On this trip we had already been to 5 breweries, so we decided to check into our motel room in Marshall and go to Battle Creek and Marshall the next day. 

After eating breakfast and getting ready to go, we thought we had better call the Dark Horse to see what time they opened.  After finding out they opened at 3:00 pm, we decided to visit Arcadia Brewing Company at noon when they opened.  Battle Creek is only a 15 min. drive from Marshall and we thought we could kill more time by stopping at the Kellogg Plant and possibly the Binder Park Zoo.

Arcadia is a very large building since they do all their brewing and bottling there.  The bar and restaurant area are very nice.  It was cool that you could see the flames roaring in the brick wood fire oven. They were established in 1996.  Cheryl indicated that a sign in the women’s restroom said they needed people to help put bottles in cases for a large order to be ready by Monday.  Todd didn’t see a sign like that in the men’s restroom.

We arrived exactly at noon and went straight to the bar.  Bill waited on us and was very helpful, fun and nice.  The old beer labels under the glass at the bar were an excellent touch and we enjoyed checking out all the old varieties. 

We decided to get a sampler and tried:  Scotch Ale, Starboard Stout, Nut Brown Ale, and London Porter.  We like the Nut Brown Ale and London Porter the same, but we got a growler of the Nut Brown Ale.  Most of these brews we have also purchased at our local store.  We were surprised that the growlers had sticker labels on them.  We had to give Bill a hard time about that…..lol, the label fell off  in the cooler before we got home.  Again we had to make our own label for the growler.  See the after and before picture above.

Ratings based on our personal preferences - yours may vary.

By now we were hungry for lunch so we had to try the food.  After looking the menu over (which was named TC’s Woodfired Fare), we decided on the stuffed portabella mushroom.  It was thinly sliced and layered with goat and asiago cheeses, caramelized onion, and roasted red pepper, this was very good.  On the menu they also had pizza’s, which are brick oven cooked and a veggie quesadilla that sounded great with portabella mushrooms.

When we left Arcadia it was only 1:30 pm, so we drove over to the Kellogg’s Cereal City.  We didn’t do the $7.95 tour, but we did browse the gift shop and even got a Tony the Tiger shot glass…... we thought that was odd.  Took a bunch of pictures and saw it was still too early to go to Dark Horse, so we drove over to the Binder Park Zoo. Admission was $8.95 and we gladly paid that.  We must tell you that is was well worth the price.  The variety of animals is quite nice and you walk through a heavy wooded area.  There is a tram that takes you to the Safari section, which is Africa.  It may be walked by trail and the sign says that it is .5 miles uphill.  We did walk back though and it was a great 10 min. walk.  Feeding the giraffes was fun.  (click here to see the pics)  Finally, it is now 4:00 pm and we can go back to Dark Horse Brewing.

This is a small place with a patio area.  We do enjoy the smaller more cozy feeling you get in these types of breweries.  They have been there four years and also have a nice menu with subs, sandwiches, snacks, and pizza pie’s.  We decided not to eat here, as we still wanted to stop at Harper’s in East Lansing on the way home.  We considered ordering some cheesy garlic bread and a roast beef sub. 

We then sampled the following:  Amber Ale, Crooked Tree IPA, Reserve Special Black Bier, and One Oatmeal Stout.  We loved both the Black Bier and Stout and decided on a growler of the Oatmeal Stout (in fact this is what we are drinking now). The Amber Ale and IPA we did not care for.  They had a Tres Blueberry Stout that was not quite ready yet and Cheryl would have loved to try that.  While sitting up at the bar Cheryl noticed the same couple we had seen earlier at Arcadia.  They were also out touring breweries and it was fun talking to them.

Ratings based on our personal preferences - yours may vary.

This is our second visit here.  We wanted to get a picture and try some more brew on the way home.  The place was packed and they had a roped entrance because of the Michigan State game earlier.  Luckily, when we arrived there was no line and we walked in and found seats at the bar.

The bar staff was extremely busy, but Woody made sure to take care of us.  They don’t do the normal 5 oz. samples found at most breweries.  We had tried most of the other beers before so we only got a plastic shot glass of 2 different ones to try:  Spartan Wheat (because Todd couldn’t believe we got a growler of this the first time) and the Imperial Porter, which we did get a growler of. 

