Bell's Brewery (2021)

Please, no more rum barrels. I'm begging you.

 

Sweetwater's has them available all week - Battle Creek and Kzoo. They've become so popular that pre-ordering has been recommended. However, they're still available on a walk-in basis too, although you might want to call ahead if you're enticed to come for some.

 

I'm not fussy. If they don't have the Oberon donuts, they have about 20 other donuts that I'm perfectly happy with.

 

I heard rumors Bells was going to be doing a big festival this year. I went to the Funvitational a few years back and it was awesome with a great guest lineup also. Anyone hear anything about a festival this year?

 

They had a big event in the works last year, but we all know what happened to it. I'm pretty sure they 'hoped' to reschedule it for this year but I haven't heard anything yet.

 

I was also at Funvitational. Missed out on the surprise DB Huna, but the highlight for me was getting a pour of one of the Batch 1000 series beers personally from Larry Bell toting a giant double magnum. The fireworks at dusk were spectacular.

 

U just brought back a tough memory. DB Huna blew with like 4 people in front of me. That was a great festival though.

 

Um…Lager of the Lakes is incredible. Not that any of you needed that reminder but…yay 12-packs.

 

Bell's is still growing:
https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazo...der-mackinac-bridge-on-freighter-journey.html

Twelve 800-barrel fermenters are being delivered to their tank field via boat from Germany.

 

Fill em up with Expo and get the boat full of barrels loaded up!

 

Make a little BA Special Double Cream Stout to mix with some of the BAE, aka Black Note.

 

Any rumors about BA expo or something good being released soon? It’s been a while. Still hoping for BA 30th to be bottled.

 

"Something good" is very subjective but Bell's is seeking label approval for Uberon. I think this may be the first time it has been released.

I also recently saw somewhere that Mars is being brewed again. It was a very good Double IPA.

 

Another newsletter from Bell's today: Double Two Hearted is being released this week (no details on quantity or distro footprint), and also released this week is Octoberfest.

 

Looks like two sideyard beers this coming year. 12oz packaging (bottles presumably) and not specified as NEIPA. Still holding out hope we get to see this in IL one year

 

Fingers crossed!

 

New label on min-kegs (will it roll out to bottles/cans too?). Why?

 

That's interesting. Bell's has been changing the design each year for the mini kegs of Oberon (other beers too?), so maybe they are going to start changing up for the Hopslam too.

 

Anyone try Juicy Gossip? I'm getting married in Michigan in a few weeks, and need to finalize the beer list. It's going to be mostly Bells beer for the non-hoppy, non macro stuff, but their IPAs are either too strong or too light. There's no goldilocks. We could go with Bell's Official, but decided to go with Lil Sumpin Easy, as that beer just hits all the right notes.

However, so many people like Juicy and Hazy stuff, I figured it might be a good alternative, given it's only 4.7%. Especially if we do half Juicy half iil sump.