Recommendations? Relatively new to craft brew

What part of Minnesota are you from?
And I agree that you might want to try lambics and fruit/veg beers.

 

For fruit beers i'd recommend Blue Point Blueberry, Wells Banana Bread, and Pyramid Apricot Ale

 

I'd also recommend Raison D'Etre (by DFH), Chimay, La Fin Du Monde, and St. Bernardus for Belgian Ales

 

I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To catch them is my real test
To drink them is my cause...

 

Try this if you like fruit beers.

 

Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild
Anchorage Brewing Love Buzz
Boulevard Tank 7
New Glarus Berliner Weisse if you can still find it

 

I'm big into all those styles (as my favorites as well).
Feel free to peruse my listings, and the ones rated over 4 should all be worth a taste.

 

Pumpkin beers are just starting to hit shelves now- not strictly a fruit beer, but may be worth giving some a try to see if you like spiced beers. If so, you'll love a lot of the fall/winter seasonals. There are also some decent hard ciders out there. Not strictly beer, but can be delicious. My personal favorites are from Megner's, as they arent overly sweet.

 

this is what i was going to suggest. pumpkin brews will be hitting now/soon. so u know the beer will be fresh and easy to get. try to find some of these in the next few months. they are hit and miss for me personally. but the hits are fantastic.

 

If you like fruit beers, try all the Samuel Smith ones. I can only vouch for the Apricot Ale (sublime), but seeing as how Samuel Smith reliably makes technically brilliant (I say technically, as I really just don't care for some styles however well-crafted they may be), I can't imagine their other fruit beers are any less masterful. When you're no longer curious about fruit beers, my suggestion would be mild and brown ales. Another you may like is George Gale's Prize Old Ale, which is quite reminiscent of port.

 

This. Lots of this.

If you aren't already, you should be drinking Surly, especially their IPAs. I know you said Belgians and fruit beers, but you will thank me later if you start working toward liking IPAs now; they are an acquired taste, and not everyone ever gets there, but I've never met someone that did and then said "man, I wish I never started drinking IPAs".

Brau Brothers are doing some pretty decent beer; I just received a bottle of Bancreagie 26, a Sour Peated Scotch Ale that I'm really excited to try. I expect it to taste like a sour version of Laphroaig and I'm very excited for that.

Once you're done with MN, expand a bit to not only Wisconsin (you've already discovered New Glarus, just appreciate how special they are, you're very lucky to have them so near you) but also to Iowa, Toppling Goliath is doing some amazing things, again mostly with hops.

I don't know a damn thing about it, but you should also look into the Winnipeg beer scene; and if there is anything, whatever is going on in the Dakotas (if you find anything, report back...)



Despite all the trading and non-local beer I've been having lately, I'm a firm believer that one should have a good foundation based on their local options before branching out into trades or hunting releases. This is why I won't suggest, for example, Cascade's Apricot; (I'm told... I'm ISO) it's an amazing beer, but it's very pricey and not easy to come by.

That said, there's nothing wrong with non-locals that are easy to come by, I second the suggestion to check out Samuel Smith's fruit beers, and Unibroue's Ephemere line is exceptional; apple is easiest to find but they also have currant and cherry. Pumpkin beers are also a good suggestion, they aren't typically sweet like fruit beers usually are, but it's a very accessible style and just about every brewery out there tries their hand at it, Southern Tier's Pumking is one of the best and should be available in your area.

Lastly, check out seekabrew.com. Around these parts we often use it to figure out what beers are not available to someone for trading purposes, but for your endeavour, just check out the list of breweries that IS available in MN, do some research on them on this site, and then start chasing down some wants.

 

Up in your neighborhood, have you had Surly's Pentagram? New Glarus' Berliner Weisse might be a good one for you to try too.