Area Soldier Killed In Fort Hood Rampage
Stroger Makes Hollywood Play
Put Down Your Nanowrimo And Leave The House
Sox Shuffle Continues
If you notice a reduced presence of Bell's beer on the shelves and in bars in the coming weeks, there's a reason. Bell's delivered their last shipment of beer to Illinois last week. Here is some of what Bell's founder Larry Bell wrote last week regarding the situation on a forum thread at the Beer Advocate website (post number 32):
"I'm very tired and sad tonight, but I will share thoughts with this group soon. Let me just say that there are some very bad people in Chicago, and that the franchise act certainly does not favor small brewers."
How did this all come about? The current owner of Bell's distribution rights is Jim LaCrosse, who's the CEO of Union Beverage Company. According to Bell's brewery reps with whom we've had contact, LaCrosse was thisclose to selling his Bell's distribution rights to Chicago Beverage Systems, part of a monolith national beer wholesaler which distributes Miller, Coors, Heineken/Amstel, most of the popular Mexican beer brands, Newcastle, Stella Artois, Guinness/Bass, and countless other beer brands (they just added Sierra Nevada and Paulaner this week). Chicago Beverage has a reputation for ... well, let's be generous and say they have poor customer service skills. Most likely, this is because they have a monopoly on so many beer brands, so they're the only game in town. Reads like a page from the ComEd playbook.
Anyway, rather than do business with Chicago Beverage, when Bell got word of the impending sale, he opted instead to stop shipping his beer to Illinois as a form of protest, effectively killing the sale. From personal experience of having to deal with Chicago Beverage on a weekly basis, we applaud Bell's decision, as do unnamed sources at Union Beverage we called for comment.
The loss of Bell's in Illinois sheds light on the little-known details of "franchise rights" among liquor wholesalers. Thanks in large part to the lobbying efforts of the state's beer and spirits distributors, the distribution rights for beer brands are open-ended and weighted in favor of the distributors. By pulling his beers from Illinois in protest, Bell is hoping to shed some light on this, as craft brewers, in particular, often have to make these agreements in order to market their product. Before Goose Island entered their distribution deal with Anheuser Busch, they had similar problems with Union Beverage. There have been rumblings that Bell's can be gone from the market for a year, but the reality is, unless they come to an agreement with LaCrosse, LaCrosse sells his rights to a distributor that Bell respects, or Bell's sues to extricate themselves from their deal, they could be gone for much longer than that. It hurts Union more than it does Bell's; Chicago is Bell's fourth-largest market, but the brewery is extending its reach into other states and feel they can withstand the hit.
What is certain in all this is that Bell doesn't feel that he can do business with LaCrosse in good faith anymore, and we'll be making frequent trips to Kalamazoo.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Well, that blows.
You've missed a golden opportunity to go after the worst of Larry Bell's "very bad people in Chicago": Bill Wirtz. When he's not busy destroying the once-proud Blackhawks franchise, Mr. Wirtz is the owner of Dolf & Judge liquor distributorship and is very much responsible for the Illinois franchise act. It's bad enough Wirtz has ruined hockey for me... now he's taking away my beer!
This sucks! I love Bell's and drink it all the time.
I suppose this franchising law has something to do with not being able to get Shiner beer in Illinois when you can get it in Wisconsin, Iowa or Alaska and Hawaii even? Seriously...wtf...
This may just be the begining of problems in Chicago and in some respects it is not the begining at all as New Glarus has already said goodbye to the nonsense of Chicago distribution. As long as we resist a true free market for alcohol sales our days of having choices and access to small craft products like New Glarus and Bell's are numbered.
Would a trip all the way to Kalamazoo really be necessary? Or could we simply make runs to Gary or Kenosha? Unless you have some strong urge to visit Kalamazoo for some reason...
NOTE TO SELF: Stop and pick up 6-pack of Oberon on the way home...
For a city that loves it some drinkin, Chicago sure does have a hard time getting distribution for good beer. We've all grown used to West-coast beers with nationwide distribution like Stone and Alesmith skipping Illinois, but missing out on a midwest brewery like Bell's is ridiculous. What's next, Three Floyds?
We shall have to hire a cocky, mustachioed Trans-Am driver and his redneck sidekick to bring me a truckload of contraband Bell's.
Just keep the THREE FLOYDS flowing or there's going to be trouble...
See you all in Kalamazoo! Or New Glarus... or Munster....
Damn! And just when I thought things were looking up with New Belgium crossing the Mississippi with Fat Tire, Chicago has to once again go and take the wind out of my sails -- and my favorite beer out of the fridge.
I was just looking forward to Bell's Winter Wheat. Boo, I say. Boo.
Actually the Bells Brewery in Kalamazoo is awesome. They have a very cool beer garden that really is a garden (like with flowers and grass) and it looks like a great place for a concert. The whole indoors is non smoking and the food is pretty decent. Did I mention fresh beer of all sorts of flavors?
