The New Bell's in Chicago

[Sluggo]

Has anyone tried the Kalamazoo Amber Ale from Bell's? This is supposed to to be Larry Bell's attempt to give the finger to the distributors and get his beer back to Chicago without having to use the Bell's distributor. As far as i know this is the only offering so far, but barring a huge court battle he plans on bringing several more over the summer including an unfiltered wheat (please use the Oberon recipe).

Of course, this has probably already been discussed here and I'm horribly late to the game.

 

[rdwj]

I've seen it, but haven't tried it yet. I'll make sure to do so very soon

 

[Sluggo]

Guess I'll grab some from Binny's this afternoon too.

 

[jvh261]

Saw the Amber at Binny's a few weeks back. Haven't tried it though. The wheat is supposedly going to be in bars only and should be showing up anytime. From what I've heard Bell's will be back in Illinois proper, under the Bell's name with the whole lineup of brews that were always available here by July. I guess the contract they had that caused all of the issues in the first place is up in June and that they plan on being back in the state with a new distributor and have brewed accordingly (I'm just guessing they're going with Windy City). We shall see I guess.... this info came from a guy at one of the Binny's stores that I chat with when I run into him from time to time. So just going by what he said.

 

[vav]

It's tasty.

 

[Sluggo]

I bought a sixer when it was on sale at Binny's for $6 last week. I didn't really care for it, but it's been a LONG time since I've had an amber to compare it to so maybe it's just my taste has changed.

I thought the whole problem with the Bell's/Distributor thing was that the distributor rights were lifetime. I find it hard to believe they would go ahead with creating these 2-3 new beers back in December knowing that they could just wait until June and jump back in without any problems. That said, I REALLY hope it's true and Oberon show's up in the 5L mini-kegs again for summer.

 

[Dycokac]

I'm from Grand rapids, but have a father in law that lives around o'hare.

I love Binnys. Though I can get all the Bells with out issue.

I'm over Oberon but I drank it back before they increased their brewing capacity and had those bad couple of years with it.

I have had the wheat series they put out a couple years ago as well and they can do some good things with wheat .

Now, if New Belgum could start distributing in Michigan.....