Battle Creek beer scene?

Well, you have Arcadia, and right down the street are The Griffin and another place next door to it that I can't recall the name of...they both have pretty big draft selections. There's a few stores with decent selections, including a really nice Meijer.
Thankfully Kalamazoo is only a 20 minute drive, because there isn't much else in The Crick...best of luck to you.

 

LiquidTable offers a fairly accurate assessment. Arcadia is a fine place to hang out and grab some food and beer, I would be there often if I lived in town. Becoming familiar with Kalamazoo for beer events and some releases may be more beneficial.

On the bright side you are 20 minutes from Kalamazoo and 25 from Marshall. There are much worse places to live.

 

I live in BC and welcome you to our fair city. You have probably looked at the Places link on the BA home page, but a short summary is: Arcadia Brewing is located downtown and has a very good line-up of beers, and excellent food. Also downtown is a good beer bar, The Cricket Club, with 54 taps (I think that is the number), but only snacks and appetizers for food except they have hot hogs and a small pulled pork sandwich. Next door is the Griffin Pub, an English-style beer bar with a good tap list.

The best bottle shop in town is Mega-Bev at the south edge of town across the street from out local mall. They have a good beer, wine and liquor selection but my main complaint is they don't sell singles. I don't see very many hyped, limited-released beers show up there either.

Dark Horse Brewing is 12 miles away in Marshall, and it's a tremendous experience to visit that place. Excellent and unusual beers, and pretty good food too. The tap list sometimes has just the stuff that they also bottle, but can also be loaded with some unusual beers. They have a beer garden and have some live entertainment.

Eighteen miles west is Bell's Eccentric Cafe and company store. It's also a treat to go to the cafe, and their food is also very good, although not a lengthy menu. They also have a beer garden and live entertainment. Their tap list usually is pretty exciting with stuff that does not show up in bottles.

Send me a message if you have further questions that I can answer about anything to help welcome you to the Cereal City. I'll look forward to tipping a few brews with you at Arcadia.

By chance are you also a homebrewer?

 

Welcome to the better side of Michigan, Jake! ;-)

 

That sounds great! I stopped at a Rozis in Cleveland a few weeks back and thought it was cool to sit and drink great beer and shop for bottles at the same time (had Better Half and KBS there )

The main "go to" bottle shop in BC is Mega-Bev. And one thing I have found is the easiest and quickest way to communicate with your customers, about bottles or taps, is social media (like Twitter and Facebook), and Mega-Bev does not do that very well!

 

Since you already know what's on the shelves at Horrocks it sounds like you've already been in the store. I shop there for most of my beer even though Mega-Bev is much closer for me to get there. A modest effort to sell singles has been the draw for me to go to Horrocks, so any effort to expand that would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking forward to helping you make this a successful effort with my $$$s.

 

Here's a tip. Screw Twitter and go G+

 

I think Google+ was a pretty successful project. #thingsnoonesays

 

I used to buy a lot of beer at Horrocks, but haven't been there recently. The selection is always decent, but the organization left something to be desired. It does seem like they have been trying to straighten things out (reorganization of the wine area a year or so ago) and figure out how everything fits together. With a little work, consistent vision, and a little more space, you could definitely make it the go-to place in downtown. I live between Richland and Augusta, and I don't like driving over to Mega-Bev. If I am going to BC, I'd rather go to Horrocks. Beer, flowers for the wife, and wasabi peas in bulk! Good luck, and I will do my best to support what you are doing too!

 

Growler fills by anyone other than the manufacturer are not legal in Michigan, so that won't be an option for you.

 

This is true. Also read in the Michigan Beer Guide that only Brewpubs and Microbrewery licenses can fill growlers. A "Brewers" license is excluded from filling growlers. Bells has the only "Brewers" license in the state, which explains why the Excentric Cafe does not fill growlers.

 

If you make horrockbc anything like horrocks Lansing it will be awesome!

 

One more thing.... What's upstairs??? I want to go up the escalator!