Arclight Brewing Company

• 544 N. Main Street
• Watervliet, MI 49098
• (269) 332-0718
• Website

There are more and more breweries popping up and it’s getting really hard for me to keep up.  We try to get to all the ones that do food but the ones that don’t are usually reserved for when I’m by myself.

I dropped the kids off at my parents last weekend for an extended visit.  On my way home, I stopped in New Buffalo for dinner but wanted to try out one of the breweries along I-94 that I haven’t been to yet.  There are a couple of options but I chose to wait until I got back as far as Watervliet.

I picked Arclight Brewing Company.  The brewery has actually been open about six years on the north side of Watervliet’s downtown.  The building on North Main Street (M-140) just north of the Paw Paw River is the former Brookfield Chrysler Jeep Dodge Dealership.   They kept the large garage doors but replaced the actual door with glass doors that lead out to a patio along the busy street

The brewery has a really cool space.  It’s a large open with a really long bar running almost the whole length of the building.  There are picnic tables spread throughout the brewery on top of a cement floor.  The ceiling was left open with spot lights to set the mood.

The walls were left pretty bare but there are large video game cabinets and a huge shelf of games along the back wall.  All of the seating is pretty communal utilizing picnic tables instead of more intimate four top seating.

Arclight doesn’t just make their own beer.  They also make their own sodas.  All of that happens behind the bar in a room that is view able from a large glass window.

I sat down at the bar and grabbed a drink menu that was left from a previous party.  I looked it over several times while waiting for the bartender.  When she did finally make her way down to me, I ordered the Hazy Days Have Arrived.  This beer is a cloudy IPA that’s all the rage right now.  It was juicy and delicious but not too hoppy or too bitter.

I started a tab when the bartender brought my beer because I was planning on having a couple.  Bad idea.  The bartender was swamped.  She was the only working and she was hustling to keep up.  She was constantly running up and down the huge bar to grab glasses then back to the tap to pour drinks.  When I was ready for another beer, I sat there for fifteen minutes with an empty glass waiting.  I couldn’t just leave because I couldn’t even get my tab.  I don’t blame the bartender at all for this.  She was working really hard to keep up but they really needed at least one if not two more people helping pour drinks.

When she did finally get to me, I just ordered another IPA. This time it was the Brut IPA called Hazers on Stun.  This is another trendy style and while it shares a lot with the hazy IPA’s, this one packs a little more punch in the hoppiness department.

I cashed out when I got my second beer.  The total was $9 for the two beers.  They have snacks available for purchase and they will have food trucks on certain nights, but Arclight doesn’t do food of their own.  That helped keep my tab down because I can never pass up brewery food or food trucks.

Arclight Brewing Company is an awesome space with a great tap list.  There is a lot to do with board games, video games, and foosball.  There were several groups with kids and they all seemed to stay entertained without causing to much of a disturbance.

I really want to like Arclight Brewing but the wait for a beer really weighs heavily on my opinion of the place.  I spent a lot more time there than I wanted to but, on the bright side, I did really enjoy both of the beers that I had.