Ratings based on our personal preferences - yours may vary.

We were looking forward to ordering the wild mushroom pasta, but because of the Spartan game they have a smaller menu for game day.  So we ordered the calamari and the crab rangoons, both were pretty good.

It is now 6:30 pm and time to go since we still had 1 ½ hour drive home.  We now had 5 full growlers in the cooler and 2 empties from the night before.  The growlers usually don’t last long, so it is wise to start drinking them within 2 days.  This is a breakdown of our microbrew drinking weekend.  Friday night:  2 growlers,  Saturday night:  2 ¾ growlers,  Sunday:   2 ¼ growlers,  and Monday night:  1 growler -  the porter from Harper’s.  This one was still good after 2 days in the cooler.

see also: Harpers, Tuba, MBC

  Home  

  Sanford Lake & Mountain Town (June, 2001)  

  Big Buck & Alcatraz (Aug, 2001)  

  Jamesport, Lighthouse, Mackinaw, Northpeak, Brewzone, Boyne River (Sep, 2001)  

  Wiltse's (Nov, 2001) & Tawas Point (May, 2004)  

  King, Big Rock, & WAB (July, 2001)  

  Hereford and Hops (starting Dec, 2001, several trips)  

  Harpers, Tuba, & MBC (Mar, 2002)  

  Tahquamenon, Lake Superior, Jasper Ridge, Library brewpub (Aug, 2002)  

  Quay Street, Dragonmead, Great Baraboo (Apr, 2003)  

  Hair of the Frog, Robert Thomas, Grand Rapids, B.O.B.'S, Founders (July, 2003)  

  Grizzly, Arbor, Leopolds (Aug 6, 2004)  

  Sports, Traffic, Stoney, Kuhnhenn (Aug 7, 2004)  

  Thunder Bay, Belle Isle (Aug 8, 2004)  

  Jamesport, Salmon fishing (Aug 29, 2004)  

  Rochester, Big Rock, King, Bo's, WAB, Bastone, Copper (Sep 11, 2004)  

  Black Forest, Frankenmuth (Oct 1, 2004)  

  Old Hat, Bilbos, Olde Peninsula, Bells, Kraftbrau (Oct 8, 2004)  

  Arcadia, Dark Horse, Harpers (Oct 9, 2004)  

  Midland St. Ale Tour, Bay City, 2004  

  Old Boys, New Holland, Via Maria, Grand Rapids Brewing (Nov 12, 2004)  

  The B.O.B., Founders (Nov 13, 2004)  

  Thunder Bay, Kings, Bo's, CJ's (Feb 5, 2005)  

  Great Baraboo, Dragonmead, Belle River (Feb 26, 2005)  

  Boyne River, Shorts (Apr 30, 2005)  

  2nd U.P. Trip - Part 1, Tahquamenon, Lake Superior, Vierling, Jasper (Aug 24,25, 2005)  

  2nd U.P. Trip - Part 2, Red Jacket, Keweenaw, Library, Hereford & Hops (Aug 26,27, 2005)  

  Mountain Town, Sanford - 2nd Trip (Sept 10, 2005)  

  Michigan Brewing, Jolly Pumpkin, Redwood Lodge, (Sept 24, 2005)  

  Livery, Saugatuck, New Holland, Via Maria (Sept 30, 2005)  

  Middle Villa, Schmohz, Hideout (Oct 1, 2005)  

  Redwood Lodge (Sep, 2004), Redwood Lodge (Oct 8, 2005)  

  Kuhnhenn, Bastone, Lilys (Oct. 21, 2005)  

  Bonfire, Etouffee (Oct. 22, 2005)  

  Cork 'N' Ale 11th Annual Fall Beer Tasting (Nov. 3, 2005)  

  Traverse City, North Peak (Dec. 2, 2005)  

  Mackinaw, Shorts (Dec. 3, 2005)  

  Lumber Barons' Charcoal Grill & Brewpub (Dec. 9 & 10, 2005)