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VoL. 1 ISSUE 2
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Sideyard Triumph Ale (6.5% ABV)
6-packs of 12 oz. bottles will be available starting at 11 a.m. on Sept. 30. The Café will have it on draft starting at 3 p.m.
BY Amy Sherman FOR MiBrew Trail
was awash in employees helping to harvest their homegrown hops.
G
reen. That’s what was flooding through my brain during a recent tour of Bell’s Brewery 2-acre hopyard, which
MiBrew Trail Magazine
Fall 2021
Three special beers will be made from these locally produced hops, and let me tell you, the freshness was downright mouthwatering. I might have even rubbed a few cones behind my ears as a form of beer fan perfume, so I smelled like Crystal hop magic the rest of the day.
“Using fresh, locally grown hops has a long tradition here at the brewery,” Larry Bell, president and founder of Bell’s said in a press release.
Walking through a hop field that is about to be harvested is pretty amazing. Hop bines grow up a trellis system to float and sway about 20 feet up. The green leaves rustle in the wind, while the compact little cones emit quite the fragrance as you traverse the organized rows. The terms can be a bit when discussing hops. They might look like vines growing skyward, but they are actually referred to as bines. Why the different names? A bine has no tendrils coming out of it, while a vine does. Many people refer to these interchangeably, but there is a difference. If you want to sound like a pro, use the term bine when discussing hops. Remember that beer uses bines, while wine uses vines.
Fields of green deliver freshest brew for Bell's Brewery
Hops grow up trellises at Bell's Brewery in Comstock. (Amy Sherman/For MiBrew Trail)
Hops are one of the building blocks for beer, alongside water, malt and yeast. They provide that much needed, and loved, bit of bitterness that offsets the sweetness of the malt.
Bell’s started growing their own hops around 10 years ago. And while they aren’t growing anywhere close to enough for the brewery’s yearly production, the brewing staff loves that they can have an up close and personal hop experience.
“We recognize that we are deeply integrated with agriculture, but yet that’s not evident,” said John Mallett, vice president of operations at Bell’s Brewery.
He continued to explain how you might see a chicken breast at the grocery store, but might not really know all that went into getting it in the package, and eventually on your dinner plate. Bell’s wants to make sure that their staff knows, and understands, the whole process of brewing beer.
“We want to fully understand the restrictions and challenges of all of our business partners out there,” Mallett said. “Whether that is upstream to our hop partners, or downstream to our distributing partners, it’s super important.”
Workers sort the freshly picked hops right in the hopyard at Bell's Brewery in Comstock. The hops will be featured in three Sideyard beers this fall. (Amy Sherman/For MiBrew Trail)
“When we are sourcing our hops, we deal with setting up contracts with our farmers, but also with merchants, who deal with multiple sources,” Mallett continued. “The benefit to merchants is that we can source from multiple areas.”
Bell’s sends specially printed placards each year to all of the farms that supply the brewery hops.
“We’ll make up about 30 or 40 signs for our farmers, they’ll go to Idaho, Oregon, we’ll send some to Michigan,” Mallett said. “We’re mainly with MI Local here. They have, unequivocally, the best hop operation in the Midwest. Unfortunately, it’s just not enough for what we need.”
Bell’s has no desire or interest in getting into the hop farming business.
“Honestly, we would totally fail at growing hops,” said Mallett. “It’s hard and we’re not very good at it. Well, we’re ok at it."
Just not at the level that they need for the very large production capacity that they are at.
“Our employees have always come together to help with the harvest,” Bell said. “Over the last few years, our Land Stewards have put in a lot of hard work to cultivate and make this Hop Yard what it is today. It may not compare in size to our partners out west, but that dedication to quality is still very much the same.”
Freshly picked hops from Bell's very own hopyard located next to their production brewery in Comstock. These will be used in their three upcoming Sideyard beers. (Amy Sherman/For MiBrew Trail)
“It makes us so much more savvy as purchasers,” Mallett explained about growing hops at the brewery. “That selection process is about assessing individual lots."
