Eccentric Cafe

For the fourth year, we’re participating in the Ales for A.L.S. program which raises money for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. The program started in 2013 by Loftus Ranches and Hop Union, and Bell’s has been involved since the beginning. The farm donates a special hop blend to breweries to make a special beer. A dollar from each beer sold will go to the ALS Therapy Development Institute. Our brew uses the same hop blend and is an American Rye IPA brewed with three types of rye. The rye adds an earthy, sometimes spicy malt character to the beer. It’s on tap now at the Eccentric Café. The hop blend is a mixture of staple and experimental hop blends, chosen each year by leaders in craft beer. This year's selection team included Russian River's Vinnie Cilurzo; Firestone Walker's Matt Brynildson and Sam Tierney; Sierra Nevada's Danny Kahn; Bale Breaker's Kevin Quinn; Perrault Farms' Jason Perrault; and our own Director of Operations John Mallett. [[{"fid":"1169","view_mode":"default","type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Ales for ALS 2016","title":"Ales for ALS 2016","height":1200,"width":1800,"style":"width: 400px; height: 267px; margin: 10px; float: right; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid;","class":"media-element file-default"},"link_text":null}]]“A bunch of really smart, hop-focused brewers, sitting around, rubbing hops, smelling them and talking about what the possibilities are to pull together a fantastic blend of all these varieties,” Mallett said. The blend includes Simcoe® from Select Botanicals and Equinox from Hop Breeding Company. There are also seven are experimental hops from Hop Breeding Company: 492, 494, 344, 438, 522, 682, 291. Take a look at the hop blend here.   During the selection process, the selection panel found different experimental hops with fruity, citrus, bright, tropic aromas, and found ways to balance them together to make a new blend. “It’s a really great chance to pull together some of these similar, but distinct and different hop flavors, and put them together in a fantastic blend for a really stellar cause," Mallett said.

Thanks to Greensky Bluegrass, along with all of our friends and fans who came out to our Beer Garden Opener. We're looking forward to an exciting summer of shows in both the Beer Garden and Back Room. Check out all of our upcoming shows here.              

Kalamazoo Bike week starts this weekend and we’re excited to again be participating and sponsoring two events. Bikes are special to us. From sponsoring two bike races, the Iceman Cometh Challenge and the Copper Harbor Trails Festival, to bike parking at the Café, we have always supported those who travel by gears. Here are the two events we are sponsoring this week: Pedal Your Bell’s Off: A Bike Week Scavenger Hunt We’re kicking off the week with Pedal Bicycles for a special scavenger hunt on Saturday, May 14. Riders will travel to landmarks across Kalamazoo. The more places you visit, the more chances you have of winning prizes. We’ll announce the list of locations at the event on Saturday. Bikers will meet at the Eccentric Café’s Beer Garden. Registration begins at noon and the ride will take place between 1 and 3 p.m.. There is no pre-registration. There is a suggested donation of $10, which will benefit the Markin Glen Trail, a single-track mountain bike trail that under construction. Use the hashtag #PedalYourBellsOff to document your journey on social media. For the latest information, check out our Facebook event. 4th Annual Bell's to Bell's Bike Ride The following Saturday, we’re hosting our 4th annual bike ride from the Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo to our brewery in Comstock. The 14-mile roundtrip will take place on the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail. Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. at the Eccentric Cafe & the ride kicks off with a safety demo at 1 p.m. You can pre-register here. All ages are welcome. Once we reach our Comstock Brewery, you’ll be given a tour and then ride back to the Eccentric Cafe for beers and a chance to win raffle prizes. There will be a bike valet at Comstock Brewery from 1-3 p.m. during tours. All donations go to the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail. See a full list of Kalamazoo Bike Week events and safe riding!

The Eccentric Cafe brings people together from all over the world, often bringing them back. Last month we were honored to host members of our military - the Air National Guard. Three are WMU alumni, another is a homebrewer. Thanks for visiting!    

The tapping of the 2014 Homebrew Competition’s winning recipe kicked off with a ringing of the bell and a toast to winning homebrewer Matt VanNatter by Pub Brewing Manager Zeke Bogan. Matt recently had the opportunity to help brew his winning recipe at Bell’s original brewery in downtown Kalamazoo, which debuted at this year’s Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, Wisconsin earlier this summer. A California Common style beer brewed with coffee, Coffee Mustache (6% ABV) is a deceptively pale beer with distinct roasty, nutty, coffee notes created by aging the beer on whole coffee beans from Kalamazoo Coffee Company. Matt will soon head to the 2015 Great American Beer Festival in Denver as a guest of Bell’s and compete alongside one of our brewers in the Pro-Am Competition. The 6th Annual Bell’s Homebrew Competition Kick-off and Expo will be held this year on Sept. 19 at Bell’s Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo.

