Family-owned brewery partners with Bellingham Bells baseball for 2026 season
The Bellingham Bells’ first home game is Tuesday, June 2, and the defending West Coast League champion has added a new featured brewery to its lineup for the 2026 season.
There are only two official beers sponsors of the Bellingham Bells Baseball club, in city known for craft breweries and great brews.
Larrabee Lager Company is this year’s new addition. It will join Kulshan Brewing Company as the only two featured breweries for the 2026 Bellingham Bells season.
“Being one of the featured breweries at Bells’ home games this summer at Joe Martin Field is a huge honor because of the overall quality of beer that can be found in Bellingham. Serving our beers at the games is a wonderful opportunity because it allows us to share our offerings with a new audience and introduce them to what makes our beers so special and perfectly suited for enjoying at ballgame,” Sam Milne, Larrabee Lager Company co-founder and head brewer alongside his wife, Kate Milne, told The Bellingham Herald.
This year, the stadium is exclusively serving local beers.
“Larrabee Lager Company and Kulshan Brewing Company are the two official beers sponsors of the Bellingham Bells Baseball club. Our beers will be served together in the stadium to create an opportunity for a truly local beer experience at the baseball game. But since the big domestic breweries are not involved in the stadium this year, the beer selection is truly only local offerings, which is very cool,” Milne said.
For cider lovers, the stadium will serve Lost Giants Cider Co., a Bellingham-based cider brewery.
“Not only are we huge beer fans, but we’re also huge baseball fans, so partnering with the Bells is truly a dream come true,” Milne said. “Creating a special collaboration beer to serve at the games was the type of project that continues to fuel our passion as brewers, and we are incredibly excited for the season so that we can share the new beer with all the Bells fans. It’s darn good.”
Larrabee Lager Co. will serve five flagship beers at the stadium and has also created a special new brew for the baseball team.
“We’re also extremely excited to announce that we are releasing a very special beer collaboration between the brewery and the baseball team: Hittin’ Dingers Ballpark Lager, a 5.1% American-style lager, will be available exclusively at the Joe Martin Field and at the brewery on draft and 16-ounce cans. It is the perfect beer to pair with baseball, peanuts and Bellingham summers,” Milne said.
Sam and Kate Milne first opened Larrabee Lager Co. almost three years ago in North Bellingham, serving craft beer, pizza and more.
“Since opening in 2023, we’ve grown exponentially, and I can’t thank our community enough for supporting us. Being on the north side of town has truly been a perfect location for us to start the brewery because it has created a community gathering point that was sorely lacking before. We’ve made countless new beers, met hundreds of new people, and had tons of fun serving beer and pizza to everyone around! It’s a ton of hard work, stress, and exhaustion, but it has been totally worth it as we feel so proud of what we’ve built as we approach our third-year anniversary,” Milne said.
Through its years of growth, the brewery has now expanded to offer its beer in local grocery stores like Grocery Outlet, Community Food Co-op, Haggen, Fred Meyer, Whole Foods Market, Trader Joes, Elizabeth Station, Goods Local Brews and 20th Century Bowling, as well as selling statewide.
“One of the most exciting changes of the brewery as we’ve grown over the past three years is that our beers are now available statewide through two distribution partners. We’re incredibly appreciative of amazing partners, such as our local friends at Dickerson Distributing, because their support has allowed us to grow our brand and share our beers with beer lovers all over our state who can’t easily visit the brewery,” Milne said.
“The community has been incredibly supportive of our brewery by coming together as a ‘third place’ in our neighborhood. From hosting all sorts of groups, to pint nights for charity, to trivia, live music, and countless other events, the opportunity to bring people together has far exceeded our expectations and is extremely gratifying. We are so thankful to have such a wonderful community, and we can’t thank everyone enough for their support,” Milne said.
Larrabee Lager Company is open from 2 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday at 4151 Guide Meridian Rd. #100 in Bellingham.
