Our Featured Partner: Bell’s Brewing Company
VG's Grocery is proud to partner with local businesses and to bring you quality brands produced close to home. Read on about Bell’s Brewing Company:
Q) How long has Bell’s Brewing Company Been in Business?
A) Larry Bell founded the Kalamazoo Brewing Supply Co., in 1983. That was what led to the Bell’s General Store, focusing on homebrew supplies and ingredients. Two years later, the Kalamazoo Brewing Co., which would later become Bell’s Brewery, started selling the first Bell’s beers commercially in September, 1985.
Q) What are some of your sustainability practices?
A) We view sustainability as the capacity for our business to thrive in future generations through the practices of environmental stewardship, economic robustness and social integrity.
Sustainability is an awareness of how an individual or organization impacts their surroundings over the long-term. It is the idea that if we are aware of how we impact our surroundings, we can act in ways that provide for economic, environmental and social benefits to ourselves (and our children) in the future.
One specific example is our Bell’s Bio-Energy Building or simply The Cube. We use it to convert brewing byproducts into methane which can be used to create energy and power the building itself with excess going to our brewery. We treat all wastewater before it returns to the city of Kalamazoo.
More specific examples can also be found here.
Q) What is your favorite way to prepare/use your product?
A) Cooking and beer go hand in hand. There are so many possibilities. Often, craft beer gets overlooked in that regard. Nothing could be further from the truth. But when it comes down to it, enjoying an Oberon on a warm summer day, or setting out an adventure with a Two Hearted, either by yourself or with friends and family… now that can be just as powerful and rewarding.
Q) Is this a family owned business?
A) Bell’s is 100% family-owned.
Q) What makes your product unique?
A) We are Michigan’s largest independent craft brewery. Bell’s is also Michigan’s oldest craft brewery. Our focus has always been to brew thoughtfully, artistically and creatively. You may know us because of Two Hearted and Oberon, but we brew an incredible line of award-winning beers. We host events at a beautiful, state of the art entertainment venue while continuing the charm and small atmosphere of the Eccentric Cafe. Sustainability is also incredibly important – beyond being green. We recognize our responsibility to take care of our surroundings as vital to our organization, our community and for generations to come.
Q) Why do you feel it is important that people support their community by shopping/buying local?
A) It’s important to give back and support those who have supported you. Bell’s has always been proud to support our community – from the arts (music, visual and performing) to local/state/regional organizations – giving back to the communities we sell our beer in is part of who we are. This extends to the communities we sell our beer in beyond Michigan as well.
Q) Is there anything you want customer to know about your company or your products?
A) Being independent and family-owned is incredibly important to us and how we operate; it helps give us the flexibility to innovate and experiment with new beers and recipes among other things. Our company is driven first by safety (always) then, and just as importantly, by quality. You can’t brew amazing beer without quality ingredients, people and process. Respect and responsibility round out our core values. Those values drive everything we do.