Breweries hope to get the very best hops each year, but picking hops is pretty subjective. Everyone has their own idea of the best, and those ideas might not always align together. Bell’s employs a scientific standardized sensory analogy to assess the hops. What does this mean? It means the team picking the hops uses the same predetermined terminology to describe the product, so they have a baseline to fall back on. Consistency is the key to a truly great beer, and brewers have to hit the same notes, year after year, all while using an agricultural product that can be anything but consistent.
The Bell’s team, which in addition to Mallett, also includes Andy Farrell, brewing innovation manager at Bell’s, works closely together to purchase the yearly hop allotment.
“It’s very specific each year,” said Mallett. “This is hop profile that we want, and that’s a unique opportunity."
The team travels out West each harvest season to the Yakima Valley to purchase the massive amounts of hops needed for the upcoming year.
This year, the hops that the team harvested from their own farm will once again be going into their seasonal brew known as Sideyard. The big difference this year is that there will be three different versions of the beer. Thanks to the purchase of a hop harvester machine, which strips the hop cones from the bines automatically, Bell’s has been able to time out the the harvesting of three different varieties of hops, picking them at the peak of ripeness for each kind, and getting those fresh hops directly into the kettle within hours of picking.
Bell's employees all pitch in for the hop harvest. Here, the hops are stripped from their bines using a hop harvesting machine. This is the first year that Bell's has had their very own machine to use, and it has allowed the team to brew three different beers this year. (Amy Sherman/For MiBrew Trail)
The traditional offering, Sideyard Ale, will be released at the Eccentric Cafe and store on October 8. It will also be in limited distribution throughout the lower Peninsula, Ohio and Indiana at better bottle shops. The Crystal and Triumph versions will only be able to be found at the General Store in bottles and the Cafe on draft. All versions will have been bottled, kegged or canned within 12 hours of the hops being picked.
Freshly picked hops get dumped into the wort at Bell's Brewery. The Sideyard beers are being brewed in the experimental brewery, which has a much smaller capacity than the regular production brewery. (Amy Sherman/For MiBrew Trail)
“This is a great team, and it is a great time to be a team,” said Mallett about the hop harvest. “Being able to do fresh hop beers, it’s just great. We’re bringing hops from hanging on the wire, to putting them in the kettle in a matter of a couple of hours. You just can’t do that with hops from Germany or Washington.”
Sideyard Ale (6.8% ABV)
4-packs of 16 oz. cans will go on sale and on tap at the Café at 11 a.m. on Oct. 8.
Sideyard Crystal Ale (6.5% ABV)
6-packs of 12 oz. bottles, along with draft pours, will be available starting at 11 a.m. on Oct. 15.
Amy Sherman is a regular on the MiBrew Trail. She graduated from Aquinas College and promptly headed into the kitchen, where she was a working chef for over 20 years. Running her own business, Two Chicks and an Oven, she's worked the line, baked wedding cakes, catered, consulted, and taught cooking classes all over Michigan. She was the host of the television show Great American Brew Trail, as well as the co-host of the award-winning radio show Behind the Mitten. For the last five years, she's been a journalist at some big media company, eating and drinking her way across the state. She resides in Grand Rapids with her hubs, three perfectly awesome kids, and two crazy cute chihuahuas.
Check out Hearst’s newest brand showcasing Michigan Breweries at MiBrewTrail.com.
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Freshly picked hops get dumped into the wort at Bell's Brewery. The Sideyard beers are being brewed in the experimental brewery, which has a much smaller capacity than the regular production brewery. (Amy Sherman/For MiBrew Trail)
Check out Hearst’s newest brand showcasing Michigan Breweries at MiBrewTrail.com.
Back to Top
Home
Sideyard Triumph Ale (6.5% ABV)
6-packs of 12 oz. bottles will be available starting at 11 a.m. on Sept. 30. The Café will have it on draft starting at 3 p.m.
Sideyard Ale (6.8% ABV)
4-packs of 16 oz. cans will go on sale and on tap at the Café at 11 a.m. on Oct. 8.
Sideyard Crystal Ale (6.5% ABV)
6-packs of 12 oz. bottles, along with draft pours, will be available starting at 11 a.m. on Oct. 15.