Pale Ale

Pros: Nice balance; Good foam level; Enticing appearance
Cons: Not available nationwide

First brewed for public consumption in April, 2002, Terrapin Rye Pale Ale is a complex ale made with several specialty malts and hops by the Terrapin Beer company of Athens, Georgia. This beer- and the other products of the Terrapin Brewing ...

Pros: Excellent balance; Not too bitter
Cons: Difficult to find; Price is high

Highland Brewing Company is one of several bottlers in the state of North Carolina. The main brewery is located in the city of Asheville, a town known for its scenery, its state university, and its tendency to be a little more progressive than other ...

Pros: Full- bodied taste, unlike other wheat beers; complex
Cons: No cons at all!

Kalamazoo Brewing Company, centered in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is one of my favorite craft brewers in the United States. This regional brewery produces many outstanding products and I have had the pleasure of sampling most every beer on the Bell’s menu....

Pros: Good mixture of hops and malty flavor
Cons: Like all Bell's Products, the Price is High!

Kalamazoo Brewing Company is a fairly large regional brewery located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This brewery produces more than 24,000 barrels of beer each year, with about a dozen year- round and seasonal products combined. One of its year- round offerings...

Pros: Interesting use of dark malts in a pale ale.
Cons: Only sold in Georgia.

Most breweries that I know of make more than a couple of beers. Sure, they may have a flagship brew, like Budweiser for Anheuser-Busch. But even ole AB makes more than just two brews, though they outsell many another brewery with just Bud and Bud Light ...

Pros: Great tasting ale.
Cons: Only available at Whole Foods.

Sometimes, life can be very strange. It was for me this past Saturday when I was walking through Harry’s Market in Marietta, Georgia doing the weekly grocery shopping with my beloved Barbara. We were in the meats area, and hadn’t yet hit...

Pros: Wonderfully complex pale ale is fruity, malty and hoppy all at once.
Cons: Limited availability.

Poor beer. It gets no respect. It’s the Rodney Dangerfield of alcoholic beverages. It has every bit as much complexity as wine, but many people don’t seem to realize this. Sure, there are beers out there on the market that don’t challenge the taste buds...

Pros: Magnificent, eccentric, complex warming ale
Cons: Limited availability

Eccentric Ale? Larry Bell couldn't have come up with a better name for this beer. Of course, eccentric is a descriptor that is readily applicable to Larry Bell as well, and the way this beer is made. I recall reading that an amazing variety of...

Pros: Decent representative of style, good for multiple drinks
Cons: Not as distinctive and flavorful as some of their other brews

One of the advantages of living in the Chicago area is that it is in the distribution range for the fine products produced by Bell’s Brewery, Inc. of Kalamazoo, MI, formerly known as the Kalamazoo Brewing Co. Bell’s puts out a number of ...

Pros: a tasty warm weather American wheat
Cons: seasonal. limited distribution

This is a beer review that probably should have been written a few months ago. It was back in June when I went to Bonnaroo that I first tried Bell's Oberon Ale from the Kalamazoo Brewing Co. I was already well familiar with this ...

Pros: Balanced, light-bodied ale
Cons: Too balanced, too light

Health food markets might not strike some of you folks as prime stomping grounds for beer shopping, but some of them do pretty darn well. I've always been able to find nuggets of gold at the Whole Foods Markets, but I usually stick to craft brews I know ...

Pros: surprising taste after common look, in my case it's relatively local
Cons: cost, finding it (for some)

I am an East Coast guy, Massachusetts to be precise, transplanted in Michigan. That says quite a bit in terms of geography as well as beer. I assumed that my move to Michigan, a few years ago now, would mean an end to some great beers from unique...

Pros: fresh, tasty, a good all-purpose beer
Cons: No longer distributed in Illinois

I found out yesterday that Bell’s Brewery, a nearby (Michigan) craft brewer, would no longer be distributed in Illinois. I’ll comment more on this in a future epinion. For now, I will miss their wonderful products which, until now, had generally ...

Pros: a flavorful blonde ale
Cons: limited distribution

In my review of Bell's Amber Ale, I cited the difficulty in coming by their beers in the Philadelphia area. I was ecstatic when I found three of their beers at The Foodery Deli in Center City a couple weeks ago. As I noted in that...

Pros: Fresh hops and subtle malt
Cons: None

I am having a Bells Pale Ale as we speak. It's getting late, the family's asleep and life is good. I had a Sam Adams Pale Ale last night and I must say the boys at the Kalamazoo Brewing Company have definitely brewed a better product than their Boston...