The Arcadia Brewing Company, also known as Arcadia Ales, was a brewery with locations in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It operated from 1996 to 2019. When it stopped working because of money problems, it was one of the 25 largest craft breweries in Michigan and distributed its products to eight states.

History

The business opened in 1996 as a pub in Battle Creek, owned by Tim Suprise (founder and president) and several other people who owned part of the business. The restaurant, called TC's Wood-Fired Fare, was started at the same time as the microbrewery. The brewery’s beer was sold in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. It was also sold in craft beer clubs in Washington and Canada.

All beers were made in the brewery’s 25-barrel Peter Austin brewhouse. The beer was fermented in open containers in the brewery’s cellar using a special type of yeast used in English ale. In 2014, Arcadia completed a new building in Kalamazoo. The building was 30,000 square feet and could make 21,000 barrels of beer each year. The Battle Creek facility closed in 2016.

Arcadia’s year-round beers included Arcadia IPA (an India pale ale), Cheap Date (a session ale), Loch Down (a Scotch ale), Mango Surprise (an American IPA made with mango), Hopmouth (a double IPA), Rapunzel (a wheat beer), and Sky High Rye (a pale ale). Seasonal beers included Porter Rico (a porter with coconut), Shipwreck Porter (a bourbon-barrel-aged porter with 12 percent ABV), and Whitsun Ale (a wheat ale).

The company stopped operating in September 2019 after failing to pay its mortgage. In June 2020, the Superfluid Supply Co. division of Elk Rapids-based Short’s Brewing announced it had bought Arcadia’s beer brands and intellectual property. “Arcadia was influential in the development of the Michigan craft beer scene and was doing well until a few specific errors caused its failure,” said Short’s CEO Scott Newman-Bale. Superfluid began selling Whitsun Ale again under the Arcadia brand in July 2020, with plans to release other Arcadia brands in the future.