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Okay, so when we think "Bell's Oberon" we don't typically imagine snow on the ground and temps in the 30's. But damnit, when Larry Bell says it's Oberon season, it's Oberon season. We were at Sheffield's last night for the tapping of the first keg of the year, which means that spring must be somewhere nearby. We hope.
The other reason we've been eager for Oberon season is because this year marks the first full season since the Great Bell's Blackout of 2006. Last year we saw the re-entry of an Oberon-esque beer called the Kalamazoo Brewing Unfiltered American Wheat Ale, which got us all sorts of excited - but it was just a stopgap. Then, of course, we saw the return of Bell's proper in the middle of last summer, ending the need for your bootlegging runs to Kalamazoo.
In any event, Oberon is back in town, if a little early - the release usually coincides with the beginning of the baseball season. Why the early release? Well, with every thousand batches of beer that Bells brews, they release a special Batch X,000 beer - and they're up to batch 8999 right now. What's the Batch 9000 going to be? It's still not entirely clear, but beer enthusiasts are crazy excited about it, no matter what.
(Ed. Note: Bottom Lounge (1375 W. Lake St.) is also hosting an Oberon release party at 8 p.m. tomorrow night — Sudo.)
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I've been getting Oberon since the fall from a liquor store near me...is it just a seasonal thing?
Oberon is Seasonal, from the end of March through October. If you found it in that nearby liquor store, they most likely loaded up once they came back to market.
So I've been drinking possibly skunky beer? Having never had Oberon until Bells came back I guess I need to check out some fresh stuff.
WOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Happy days! And here's me still trying to polish off the case of Cherry Stout. I guess summer's just around the corner.
The Cherry Stout is really very good, but I had a bourbon-barrel aged Cherry Stout this winter that made me see through time.
A friend of mine actually cellared some Oberon from a while back, so a head-to-head between those and the brand new stuff is coming soon.
I'm not sure the blame can be placed directly on New Glarus for "turning its back" on Chicago. http://chicagoist.com/2009/02/02/2009_01_new_glarus_003jpg.php
That article was enough to persuade me to take a roadtrip a month ago!
I don’t have much of a use for more than one or two Oberon. While tasty, it causes my head to peel apart in at the top on it’s own. Or at least it feels that way!
You're right, "turning its back" probably wasn't the best use of a phrase.
Maybe "not relying on" or "not worrying about supplying" the Chicago market is more accurate.
I never got the fascination with Oberon - it's an expensive Blue Moon. The porter, brown, amber, and third coast labels are top notch though.
Blue Moon is an expensive Oberon, and not that good. But what do you expect from a Coors product (and that brewery's history is another reason to not drink Blue Moon).
I don't get it either and I went to college in Kalamazoo.
Every year in April the whole city, from the dirtiest hippies in the student ghetto to the doucheyest frat guys in West Campus crawl out of the woodwork and rave on and on about Oberon. It is by far my least favorite of the otherwise sterling Bells line.
I went through the same thing up in Mt. Pleasant. I'm still not sure what pissed me off more - everybody raving about Oberon, or how at this time of the year all of a sudden everybody is a Red Wing fan.
I was the same way with New Glarus products for the longest time, specifically Spotted Cow. Coincidentally, they're another brewer that has no problem turning its back on the Chicago market.
But then one afternoon I had a Spotted Cow that changed my entire perspective on the beer. It was at Fred's in Burlington, WI and since then I've had a new appreciation for it.
Maybe with some extended distance - both time and mindset - from KZoo, you'll "get" Oberon.
Or not. Either way, no big deal - there's a lot of beer out there to love.
Agreed. There is too much great brew out there to focus on not liking a few.
And three cheers to the bars that don't attempt to put an orange in my Oberon (or Blue Moon for that matter).
I still think the whole "banned"-in-Illinois thing is paying decent dividends for Bell's. While they make respectable beer--the porter is damn good, though not nearly the best of that variety one can find in Chicago--I find most of the Bell's brands only slightly above average, and hardly worth the price unless there is a special. I find this opinion common among various drinking pals, some of them reasonably coherent, especially about the celebrated Oberon. I suspect the lingering mystique of being "banned" continues to inspire at least some sales in Chicago--and I think that is wonderful, by the way, because it's not easy to earn money in this economy, and no matter what, Bell's is better than Budweiser and other such wussified crap.
Speaking of cellaring. Anyone have any Solsun left? I've got one big bottle stowed away but I'm afraid it's more a memento than a future quaff.
I love "Lager of the Lakes" and "Third Coast".
I do like the Bell's Amber, but there is a place right across the street from the Bell's plant in K-Zoo that had some pretty good on-premises brewed beer. I did a poetry show thing there a long time ago and thought it was great. But I don't thing they mass produce, or at least they didn't. Anyone know what I'm talking about or do I have it all wrong?
That place was called Kraftbrau, which is unfortunately shuttered these days. I used to spend a lot of time there, it being one of the few places to catch a good concert in Kalamazoo. They made a beer called Weedwacker that would've fit right in with the sour beer craze that was discussed a few posts down here on Chicagoist.
Oberon is decent enough..but why would you drink that when you can just have a Two Hearted Ale instead?
Look at this Kalamazoo reunion on this thread. WMU Class of 05!