An Epicure's Tour: Beer

Yesterday I drank a bit too much. I went on a beer tour you see. I noticed about two weeks ago that Slow Foods Huron Valley was sponsoring a tour of Bell's Brewery. Now I'm not one who normally loves the brew, and I admit that I still prefer wine and cocktails to a beer most times. But this tour was a big deal, because technically Bell's is closed to the public. It opened it's doors for a private tour to this group, and I felt it was an opportunity I couldn't miss. So I rounded up Brad, Kristal, and her husband Rick, and off we went to Kalamazoo. Despite it being way too early for several of us, it was a fairly nice drive. We got there a bit late, due to the terrible directions I printed from mapquest, a detour, and being the center of attention in the Galesburg Day parade. Once we got inside though, the tour started quickly, and was pretty interesting. We viewed all the stages of the beer making operation, which all happened to be housed in fairly different areas due to the volume at which Bell's produces. First we saw the mash room, where the four ingredients for beer; malt, hops, yeast, and water, are all smashed together and run through several different stainless steel vats. The mash room also houses the hops cooler.

The hops cooler smells delicious

Next we moved on to the storage area, where the beer sits and gets delicious. In this step, beer essentially sits and ferments in giant drums; the yeast breaking down and producing sugars and giving off carbon dioxide. It's hard to describe just how large these containers are. I believe I overheard the tour guide telling us that one of the larger ones held over 8000 cases, or 192,000 bottles of beer. That's a lot of booze my friends. Bell's is also doing a few special brew's these days, cask finished in whiskey barrels. I believe I overheard Uberon, Bourbon Barrel Cherry Stout, and a double brown were 3 of these brews.

One of the smaller beer casksWhiskey barrels for special brews

The third step is the kegging and bottling operation. Being an Industrial Engineer, I was pretty fascinated by this step. Bells has really got a cool step-up, and I was particularly fascinated by things like the "six pack popper" and the bottle filler. My only wish was that we could have been doing the tour while they were actually operating, so I could watch all those beautiful bottles roll down the line. Ah well, at least now I know how it's done!

Six pack Popper MachineBottle filling machine

The final step at Bell's is to allow the brew's to sit in a climate-controlled storage area. Because Bell's doesn't pasteurize their beer, this is an important step. They even have a quality control area to make sure the beer tastes just right! The cool thing about the climate-controlled storage area was that it was pretty green too. Meaning, Bell's put a lot of thought into this recent addition to the plant, and installed solar tubes that help control and reduce the amount of purchased electricity for light, an eco-friendly roof, and several other smart innovations.

Storage area for BrewsHops growing out back of the plant!

After the brewery tour at the plant, we all headed into Bell's retail establishment, the Eccentric Cafe in downtown Kalamazoo. I have to say, the whole visit was a little chaotic (Bell's staff was not prepared for our tour group; there was an hour wait for food, and little things bugged me, like having to pour your beer into a plastic cup if you wanted to sit on the patio). However we did have some delicious beer. Kristal and Rick ordered up a Bell's sampler, Brad had a porter, and I tried out the Uberon.

Bell's Sampler (Ignore Kristal's double order of Black Rye!)

Our group having a good time

Instead of waiting around for food at Bell's, we decided to take a detour to the Old Penninsula Brew Pub. The food was delicious and filling (yum, pretzerella sticks), we had a few more brews, the ambiance and service were pretty good, and they had Xcelrator's in the bathrooms! It was a great place to stop before we headed on to the Dark Horse Brewery in Marshall on the way home.

Smiling faces at the Old PenninsulaCheck out that sign; welcoming huh?

Our stop at Dark Horse Brewing Company, was well, interesting. It was a much smaller craft operation, and was a pretty stark contrast to what we had just seen at Bell's. I have to say, I was partially distracted on the tour by some of the brewer's decor of choice. He may make some pretty good tasting Raspberry ale, but the doll head's all over the place were kind of creeping me out. So was the lady who joined Brad and Kristal at our table on the patio while Rick and I went on the tour. She didn't seem to leave us alone, and she double-dipped our chips and salsa. What's up with that?!!

Dark Horse uses a lot of old dairy equipment to brewPondering a special tap on the patio bar

All in all, it was pretty good tour. We did make one final stop to another bar, Artesian Wells Sports Tavern in Cement City on the way back to Clinton. We were pretty wiped out by this point; running up a tab of only $8 for our final beers. If the opportunity arose though, I'd do it all over again. :-)