Not The Reaction You’d Expect As Larry Bell Sips Some 1987 Beer

Some of us go through a box in the closet or a pile of stuff down in the basement, and we'll look at our own nostalgia, sometimes with mixed emotions. For Larry Bell, founder of Bell's Brewery, that experience is a little different, as a bottle of beer he brewed in 1987 was recently discovered "while rooting around the cellar".

(Bell's Brewery via YouTube)

So how was it? “That’s really not very good." but as a beer brewing expert, he explains "but it’s 34 years old. It’s not supposed to be very good.” Apparently, beer is not like fine wine, where is it's aged and been properly stored, it get "better with age" as the saying goes.

Just thinking back to 1987, as some of us were making the move to Kalamazoo, Bell had already been experimenting and brewing beer; early on in a soup kettle and later, in a more elaborate setup, to where you now have the award winning signature Two Hearted Ale and the beer with it's own holiday, Oberon, and the other award winner, Hopslam, just to mention a few. But back then it was simply one beer, Bell's Beer.

Bell's has brewed some of the original recipe beer and it's now available at Bell's General Store and on tap at the Eccentric Cafe. Named simply Bell's Beer. As Bell sips on the new brew, he says it's quite drinkable.

Also, in the video above, Bell looks back at not only what has now turned into the Eccentric Cafe, but he also explains a bit about what the Craft Beer Revolution was all about, on how craft brewers were using malt rather than the "corn and rice" used the the "industrial brewers." It sure struck a chord with the beer drinking public, and in a way, it also hearkens back to over 100 years ago here in Kalamazoo, but also in big cities like Detroit, St. Louis and Milwaukee, where brewers with a dream and some capital started an industry; names like Busch, Pabst, Griesedick and Stroh. These were all regular working people, not just names now in history books.

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