Sisyphus Brewing

Location near downtown Minneapolis, to the west of Lyndale Avenue. Across the street from Dunwoody school. Street parking. Set up with two rooms, one for the taproom and for a live comedy performance space, each with its own entrance. Taproom has a off white painted, beamed ceiling, brick walls, and a concrete floor. Lots of windows on the south and west sides. Straight bar with a few stools. Other seating at low tables and booths. Pinball machines and hand shuffleboard. A couple of TVs. Fifteen or so taps cover the standard styles. Crowler cans to go. Friendly and ready-to-serve staff. Brews have always been good, and the space never too busy when visited.

 

 

20191213

 

 

 

 

Great place, great beer!

 

 

 

 

 

Extremely underrated nano brewery with a really nice and welcoming taproom and top-notch staff. Their venue always seems to be empty on afternoons. They do not get food trucks but they do allow food to be delivered and they are just south of downtown so that works out well enough. They have a few board games and a few shuffleboard tables. It sounds like they are getting a patio in May. They have a comedy club attached to the brewery and get some decently high profile comedians. With being a nano brewery, their beer is constantly changing, faster than they keep up their online menus. The beer is up there with the best beer being made in the cities. Some of their beer is really unique, but also delicious. A great quality of being so small, their at least one of their two brewers is normally there, and their bartenders are very knowledgeable as well. Their location is not the best, but they really deserve more press and a greater following.

The tap room was almost entirely dead when my wife and I visited on a Sunday afternoon. None of the 3 beers we sampled were all that great. Plenty of bar, table, and booth seating with a wide variety of board games, arcade games, and a couple of shuffleboard tables.

great space these guys have, surprised it took me this long to make it in, but its definitely near the top of the list to visit again in the twin cities. mellow vibe in this old industrial looking space, exposed brick all over, plenty of windows, dim lighting, lots and lots of seating but still a very intimate vibe, a very long bar, and a brew house down the hallway in the back that i could not believe how small it was! they are turning out some seriously delicious beers on a very small operation, all very quaint and humble, big fan already. they had something like ten beers pouring, hands down the best for me was the maple stout, not brewed with maple syrup, but aged on maple wood, something really out of the ordinary and well executed. the barleywine was also very good, and aside from the apple ale, all the beer was quite impressive here, and i got pretty loose. they have crowlers to go which is cool, an awesome bar staff who seemed genuinely stoked to be there and were all cool to chat to, and a very cool energy in here. on the surface its not way different than a lot of taprooms around the country, but this place feels just a bit more personal than most others, and the beer seems to be on its way to greatness. well worth checking out if you are in the area, definitely try the maple stout!

 

 

 

 

I've been to Sisyphus a handful of times, and have enjoyed my visits. I haven't been blown away, by any of their beers, but I have found them all to be in the 'good' range. The bar service has always been knowledgeable and friendly. More importantly to me, they are quick in getting you a beer. I've found it to be a hassle to get a beer at most taprooms in the Twin Cities (long lines, waits to get your beer after you've ordered it), but I've never had that problem at Sisyphus. The atmosphere is a little utilitarian, and bland, but I'm just getting nitpicky with that. Overall, Sisyphus is well worth a visit for anyone touring local taprooms

 

 

 

Enjoyable taproom but not the best location. I like the rustic/industrial look of the room. Any taproom that has pinball and shuffleboard is a winner in my book. Board games are also available. Only 4 beers were on during my visit but all were 3.5 or better. Awesome take home options and they fill others growlers! Prices are about to be expected for a metro brewery.

Edit: October 2020 update. WTF has happened to this place? They use to brew pretty damn good English and American style beer, now you are lucky to find one beer worth drinking. A key lime and guava kettle sour, fuck off. Tried the bourbon barrel-aged coconut stout but could not get through the 10 oz pour because it was so sweet and "plasticy". They use to be the premier brewery on the west side of Minneapolis. Now I say skip them and head to Utepils or La Dona Cerveceria. Scores adjusted to my recent visit.

