Pure Michigan Pints

Arclight Brewing

Watervliet, Michigan

New year, new blog. These reviews are broken up into different criteria: beer selection, vibe, service, beer quality, and food. The three possible ratings are “Yay,” (meaning “yes”) “Nay” (meaning “no”), or “Ehhh,” (meaning “so-so”, or “okay”.) (This is also subject to change back, depending on my mood.)

This is a brewery I first went to about 6-8 year ago. In the summer of 2023, I happened to be camping on the Paw Paw River and my campsite was 1.5 miles away. (I did not know this in advance.) It goes to show you, breweries find me; I don’t even need to find them. My Jedi forces were at work. Unfortunately, these same forces did nothing to prevent me from hitting a downed tree in the river and flipping my kayak.

Watervliet is a super small town with one main street, a few restaurants, a post office, and on one building in clear visible lettering the word, “BREWERY.” Meet Arclight Brewing Company.

Rating breweries isn’t easy. The first time I went it was pre-COVID and they had a bigger draft selection. It also wasn’t at the end of July with sweltering heat (above 80 degrees which is hot for Michigan). The brewery responded accordingly.

Selection—Ehh

The brewery barely touched on all styles of beer. A lighter cream ale, a pils, (appropriately) many fruity beers and seltzers, one IPA, one stout, one porter, and way too many damn sours. (If you can’t tell, I’m not a sour person.)

Overall, I’d say the draft menu was appropriate for the time of year I went. I’ve kept tabs on this and noticed when others visited, they had a more extensive tap list, so I may have caught them at a bad time?

Vibe—Yay

The place has one of the biggest bars I’ve ever seen. It stretches endlessly for well over 1,000 feet. (I may be slightly exaggerating.) This alone sets the way for epicness. Outside seating is available. A wide range of tables. It’s super open, especially when they have their doors up. It’s friendly, direct, and clear. With that being said, is it crazy unique? Not really. There’s not much original going on either.

Service—Ehh

The servers appropriately asked if I’d like another beer. They did their job. Would answer questions when asked. Nothing above the norm of most places. They could have provided a bit more warmth, but who knows—maybe I caught them on an off day? Maybe their policy discourages them from chatting with patrons or sharing anything personal? I really don’t know.

At least they didn’t stand behind the bar and not do their jobs.

Beer Quality—Yay

The Snickerdoodle Porter puts them on the map for me. It’s truly a unique porter with vanilla and cinnamon, and more importantly: it’s spot on. The name describes exactly what it should be. I can’t recommend this beer enough. It stood out so much in my mind that I remembered this exact beer from over 6 years ago!

Some of the other beers fell flat. The IPA was average. (Same for the cream ale.) The summery beers were refreshing and on point; however, they didn’t stand out as anything crazy in uniqueness, despite their efforts to combine a seltzer, black raspberry sour, soda, and passion fruit flavoring.

But the orange hazy was definitely decent.

Sours are somewhat difficult to judge as they’re not a style I’m particularly fond of. (Okay, I generally don’t like them. But I’ll still dabble in them hoping I’ll change my mind.) They had five sours on draft—cherry, black berry, raspberry, an imperial Berlinerweiss, and another one I don’t remember. And I’ll be honest with you here: No, I did not try every single one. I only tried a couple.

I’ve said it before and I’l say it again: Having one amazing, standout beer, a beer you’ll recommend to your friends, goes a long way. Try the Snickerdoodle Porter.

Food—N/A

They currently do not have a kitchen at the time of this writing. They appear to host food trucks. On my second visit (this time around) there was one outside, but I didn’t get anything from them. They only had hot dogs, so I opted to go to the restaurant up the street for a cheesesteak sandwich. I guess I’m not All-American enough to appreciate the novelty of processed weiners in a bun with over-rated condiments such as ketchup and yellow mustard.

Overall—Recommend

Overall, if this was the only brewery in my town, I wouldn’t be disappointed. They have enough character and potential to be good. Could they be better? Yes. But so could we all.