and Creamsicle. The spiciness in the jalapeno and chipotle offerings played well with the wheat beer.

Fortunately for the many Oberon fans that were not able to visit the Eccentric Café for Oberon Day, Bell’s is set to release an Oberon Variety Pack in the coming months. This pack will feature the OG Oberon along with what is likely Cherry Oberon and a few other yet to be named Oberon variants. Hopefully this Oberon Variety Pack makes its way to the Pacific Northwest.

Granted, our trip was to celebrate the release of Oberon for the summer season ahead, but the beer that Bell’s is best known for is Two Hearted IPA. It’s been so popular with members from the American Homebrewers Association that its members have named Two Hearted IPA the best beer in America. So much so that it took home the #1 ranking four consecutive years from 2017 – 2020, the last year Zymurgy published these rankings.

Two Hearted dates back to the late 1980s when it was brewed as a Pale Ale. Through the years this beer had been tweaked and arrived as the IPA that we know today in 1997 when it was a winter seasonal. Once Bell’s commissioned its new 50-barrel brewhouse in 2003, Two Hearted IPA became a year-round offering and took off from there.

During the launch of Two Hearted IPA as a year-round beer, Bell’s hired John Mallett in 2001 to help get this new, much larger brewhouse in nearby Comstock online. Mallett, Bell’s longtime Brewmaster, recently left Bell’s Brewery this past February but made a name for himself during this 20+ year career at the brewery. So much so that in 2021 for his 20th anniversary with the brewery, Bell’s established the John Mallett Brewing Scholarship.

Under Mallett’s guidance, the brewery grew exponentially and was once again in need of a larger brewhouse. Less than a decade later, Bell’s expanded with a 200-barrel brewhouse that was fired up in 2012. The production brewery now uses both the 50-barrel and 200-barrel brewhouses along with a 12-barrel pilot brewery in addition to a pub 15-barrel brewhouse at its Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo.

With Mallett’s departure, Andy Farrell took over as Brewmaster. Farrell is a 23 year employee at Bell’s so the brewery is in very competent hands as he has worked in all facets of the brewery.

When it comes to building beer recipes Farrell looks to food. “I find a lot of inspiration from the culinary world,” said Farrell. “Being passionate about food and beverage helps a lot.”

Moving forward, Bell’s is working on becoming a Certified B Corp, something that its parent company, New Belgium Brewing is part of. In November 2021, New Belgium acquired Bell’s Brewery. Now both breweries fall under the Lion Little World Beverages, an Australian subsidiary of Japan-based Kirin.

For New Belgium to keep its B Corp status, its sister company in Michigan must be the same. Bell’s will need to have this completed by end of the year for New Belgium to retain their certification.

Protecting the environment is nothing new at Bell’s. “We rely on our agricultural products,” said Stuchell, during our brewery tour. “We are stewards of the environment. A Waylon, MI farmer takes the brewery’s spent grain and we utilize geothermal heat here at the Comstock brewery.”

With its commitment to the environment and local farmers, the team at Bell’s Brewery is excited for what the future holds. Larry Bell retired in 2021 and now the brewery is under the leadership of Carrie Yunker, Bell’s Brewery’s Executive Vice President. She is poised to continue the brewery’s expansion to all 50 states and lead the brewery into its next chapter.

We leave you with a few other photos from our Bell’s Brewery tour and 2023 Oberon Day!

Bell’s Brewery, a division of Lion Little World Beverage, an Australian subsidiary of Japan-based Kirin, provided travel, lodging, meals and beer for the reporting of this article.