 

 

 

 

It's off the beaten path over by Dunwoody next to where i-394 splits off from I-94 and backed up to the old railroad yard. Its in an old warhouse or factory looking building. Inside is industrial lite but the beer is good, the staff friendly and the crowd pleasant.

 

 

 

 

I met my girlfriend here after work on a Friday afternoon. Since it was 4-5 PM, it was fairly packed but still manageable. As far as taprooms go, this was one of the more inviting ones and didn't have as much of an industrial feel as many do. A couple of large shuffleboard tables, a reasonably sized bar, and a couple of televisions that (thankfully) displayed only the beer list instead of something more distracting filled the relatively small space.

Four beers were on tap: A saison, an oatmeal stout, their Oaked Brett IPA, and their Brett Cascadian Ale. We split a flight between the two of us...

The saison and oatmeal stout were both good examples of their styles. The two IPAs, on the other hand, didn't really do much for either of us. The Brett Cascadian was interesting and drinkable, but that's about the best I can say. The Oaked Brett IPA, on the other hand, felt like someone just trying to throw ingredients in without caring much how the beer turned out. There were a lot of strong flavors that just didn't blend well with each other and we had a difficult time finishing even the sample pour.

Service was minimal but good. We sat at the bar but were mostly left alone, but considering the amount of people in there it wasn't a problem. It gets a little loud during peak hours, but this probably isn't a problem normally.

Overall I think this place has potential, but I wasn't a huge fan on what they had on tap during my visit.

A newbie on the Minneapolis/St. Paul beer scene, but this place has tremendous potential. I hadn't heard of the place before visiting MSP, but thanks to the Yelp nearby feature, I discovered this was a short walk from the Millennium hotel where I was staying. Make the walk. Sprint if you have to. Just get to this place, because the beers are LEGIT.

Upon arrival, you'll notice the place feels a bit bare, maybe even sterile, but it feels spacious and the long bar provides plenty of space (always a big deal for me, I don't need an elbow with my beer).

There were four beers on tap when I arrived, displayed on a flat screen tv (oh you fancy, huh?). As I always do, I asked for samples and started chatting up the server. Turns out, the server is the owner and the brewer. Dope. That's that hustle right there. I respect that.

My first impression of the Brett IPA I had: mind-effing-blown. Mental explosion. So much fruitiness, passionfruit and piña burst from this on the aroma and when the beers hits the tongue. I was shocked at how good the beer was considering I'd barely heard of this Sisyphus place. I'd heard of syphillis and been told to beware, but nothing of this Sisyphus. Brett IPA is an easy 4.25/5

I moved on to the DIPA and again, holy shit, this beer is packing some massive aroma and flavor. But wait, it's silky smooth. Heady, Pliny, fuck with this beer, please. No seriously, my initial thoughts are that this beer can hang with the big boys that get all the nationwide kudos. 4.25/5 AT LEAST for this beer.

Black Ale with coffee comes next. I think I had to have two of these because it was so damn good. Again, huge aromatics on this, tons of fruit flavor bursting from this. But then wait, here comes a punch of delicious, dark roast coffee flavor with a tad of chocolate. How did the brewer achieve this magnificent balance? How did he manage that huge coffee-flavor? Turns out the brewer is pouring about an ounce of cold-drip coffee into the snifter (YES, they use snifters here and not those shitty pint glasses) before pouring the beer. The result? Phenomenal. This beer was a 4.5/5. I loved it. I wish had more of it.

So in summation, the beers here are the shit like Mr. Hanky. Huge flavors, great aromatics, beautiful head and presentation in the snifter glasses. But the brewer is also a great guy and he and his wife (his co-worker/co-owner...this is true love right here) can expect huge things in the years to come. I cosign the shit out of this little brewery. Minnesota pay attention!