KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WWJ) -- Two of Michigan's most popular craft beers will soon have a new owner.
Larry Bell, the owner of Kalamazoo-based Bell's Brewery -- which makes Oberon and Two Hearted Ale -- announced Wednesday that he is selling the company to Lion, an Australian-based brewer.
In a letter to the Kalamazoo community and fans of Bell's beer, he says he's retiring after nearly four decades and handing the company over to Lion, which also acquired the fast-growing Colorado craft beer company New Belgium Brewing back in 2019.
Bell says the brewery's home is -- and will remain -- in Kalamazoo County, despite the sale.
"While I fully expect this alignment with New Belgium will result in countless new fans around the country and beyond, we are still a Michigan-based operation brewing (world-class) Michigan beer," Bell said in his letter.
He also says "our values, our DNA and our dedication to this community will not change."
"If anything, our belief in positively impacting the world will only be strengthened through our work with New Belgium," Bell said.
Bell first started brewing in the basement of his first house on Wheaton Street, using a 15-gallon soup kettle. At the time, the brewery was known as the Kalamazoo Brewing Company, a nod to the community's original brewery that closed in 1915.
"I wanted to make a brewery that would last longer than us, for generations to come, like the great 500-year-old breweries in Germany – and I believe we have only begun on that path," Bell said. "But to keep Bell's a strong and stable brewery for generations to come, we need someone to run it with the same energy and passion that I've had for these past decades."