I always stop in on my trips thru
Michigan and its conveniently located right off 94-Business in the 'zoo
http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=355+East+Kalamazoo+Avenue,+Kalamazoo,+MI
Anyway- What can we the average drinker do about this? It's not like we can stop drinking beer in protest. I mean I'm willing to raise hell- I just don't know who to raise hell with?
Keep the faith, folks. As Benjy said, Kenosha isn't that far away.
With regards to New Belgium, they're hoping to have some of their other beers available next year. If you haven't had Blue Paddle pilsner, 1551 Black Ale, Bier de Marrs, or their abbey-style ales, you're mmissing out. They're a great brewery to support, as they're totally green and utilize wind power for the brewery. Unfortunately, they also distribute through Chicago Beverage.
As a former K-Zoo resident who has watched Bell's grow, I know a bit about the founder and how he conducts business. When he first started shipping to Chicago, the demand outstripped production, so he froze out the Kalamazoo bars who had supported him for years in favor of supplying Chicago. It got ugly and there's still some bad blood there. At least they've gotten the quality control figured out. There used to be times when the only difference between the Amber and Sol Sun (renamed Oberon for legal reasons) was the label. I'd take Larry Bell's version of events with a grain of salt and a tall glass of Two Hearted Ale.
As a former distributor employee, I can tell you this is far more common than Bells and New Glarus. The Miller distributors are the real power in Chicago (due to 2-to-1 domestic market share over Bud) and operate with a "Maximum brands, minimum effort" mentality.
They are more than happy to aquire smaller "hot" brands, and usually do so as the "Chicago Cluster". They roll out the brands with a bang, but the effort fades almost right away. Their operations efforts focus strictly on case volume, so their people have no time to merchandise the smaller brands that need the help.
But the Big Dogs aren't the only ones you can blame. Most of these brands start in smaller houses, and the minimum efforts of a few (ever dealt with Central?) force the brewer to seek greener pastures even though they are getting maximum effort at others (Schamberger and Glunz).
Though New Glarus stopped doing business in Illinois for reasons that they claim, "they cannot keep up with demand", is a nice way of saying exactly what happened here with Bell's. It sounds odd, but maybe their parting message was meant not to burn bridges. LaCrosse has every right to be sore. Good luck to Bells, and let them be bigger than anything Illinois could ever handle.
Chuck,
You forgot New Belgium's Sunshine Wheat! That should definitely be on the list.
Well, this just sucks. I've been drinking this beer for 10 years and will sorely miss it. Thank God I spend my holidays in Michigan...
So what quality beers are distributed outside of Chicago Beverage's tendrils? I'd rather support other distributors. Is Three Floyd's distributed through ChiBevSys?
Does this mean Bells won't be distributed in Springfield, too (where I live)?
the liquid is the liquid no matter what trucks they come off of. bells would triple their volume if they went to the miller network. nws wanted out of the beer business, and were selling to whoever was buying. there are also a number of fellow business owners who have said bells was looking for a kickback on the sale of their brands. dont be mad at a distributor for bells pulling out. they just put the beer in the stores. enjoy the liquid, and soon enough bells will be back.
The reason the other New Belgium products are not in Chicago have nothing to do with Chicago Beverage Systems. New Belgium can't keep up with the demand and once they get their new packaging line running (sometime next year) supposedly they will all make their way to Chicago.
So why don't we find out where this jerkoff Jim LaCrosse lives and start heaving large bricks through his windows?
(sniff)
An era in our lives is over. Our hamburgers will never taste the same as they did when we were drinking a $3 Bell's special after a long day at work.
On the brighter and less melodramatic side, we are still much luckier than East Coast beer drinkers. They have a significantly more limited selection of microbrews available to them at bars and liquour stores.
Ironically, they'll probably have daily access to Bell's now.
Hell yeah I hope they ship to New York.
Getting a case back from Kalamazoo in your carry-on is getting pretty damn difficult nowadays.
It just hasn't been the same since they changed Solsun to Oberon and go rid of the bomber bottles.
I'm new to chicago (4 months), but came from Grand Rapids, MI where the Bell's flows like wine, and the girls flock like the swallows of Capistrano. but seriously i'm saddened by this. i only heard the news from my girlfriend last week, and i couldn't believe it.
More dirt on this mess here:
http://beerdorks.com/articles.php?article_id=6
Man that sucks I will have to go michigan border to get my kegs for my kegerator
HOLY MOSES
Remember if you go to the brew pub in Kalamazoo they are giving the " Bootleggers Special." With a valid Illinois driver's license you get 15% off packaged beer! It doesn't stop the pain, but it eases the sting.
They stopped the 15% discount... they said they offered it for a year (bull since its April).
Work it out with your frkn distributer Bell!!!!!