Fall, Winter, Oberon, Summer
• Apr 1st, 2009 • Category: real beer
By Kelly Trevino
As the end of the winter season draws near, the sure signs of spring start to filter through the air. After months of down jackets and snow boots that seem to float in and around the growing snow-drifts we start to see faces, a glimpse of sunshine, or maybe even a naked forearm.
For the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan there is no better announcement of spring than when March 30 rolls around and the celebration can begin. This date is the opening day of Bell’s Oberon.
Bell’s Brewery’s signature summer brew is a spicy and fruity un-filtered wheat ale that beats through the heart of this college town every spring when the snow melts and the masses begin to thaw.
The cold and empty block of time that falls between the beginning of October and the end of March just doesn’t have the same standing enthusiasm as the spring and summer months when Oberon can be found in every grocery store, party store, and beer mug from Gull road to Westnedge Avenue.
Bell’s Brewery, the oldest craft-brewer east of Boulder, CO, has been brewing up tasty ales, stouts, lagers, and porters since it was established in 1983. Larry Bell, founder of what was originally known as the Kalamazoo Brewing Company, sold his first beer in 1985.
Oberon, the over-achieving offspring of Bell’s, is the official sign that the season’s changing according to John Mallett, production manager at Bell’s Brewery.
“For many people the idea of summer is Oberon and Oberon is summer,” Mallett says. “Really I think it’s more a response to the season, and it’s taken on something bigger than itself.”
Michigan and the upper Midwest, where Oberon can be found, have four very distinct seasons, and according to Mallett that is what makes this beer so popular.
“I can’t think of another beer that has this much anticipation around it that is out there,” Mallett says. “The beer itself is really designed and emulated around the beer you want to drink in the summer.”
Full-time engineer, part-time beer drinker and Kalamazoo area resident Greg Serkaian remembers Oberon as a college student. To him Oberon represented the end of the semester approaching, the beginning of a time to relax and put away the books.
“I remember getting up and hitting the party store at 7 a.m. with my buddies and getting a six-pack as soon as it came out,” Serkaian says. “Being able to have some as soon as class was done, you’d be excited all day.”
The reason it is so well-liked is because of the connection with the budding trees, the melting snow, and the reintroduction of life into the city, explains Serkaian.
“You’re transitioning from the winter to the summer and you’re outside and it kind of gets you excited for that,” Serkaian says. “It’s a sign of life.”
For Mallett, the reasons for Oberon’s popularity are simple.
“I’ve had people come to me and say ‘You need to brew Oberon year round’ and I think why would we want to do that?” he says. “If I had Thanksgiving dinner every night would it be so special?”
Those changes in seasonality speak to a primal need, according to Mallett; it’s something we as humans have been doing for a long time is celebrating seasons.
Kelly Trevino is a freelance writer based in Metro Detroit. Please send comments to Kelly.Trevino [at] yahoo [dot] com.
