Mar 26, 2025
Carrie Yunker ended her more than two-decade run at Bell’s Brewery
on a high note Monday – Oberon Day, the annual release of the
company’s spring-summer seasonal wheat beer.
Yunker, who started at the Michigan craft brewery as a part-time
receptionist and ended up leading the company as founder Larry
Bell’s handpicked successor, kicked off the festivities at the
brewery’s Kalamazoo taphouse and event space by raising an Oberon
flag.
Hundreds of Michiganders and fans from neighboring states, many
wearing costumes, lined up and waited for hours for the taphouse to
open and to drink this year’s Oberon and several special
variants.
For Yunker, Oberon Day was a fitting way to say goodbye as employee
No. 50.
“This day is the best of everything,” she says in this week’s
episode of the Brewbound Podcast. “It’s the best of Kalamazoo,
which is a city that I love so much. It’s the best of craft beer,
which if you throwback craft beer to its heyday, it’s really about
bringing people together and community. And what you will see is
the streets of Kalamazoo, lined with people wearing teal, wearing
orange, drinking Oberon, lighting up not just our account but
accounts all over Kalamazoo.
“It really is this wonderful amalgamation. .... It’s food and fun
and family and community and this day represents that, not just
here in Kalamazoo, but you see that spotlighted across the Great
Lakes.”
Yunker described her time as EVP as “the privilege of my life to
lead such an amazing, amazing team and brand.”
So why step away? Yunker explained that she and her husband became
empty nesters last fall, which led to more time for
reflection.
“The silence created some space for me to really think about what’s
next for me, what’s next for our family,” she said.
“I have lots of dear friends and people that I love who are living
in a place where they are fearful,” she continued. “When I think
about what I could do and take some of my leadership and my
business acumen and potentially apply that in a different way to go
do work either in politics or nonprofit to really make sure that
people can live and love the way that they like.
“That’s something that really motivates me.”
In the conversation, Yunker discusses taking over for Larry Bell
and how their leadership styles differed, guiding the brewery
through several milestones and her favorite moments, including an
off-the-cuff comment during a TV interview that led to 300 people
showing up at the Comstock brewery for an impromptu job
fair.
Full Disclosure: Bell’s Brewery covered airfare and hotel
accommodations for the Brewbound team to record this interview
during Oberon Day.