Bell’s Brewery is the Michigan craft icon of Two Hearted Ale and Oberon — now owned by Kirin’s Lion.

Bell’s Brewery brings the round its Midwest — the Kalamazoo, Michigan brewery whose Two Hearted Ale is repeatedly voted the best beer in America and whose Oberon release is a Michigan spring ritual, now owned by Kirin’s Lion. Bell’s makes Two Hearted and Oberon, and its answer to a round about OG American craft is the beloved regional icon: a Midwest brewery whose beers became national favourites before it was acquired. A beer, from Michigan.

Its identity is the Two Hearted Michigan icon. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, its Oberon ritual and its Michigan roots are the story here. A beer, Midwest. The Two Hearted Michigan icon.

(Honest notes, so the story stays precise. Bell’s Brewery — at bellsbeer.com, distributing across all fifty states — makes Two Hearted Ale, a flagship IPA repeatedly voted the best beer in America in the late 2010s, Oberon, a spring and summer wheat ale whose release is a Michigan tradition, plus Hopslam and Kalamazoo Stout. It was founded, as the brand tells it, in 1985 with its first commercial beer, having begun as a homebrew supply shop around 1983, by Larry Bell in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and is the oldest craft brewery east of Colorado. On where it is made — a theme of this round — it brews in Comstock and Kalamazoo, Michigan. On ownership, the key fact of this round: Larry Bell sold Bell’s in 2021 to Lion, the Australian arm of Japan’s Kirin, which manages it alongside New Belgium, also in this round, so both are under the same parent. Its Two Hearted fly-fisherman label and Oberon sun mark are IP we describe but do not reproduce; there is no official brand hex; these tones are an unofficial interpretation. This is design commentary, not a promotion — please enjoy responsibly.)

Bell’s lives in a river teal. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Bell’s identity is iconic, Midwest and acquired — a river teal, an ink, a mist, a deep teal, and a paper. The palette leans river teal and mist: a calm, watery register that nods to a fly-fishing river and a Michigan icon rather than a loud palette. It signals a beloved regional brewery. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these values are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party colours.

The lesson is a river teal signals an iconic, Midwest identity. Bell’s world is an iconic, brewed object. For designers, it is a reminder that a calm teal and a soft mist can carry a beer brand — the tone of a river and a ritual. Because these tones can fail as small text, keep type dark and let the colour live in the accents, palette and band. The takeaways: make a beloved icon; own a seasonal ritual; be honest who owns you; and treat any single hex as unofficial.

The register is a Midwest sans — iconic, warm, plain.

Bell’s identity carries an iconic, warm, plain spirit — a beloved regional brewery, not a fashion. A Midwest sans captures the mood: friendly, honest and unpretentious, the register of a Michigan icon. Set in a river-teal palette, the Midwest sans feels iconic and warm — exactly the personality Bell’s carries. It is a regional icon rather than a logo, mirroring hops and water. (Bell’s real fly-fisherman and Oberon marks are things we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because it is not ours to use, the honest description is “a Midwest-sans spirit,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the beer: iconic, warm and plain.

Bell’s Brewery stands for the Two Hearted Michigan icon.

Bell’s brings the round its Midwest. A river-teal palette, a Midwest sans and a beloved icon make one thing — the Two Hearted Michigan icon — the whole identity: iconic, Midwest and acquired. Two Hearted and Oberon are the differentiators, and the beloved-then-acquired arc is the meaning. The point is a Kalamazoo brewery whose beers became national favourites and a Michigan spring ritual, before it was sold to Kirin’s Lion.

Put to work, the identity is a beloved icon told straight, as design. A maker in this spirit would make an icon, own a seasonal ritual, and be honest who owns it. A reader in this spirit would keep the facts right: Bell’s was founded in 1985 by Larry Bell in Kalamazoo, from a homebrew shop begun around 1983, the oldest craft brewery east of Colorado; its Two Hearted Ale was repeatedly voted the best beer in America, and Oberon’s release is a Michigan ritual; it brews in Michigan; and Larry Bell sold it in 2021 to Kirin’s Lion, which manages it alongside New Belgium. Bell’s sits in the round’s ownership map under Kirin and Lion with New Belgium, the same parent, and its regional-icon role sits with the round’s beloved American names. The honest editorial moves are to cite 1985 while noting the 1983 shop, to state the Kirin and Lion ownership, to note the shared parent with New Belgium, and to reproduce no marks. The lesson Bell’s teaches is that a beloved regional icon can be a whole identity, and honesty about the acquisition keeps the icon credible.

For designers and brand-builders, Bell’s continues OG American craft: make a beloved icon — and be honest who owns you. The lessons: build beers people love; own a seasonal ritual; state a foreign parent plainly; note when a sibling shares your owner; and never reproduce a logo. It is also a reminder to stay precise: Bell’s Brewery is the Michigan craft icon of Two Hearted Ale and Oberon, now owned by Kirin’s Lion — with the palette here an unofficial interpretation, and the piece a design commentary, not a promotion. Read that way, Bell’s is less a beer than a ritual: a Michigan icon whose seasons people wait for. The lesson for a brand is that a beloved icon and honest ownership reinforce each other, and naming Kirin keeps the icon earned. Bell’s made the-Two-Hearted-Michigan-icon the identity — proof that a regional icon can define a brewery.

Keep Bell’s’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.