Construction has recently begun on a brand new full service kitchen and dining room at Bell’s Eccentric Cafe, 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave., in downtown Kalamazoo, adding about 130 seats. The gastro pub style space will occupy more than 6,600 square feet of space that most recently served as storage and warehouse space to the east of the original Café. This space was also part of Bell’s original brewery and well before that, a full service gas station. “Our goal is to match and even enhance the high quality beer that is already being served with high quality food and service,” said Jason Reicherts, Director of Retail at Bell’s. “We will be focusing on both the front and back house experience and with our Inspired Hospitality program, service will be a huge focus,” he said. “Our staff training program will feature an ever evolving and ongoing course of modules covering everything from the latest news in the craft beer industry to food and beer pairings,” Reicherts said. The new menu will be a collaboration between kitchen management and the eccentric mind of Bell’s President and Founder, Larry Bell. While still being developed, the new menu will feature fish and chips, fresh ground burgers (more than beef), fresh and unique salads, smoked meats, steamed mussels and eggs prepared in a variety of ways.  “We will try to source our ingredients locally whenever we can, but our focus will also be non-GMO and organic foods. Quality is the top priority, no matter where it comes from,” Reicherts said. The new dining space will feature a gas fireplace along with an intricate mosaic tiled floor. The bar inside the original Café will also be expanded into space where the current 150 sq. ft. kitchen now resides, adding even more seating. An employee area for the approximately 120 employees that work at the Café will also be part of this expansion. Adding additional parking options are also planned. Local architect Nelson Nave, structural engineer Nehil-Sivak and construction company Maxwell & Associates are all working on the project. “There may be some minor inconveniences in the interim, but the end result will be more than worth it. We hope our customers will be patient with us as we work to bring them an even better experience here at the Eccentric Café,” Reicherts said. Brewery tours downtown Because of construction, brewery tours of Bell’s original brewery will not be offered on the weekends for the time being. Brewery tours in Comstock will be expanded however to Sundays at 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. A third Saturday tour option has also been added (2 p.m.) in Comstock.

More than 60 breweries from 22 states have signed on to participate in this year’s Ales for ALS and Bell’s is proud to be one them. Ales for ALS was created by B.T. Loftus Ranches and Hopunion LLC to support ALS research. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that leads to paralysis due to the death of motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain. In exchange for participating, breweries gain access to a proprietary hop blend. This year’s blend was designed by Russian River’s Vinnie Cilurzo, Sierra Nevada’s Ken Grossman and our very own John Mallett. It uses Citra and Mosaic hops along with four other experimental blends that are so new, they do not have official names yet. [Read more about them.] A portion of the sales from each beer in this program will go to ALS TDI, the world leader in ALS research. You can also donate here. Bell’s Ales for ALS IPA (6.5% ABV) is an oatmeal IPA brewed with malted and flaked oats with notes or tropical fruit and grapefruit with a silky mouthfeel. It is currently on tap at the Eccentric Café (be sure to check our Draft Cam before heading out the door) and $1 will be donated for each pint sold.  

Bell’s Brewery, Inc., in partnership with Covance Laboratories, Inc. in Battle Creek and the Kalamazoo County Environmental Health Department, is excited to announce the inaugural HACCP Food Safety Training course. The Introduction to Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point is the first of its kind in Kalamazoo County and designed for individuals with little or no HACCP experience. The two-day course consists of lectures and group exercises that will provide the necessary tools for HACCP certification. It will be held at Bell’s Eccentric Café in downtown Kalamazoo on August 26 and 27 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Safety, along with quality, are our top priorities at Bell’s and we want to help make sure that other businesses here in West Michigan have the tools necessary to make sure that proper procedures and safe food handling are the norm,” said Jason Reicherts, Director of Retail for Bell’s. “We are also in the process of developing our own menu of house cured meats and fermented foods. The careful research and planning for that led us to the realization that there was both an audience and a need for this type of training,” he said. The course is accredited through the International HACCP Alliance and spots are limited. Cost is $200 per person which includes a continental breakfast and lunch both days provided by the Café. Call 269-250-8485 or email jreicherts@bellsbeer.com to register. Download the flyer [PDF]

Bikes and Bell’s have a long standing relationship. From sponsorships (Iceman Cometh Challenge and the Copper Harbor Trails Festival, for example) to bike parking at the Café, we have always supported those who travel by gears. We will continue that tradition during Kalamazoo Bike Week. Below is what we have planned at the Eccentric Cafe. In addition, anyone who rides their bike to the Café during Kalamazoo Bike Week (and can prove it) will get a $1 off their beers during their visit. And, as always, if you forget your lock, just ask the bartender to borrow one. For more on Kalamazoo Bike Week, go here. Cheers and safe riding. May 13 Kalamazoo Bicycle Film Festival – Bike Shorts, 6 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. (must be 21 or older for later showing) Details: This festival is a celebration of bicycles and the culture that surrounds them. The films will feature a wide spectrum of experiences, stories and images of bicycling. Some will make you laugh. Some will make you think. The common theme is that they are all for, about or inspired by bicycles. Admission is $5. Read more about the films here. May 17 Annual Bell’s to Bell’s Bike Ride, noon (registration), 1 p.m. (ride begins) Details: We are challenging our employees to ride to work instead of driving during Kalamazoo Bike Week. The goal? 455 miles or the distance from our Comstock brewery to the future site of Upper Hand Brewery in Escanaba. You can help us ride back and raise money for future Kalamazoo River Valley Trail expansions. All you have to do is join us for our annual brewery to brewery bike ride – a 14 mile ride along the KRVT and some surface roads that will begin at the Café, head to our Comstock Brewery for a tour, then head back to the Café for a ra­ffle and drinks. Bring your ID, bike lock and helmet. Suggested donation is $10.

Dine (or drink) with us, help fight AIDS. Join us at the Eccentric Café on April 24 for the 6th annual Dining Out for Life, a benefit for CARES, Community AIDS Resource and Education Services. Starting at 4 p.m., 25% of your bill (both food and drink) will be donated to help keep southwest Michigan healthy. Visit DiningOutForLife.com for more information.