monksblu wrote:Bells have filed all the paper work ness. and have been approved to start selling again in Illinois.
They are using the name "Kalamazoo" (though underneath it states "Bottled by Bells Brewery") and will be distributing a pale ale, red ale, porter, and stout. They should be in Illinois by the first part of December.
I know Sam's will be carrying it.
I love having one more excuse to venture up to Kenosha, but now my excuse just has to do with New Glarus.
Just saw this posting by Larry Bell:
Jamieson22 wrote:monksblu wrote:Bells have filed all the paper work ness. and have been approved to start selling again in Illinois.
They are using the name "Kalamazoo" (though underneath it states "Bottled by Bells Brewery") and will be distributing a pale ale, red ale, porter, and stout. They should be in Illinois by the first part of December.
I know Sam's will be carrying it.
I love having one more excuse to venture up to Kenosha, but now my excuse just has to do with New Glarus.
I certainly do hope you just failed to mention they will also be distributing one of the best IPAs made. If not, they must just be looking to punish Illinois
Jamie
Matt wrote:I have to agree that if Two-Hearted (or a Two-Hearted clone) is not one of the offerings, that would be sad indeed. However, this may be a calculated part of Bell's legal strategy. When I spoke with someone in the industry a while back, he said that when the new distributor picked up the Bells distribution rights, it informed Larry Bell that it was planning to distribute Two-Hearted and Oberon only. Note that those two beers (or styles of beers) are absent from the list of beers to be reintroduced.
louisdog wrote:There was no "new distributor" for Bell's because NWS never sold the rights to anyone. NWS tried to sell the rights but Bell's decided to pull out instead. But I am excited that Bell's is coming back.
If and when it hits the shelves, I will buy a few cases, gambling on it becoming a collector's item when NWS gets an injunction against Bell's halting distribution.
schenked wrote:I am going to Wisconsin next weekend and hoping to find the Two Hearted keglets that Bell's was supposed to produce (like the Oberon keglets they put out each summer).
What has your experience been with those little keglets?
JeffB wrote:I'd like to know how many hours or days the mini keg can hang around before the beer turns.
Oh, and by the way, when I was at Kuma's a few weeks ago, I noticed a car with MI plates, Kalamazoo and Bell's stickers out front. I'm not suggesting any particular conclusion. Would be nice, though.
It has been ages since I have had one of those mini-barrels but from what I remember you pump them to keep the flow going, no?
The fact that you consider the seasonal Oberon to be Bell's flagship beer, indicates you may not be that familiar with the brewery's offerings. I really dislike Oberon (and most other wheat beers except gumball-head), and I am not very fond of Bell's Amber Ale, but their 2-Hearted Ale is my favorite beer, and my standard for all American Pale Ales. In my book, along with many other hop-heads, 2 Hearted Ale, named for the river in Michigan's U.P. where Ernest Hemmingway would go fishing as a youth from Oak Park, is Bell's flagship. No other beer comes close to duplicating the complex flavor and texture.jpschust wrote:Bells is good, but frankly we have a wonderful selection of beers in the area that doesn't make me think that we really need to get Bells- there are plenty of good wheat beers to compete with Oberon, their flagship as well as many of their others.
d4v3 wrote: Chicago's love for Bell's goes beyond their offerings. Bell's was the first Great Lakes regional micro-brewer, and played a big part in the rebirth of beer culture in Chicago. Larry Bell personally cultivated the Chicago micro-brew market. Without him, there may not have been a Goose Island or 3 Floyds, or even a Hopleaf, for that matter. While some of Bell's products seem a little mainstream now, when they were first introduced, they were revelatory. Yeah, it would be nice to get some of Stone's offerings, but do we really need yet another California brewery distributing in Chicago? The return of Bell's would be like welcoming the return of an old friend.
