Bell's Lineup - Time to Retool?

I think they should retool.

Before I moved to Arizona, one of the breweries I was most looking forward to was Bell's; their reputation and hype around their beers was huge, so needless to say I was very excited to try their products when I moved here 3 years ago.

So far I've had:

Two Hearted
Oberon
Porter
Hopslam
Oarsman
Brown
Midwestern


Unfortunately, the hype was very far off from the finished product. Two Hearted was/is certainly a great beer, but expensive compared to others in an already crowded beer style. I'll only drink it on tap. Hopslam was one of the most overrated beers I've had in recent memory. The rest of the above were just okay, in the C/B range. Nothing really crazy enough to make me want to spend ~$3 more than other products.

I'm not trying to troll, I just think that Bell's is an unfortunate example of BeerAdvocate hype. Maybe they were a world class brewery in 2006, but that is not the case in the insanely competitive beer industry in 2015. It's not their fault but mine for having such huge expectations. That being said, I am open minded and will still try their other products.

Cheers!

 

I used to be a huge Bells fan since my sister lives in MI. There is so much out there now and their line up does little to impress me in my old age. Now that theyre in MD I am not all that impressed. Expedition Stout is a must..other than that I will simply yawn.....

 

Two Hearted is usually 9-10 bucks a six pack, 7 or 8 for a 4 pack of 16 oz cans. Expensive compared to others??

 

It's closer to $12 a six pack here, $8 maybe $9 a 4 pack (which is an improvement)

Regardless, Hanger 24 Betty IPA is only $9 a six pack and it is a MUCH better IPA than Two Hearted. Union Jack is usually around $8 or $9, which is also better than Two Hearted. I'm not saying Two Hearted is bad, I just don't think it isn't worth the price compared to the two examples I mentioned.

This is just my opinion though. To each their own.

 

Yeah. I never really understood why you'd put out what is normally a summer beer out in the winter. I'd really like to see them them do a winter warmer instead of the Winter White. Personally, I'd keep the porter but fiddle around with the recipe a little and see what they can do to make it more memorable.