Arcadia Brewing stops making beer

Sounds like when my biologist buddy ran panels on 2015 stouts from an unnamed brewery in a town with the initials GH. Except most everyone here defended them (didn't want to kill the "trade value") and their response that we shouldn't "age" (store for more than 90 days) their beer and it should be kept in a refrigerator....lol

 

I'll say it. He's talking about Oddside Ales.

 

I will not confirm nor deny the hypothetical situation I posted above

 

Yeah, Shipwreck used to be a damn fine beer. It was one of their few annuals I got excited for. Their handling of the infection though, soured me on them in general.

[zing]

 

I also enjoyed their scotch ale and I wanted to try the angler's ale but never got the chance.

 

I hate seeing somebody’s dream fall apart and people losing their jobs, but Arcadia never made a beer I enjoyed.

Looking to the future...
I wonder what brewery gets to buy up their equipment.

 

As of now the new owners plan to get into contract brewing, so the equipment is staying put.

 

I wonder how many breweries have excess capacity after scaling up for distribution that now could be contract brewing to help supplement their cash flow?

 

It would be nice to know that every brewery is at, or near, capacity for their profitability, but you never hear about those stats.

 

Anecdotally speaking, everywhere I travel suggests that on the retail side, supply generally exceeds demand. I'll cite an abundance of hop-forward ales at, nearing, or exceeding their 6 month shelf life as evidence.

On a side note, am I the only one that feels like a 6 month shelf life for a lot of IPA's often times puts them well past their prime?

 

Loch Up was the BA Scotch Ale that was infected but when people reached out to Arcadia they said that they intentionally brewed it with a tartness.

I can't think of many if any IPAs that I want at 5-6 months old, generally 1 month is my preference & 2 months is the limit for me

 

Yeah, I agree. Old Nation may be the exception because some of the M-43 (other beers too?) is being brewed in Detroit, although I have not read/heard if it is contract brewed or if Old Nation opened a production facility there.

My hoppy beer experience is probably the same as yours. Occasionally I drink one that still seems fresh at the 6-month mark, and maybe the specific variety of hops has something to do with it too. Case in point (as long as we're talking about Arcadia) is Hop Rocket. I don't know what hop varieties are used in that beer, but a couple years ago I had one that was about 8 months old, and it drank almost like fresh.

 

A short story: Over the weekend I picked up a sixer of Arcadia's London Porter here in Battle Creek to kind of commemorate the brewery's demise. The porter was my first favorite craft beer when I first discovered good beer way back in 1996, so it seemed like a natural selection for me to buy this beer. I was aware that the brewery discontinued bottling of this beer 4-5 years ago (?) but when I saw it on the shelf at the store, I thought, "Oh Boy! they started bottling the porter again, so that's my choice for old times sake." And I grabbed it (there were 4-6 sixers on the shelf along with 5-6 other of their beers).

I opened my first one tonight and poured a glass. It was somewhat foamy and raised my suspicions. Then it tasted a tiny bit sour. When I looked at the label, it was the old version that listed the brewery as being in Battle Creek. I don't know if they released a newly-brewed batch and used up some old labels, but I doubt it. The bottle is not dated, and I'm pretty sure the Arcadia Kalamazoo facility had the capability to date their bottles. It's my fault that I didn't look at the label more closely, but I wasn't very concerned about the freshness dating of a porter.

So someone appears to be dumping some old stock, and I don't know if that goes beyond the porter. If anyone else feels like commerating the closing of Arcadia by buying one of their beers, buyer beware.

 

Yikes. I just got a Jaw Jacker for this reason (one of my favorite Arcadia beers). Hope it's not old!

 

My, my, my. Michigan craft beer is changing a mile-a-minute. Feel like Founder's, Bell's and Short's are eventually just going to squeeze everyone out.

 

Let us know.

 

Many breweries are growing and doing fine. The ones with poor product, poor business practices, or both, are the ones that closing or going to close.

Top 50 are listed here, 2018 vs 2017, in state sales.
https://www.mlive.com/news/g66l-201...beer-brewers-based-on-2018-instate-sales.html

 

Gather Ye Hopmouths While Ye May..

 

I was a big fan of Arcadia's lineup in the mid- to late-'00s. Its beers got middling reviews even back then, but I considered Arcadia one of the most underrated breweries in the country. In particular, Arcadia IPA was one of my favorite IPAs available in Minnesota, and I bet its bitter, earthy Columbus punch would blow some newer drinkers' palates away if they could try it today (not saying they'd like it -- most of them surely would not -- but they'd finally learn what an IPA is supposed to taste like). But it overhauled its lineup long ago in an unsuccessful effort to keep up with contemporary tastes and descended into irrelevance, like so many other small to mid-size craft breweries of its era.