I am heading to Western Michigan next week. I am looking into a tour of either Arcadia or Bells. I will already be able to go to the Founders brewery. Or would New Holland be better?
I personally would go to Bell's over Arcadia. If you go to Bell's, go to the Kalamazoo Beer Exchange, it is about a block away from Bell's, definitely worth a stop.
If you go to Bell's there is the tour of the downtown brewery. The production brewery in Galesburg is set up to do a self guided tour. Ask if that is now open to the public. I went through the open house a while back. They have a 200 barrel system with many modern features engineered by the Bell's staff (John Mallet).
Bells. But Arcadia has free darts sooooooooooooo......................... Dark Horse is also worth your time. Eat an OH YEAH for me.
The new expansion is set up so that one can do self guided tours. This is like the self guideed tours at Sierra Nevada and New Glarus. You get to see some parts of it, other parts are form windows looking down. I don't know if they have turned that on yet, hence one should ask at the downtown location, as I said in the post. Take a look at the pictures. Impressive laminated wood construction. http://www.bellsbeer.com/about/200-barrel-brewhouse/
As far as I know, Bell's is still only doing free tours of the downtown original brewery on Saturdays and Sundays. I agree that the main production facility is set up to be self-guided at some point, but I don't think they have started those yet. I've heard that the Dark Horse tour is pretty decent, and you get to sample what they are pouring in the special tap room within the brewhouse. I thought you get a glass too, and it cost $5. I'd check their website, but it is still compromised according to Google. New Holland does tours of their production facility on the weekends too. It is a few miles from the downtown Holland restaurant/pub. They charge quite a bit ($10), but you get a pint glass and samples. Arcadia does (or used to) do tours on Saturdays. Their current space is pretty cramped though! Enjoy your trip.
The DH tour is $7 and is not a 'polished' tour (but many aren't). You walk thru the building's maintenance room and down the hallway of the offices before getting into the brewing area. After seeing the production areas then you climb a set of pre-fab spiral stairs to the VIP lounge to sample 6-7 items of whatever they have on tap, which is sometimes some beers that are not available in the pub. (Climbing down the spiral stairs could then be a challenge depending on how much you already drank before the tour. ) You do also get a logo pint glass for the $7 price.
Dark Horse was actually my favorite of the aforementioned breweries when I was in SW MI in April (Founders a close second). This was in large part due to BA Plead the 5th being on tap. Arcadia was my least favorite, so my recommendation would be (if not Dark Horse) do Bells.
Absolutely Bell's...in each of the multiple times I've been to Arcadia, they had exact one beer on draft that they don't bottle. Good pizza, but ehhhhhhhhh Bell's still wins in emphatic fashion. ;-)
Bell's is awesome, both the downtown brewery and the new productions facility. Lots of brewery only offerings at the Eccentric Cafe, some recipes that are from Larry's old homebrew days. See my current profile picture - when they first opened the new productions facility to the public, me and some buddies met John Mallet and got him to show us around behind some key access doors. Got to see the Two Hearted-dedicated fermenters (stepping into that room and only smelling Two Hearted was fucking brilliant) and took some pictures with next to all those barrels of next years Black Note
Awesome you mention the Two-Hearted aroma. Did the Bells 25th Anniv Open House at the Comstock facility, and had the same experience. "Is this heaven, no its Bells Two Hearted fermenters." BTW, the Eccentric Cafe is a super cool place.
