Arcadia Ales are British Inspired, American Brewed

Above photo: Arcadia Ales

Michigan has a thriving craft beer scene and Arcadia Ales has been a part of it for over 20 years. Originally based in Battle Creek, an expansion brought them to Kalamazoo where their brewery sits on 400′ of riverfront allowing visitors to launch their kayaks and canoes, or just relax and have a beer.

For most of their history, Arcadia brewed exclusively via a process unique to most American breweries. All of their beers were fermented in open vessels with a single yeast strain. In 2016 they added closed fermenters and other yeasts, but a large portion of their portfolio is still brewed with their open fermentation method. They’ve also started a sour program and released beers like Battle Kriek, and further experimentation recently brought them to making mead.

Arcadia’s Director of Sales Steffan Phillippo joined us this week to talk about how the British inspiration is implemented, the challenges of open fermentation, cherry festivals, glitter beers, and pasties. We also discuss their recent collaboration with heavy metal legends Motörhead for a US beer release, Röad Crew IPA, which pairs perfectly with headbanging.

We also talk with local Atlanta artist Rory Hawkins, aka Catlanta, about his work and tease a collaboration project with Beer Guys Radio to benefit an awesome local charity. Stay tuned for more info on what we’re up to. Catlanta also shared a special beer he scored in Iceland. Hvalur 2 is brewed with sheep dung smoked whale’s testicles. Hvalur 1 had the whale testicles but left out the important dung smoking step. #whalezbro

News and Brews

In the news this week we share some mid-year craft beer stats, research progress in pursuit of a Florida hop farming industry, and some drama between Toppling Goliath and a former brewer over non-compete issues.

In addition to the whale-balls beer, we enjoyed Arcadia’s Röad Crew, Barrel-aged Shipwreck Porter, and Mango Surprise IPA. We also cracked a few Florida brews courtesy of a beer mail from our friend Darryl, a Creature Comforts Crescendo, and Hopstix Rice and Shine.

Next week…

Tune in for our conversation with Fremont Brewing‘s Matt Lincecum!