(Kalamazoo, MI) – So what’s new with Bell’s? Let’s take a look, batch by batch…

I’ll start out with Batch 8779, Kalamazoo Hopsoulution Ale. President, Larry Bell, announced a few weeks back that this beer would be coming out and its arrived in some stores as of yesterday. According to the post on BA, “This batch is slightly different from the first in that it is made with Premiant and Saaz hops instead of Smaragd.” Weren’t we just talking about Premiant hops? This is Illinois-only (can someone fact-check that? thanks, Rob).

It appears that Bells Christmas Ale could be out very soon. Batches 8801-8803 were all packaged in the last week or so.

As part of that original Christmas Ale article, remember how it looked like Bell’s might be taking a break on the Java Stout? I’m not so sure. Another batch, 8758, was packaged this week, with the note, “Dates Available: On Vacation.” Strange, no?

It looks like the first packaging of Bells Winter White Ale took place around October 1st so you can expect to see this soon as well. Last year’s edition came out right around November 1st.

Finally, two unusual beers caught my eye in recent batches: Bells Kristalweizen which I’ve already revealed on the forums and Bells Oarsman Ale, 8788, packaged on October 22, 2008. These could be very well be test batches or brewery-only batches. Anyone got more info?