Kalamazoo, Michigan craft brewery owned by Larry Bell. Bell's beers are distributed throughout the Great Lakes region, with the recent exception of Illinois.

They have some fairly boring, standard year-round beers, including a brown ale, a red ale, a lager, an american pale ale, and wheat beer. These aren't terrible, but I think (hope?) they were what 40watt was drinking.

They have some really awesome year-round beers as well. The notables are Third Coast Old Ale (not to be confused with Third Coast Beer, another cheaper Bell's beer that has nothing on this malty, 10% ABV monster) and Two-Hearted Ale, a very hoppy IPA. Bell's also makes a fairly sweet stout (Kalamazoo Stout), which is pretty good.

Bell's seasonals are damn near legendary among craft beer drinkers. Hopslam is a tropical-smelling double IPA that manages to assault your palate with hop flavor without being nut-shrivelingly bitter. Expedition stout is a Russian Imperial Stout that packs 11.5% ABV and even more stouty goodness.

Larry Bell also releases a special, limited edition beer to celebrate every thousandth batch. Batch 8000 should be due some time this summer (2007.)

Larry Bell recently pulled all Illinois distribution of Bell's beer after Bell's distributor was changed without any input from the brewer (due to archaic, Anheuser-Busch-ass-kissing Illinois laws and Larry's stubbornness.) It was a sad day for Illinois beer drinkers.

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