Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Food & Drink / Food Chain Bye Bye Bell's
Posted by Martha Bayne on 11.14.06 at 03:32 PM
As has been reported elsewhere, taps of Bell's are drying up all over town due to a dispute between the Kalamazoo microbrewery and its new distributor, Chicago Beverage Systems. Though some bars have laid in a store that could last into next year, others are seeing stock dwindle fast. Chicago got its last shipments in October; by next summer you'll have to cross state lines for your Oberon fix. This Friday Bell's rep Jim O'Connor hosts a farewell tasting at West Lakeview Liquors, serving up some fall brews already unavailable in Illinois. My colleague Nick Day, expert in all things beer-ific, notes that if the first of the Winter White Ale isn't enough of a lure, WLL also has, in Trixie and Buddy, the cutest liquor store dogs in the city.
The tasting's from 6 to 9 PM at the store, 2156 W. Addison, 773-525-1916. It's free. Moved to register your displeasure with this sorry state of affairs? Go here.
Comments (6)
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You know, crossing state lines to get a Bell's -- particularly if that means going to the source in downtown Kalamazoo -- might not be all bad. I've spent many a lazy afternoon in their beer garden in K-town, and it was quite relaxing...plus, the beer is very fresh. If I recall correctly, there is also another old school brewery right in town there, near Bell's, though I can't remember the name. Larry Bell and I went to the same local college, and I'm thinking it might behoove him to conduct a tasting here in Chicago, sometime, with cheese and so on, to keep the spriit alive in this town without pity for fine beer.
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>>I'm thinking it might behoove him to conduct a tasting here in Chicago, sometime, with cheese and so on, to keep the spriit alive<< Get to work on him! I'll bring the cheese. re: other K-zoo brewerys, there's also the straightforwardly titled Kraftbrau Brewing; is that what you're thinking of?
A few weeks ago, Jonathan of the always useful, and apparently prescient, beermapping.com posted a handy map of southwestern Michigan breweries and brewpubs to answer these very questions. http://beermapping.com/maps/citymaps.php?m=kalamazoo
Actually, Gee Whiz, you're right. The whole upshot of the issue is that CBS isn't distributing Bell's. See relevant grafs from Trib story: Larry Bell, 48, considered one of the mavericks of the microbrew industry since he began selling beer in 1985, said his troubles began when his longtime distributor in Illinois, National Wine and Spirits Inc., sold the rights to his beer. The buyer, according to Bell and others, is Chicago Beverage Systems, one of the Midwest's largest, which includes Miller beers among its products. Bell said he worried that Chicago Beverage would ignore most of his brews and limit its interest to the two or three that could make the most money without competing against the distributor's other beers. Bell said he was even less impressed with Chicago Beverage after a one-hour meeting at its headquarters in the middle of August. He said officials were unfamiliar with the names of his beers and didn't know the history of his brewery. Representatives of Chicago Beverage and National Wine and Spirits did not return several telephone calls for comment. "They're box counters and don't have any passion for good beer," Bell said. "My choice was to be sold to [Chicago Beverage], to be sued or pull out. I saw the lesser evil as pulling out."
