Upper Hand Brewery in Escanaba, the new Upper Peninsula division of Bell's Brewery, is officially open this week.
Owner and founder Larry Bell has been working on opening the brewery, complete with a 20-barrel brewing system to produce regular and specialty brews. Its location near the Delta County Airport hosts an 11,500-square-foot brewing facility to help distribute Upper Hand brews in both kegs and bottles to bars, restaurants and store shelves across the U.P. The grand opening hosted this weekend marked the first wide availability of Upper Hand brews.
And, for now at least, they'll only be available in the U.P., quite different from the Kalamazoo-based Bell's. In fact, Bell says Upper Hand won't use the famous Bell's branding or make any beers for the downstate beer icon.
Some of the bottled varieties on offer are the UPA, or Upper Peninsula Ale, the Escanaba Black Beer, and the Upper Hand Lager. More varieties, of course, will likely be in the works for the future.
"We're focusing on good quality session beers" in popular styles, Bell told us earlier in the year. "It's a walk before you can run thing."
A public open house is set for December 6 if you'd like to see more of the Upper Hand Brewery.
Writer: Kim Eggleston
Source: Upper Hand Brewery
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