Rene G wrote:d4v3 wrote: Chicago's love for Bell's goes beyond their offerings. Bell's was the first Great Lakes regional micro-brewer, and played a big part in the rebirth of beer culture in Chicago. Larry Bell personally cultivated the Chicago micro-brew market. Without him, there may not have been a Goose Island or 3 Floyds, or even a Hopleaf, for that matter. While some of Bell's products seem a little mainstream now, when they were first introduced, they were revelatory. Yeah, it would be nice to get some of Stone's offerings, but do we really need yet another California brewery distributing in Chicago? The return of Bell's would be like welcoming the return of an old friend.
Well said. When I returned to Chicago from Seattle in the late '80s I found the beer situation to be pretty pathetic (it's still far from great). Goose Island had just started and frankly their beer wasn't very good. Bell's was one of the few bright spots in the entire Midwest. I remember Larry Bell delivering kegs of stout to Sheffield's. Back then Sheffield's and Quencher's were nearly the only places with decent craft beer selections. Quencher's remains a good place to drink and also deserves a lot of credit for its part in reintroducing quality domestic beer to Chicago.
I can hardly wait to have Bell's back.
KSeecs wrote:Despiste a crappy distributor situation we have a pretty strong selection of national and regional craft beer as well as international beers available at large chains like Sam's and Binny's as well as great small stores like West Lakeview Liquors, Lush, and others. The Chicago area has one of the best beer scenes in the country!
djenks wrote:As much as it kills me to say this - Chicago's beer situation is pathetic.
djenks wrote:KSeecs wrote:Despiste a crappy distributor situation we have a pretty strong selection of national and regional craft beer as well as international beers available at large chains like Sam's and Binny's as well as great small stores like West Lakeview Liquors, Lush, and others. The Chicago area has one of the best beer scenes in the country!
this simply isn't true. Yes - the part about getting beers, imported or not, from the large chains (as well as the little guys whom i only support) is true. Every large city has these offerings.
But to say that the chicago area has one of the best beer scenes in the country is going a little far.
Goose Island, while good, is nothing to write home about. The accessibility to craft beer is increasing because peoples' standards for beer are probably rising (unless this is just a fad). Stores like Binny's and Sam's carry a lot of different beer - but how many of them are both:
a.) spectacular
b.) locally produced?
chicago doesn't have a beer situation. If you want to drive out to the burbs to Two Brothers, great. If you want to drive down to Hammond to go to Three Floyds, great.
Other'n that, you've really got nothing that great. cities like Portland and Boston laugh at chicago. On top of the fact that the distribution laws make it so it's really hard for local breweries to distribute product.
As much as it kills me to say this - Chicago's beer situation is pathetic.
d4v3 wrote:jpschust wrote:Bells is good, but frankly we have a wonderful selection of beers in the area that doesn't make me think that we really need to get BellsBell's was the first Great Lakes regional micro-brewer, and played a big part in the rebirth of beer culture in Chicago. Larry Bell personally cultivated the Chicago micro-brew market. Without him, there may not have been a Goose Island or 3 Floyds, or even a Hopleaf, for that matter.
KSeecs wrote:What's wrong with the Chicago beer situation? If you have a car you're a short distance from some great brewpubs in Three Floyd's, Flossmoor Station, GI, Piece, and others.
Despiste a crappy distributor situation we have a pretty strong selection of national and regional craft beer as well as international beers available at large chains like Sam's and Binny's as well as great small stores like West Lakeview Liquors, Lush, and others.
The Chicago area has one of the best beer scenes in the country!
nr706 wrote:I'll admit, other than GI, and the specials at Rock Bottom, there isn't much brewed within the city limits, but what about Flossmoor Station, Mickey Finn's, and others? And if you know the right people, you might even get a chance to sample some of the excellent brews from the Buckapound brewery (inside the city limits)
djenks wrote:Let me rephrase - Chicago's beer scene, imo, is pathetic.
djenks wrote:312 is also incredibly average.
With the size of our city, the history behind it, the various culture, we should be a beer lovers paradise but we're far from it to a terrible degree.