Summer Weekend in Minneapolis - Beer Suggestions?

You consider mid-September in Minnesota to be summer???

Seriously, where will you be staying and what are your transportation options? Also, are you asking about breweries / tap rooms / bars or bottle shops?

 

Town Hall and Republic across the street.

 

HopCat just opened right on the Light Rail Nicolett & 5Th St stop. Also you can get back on light rail and go to Republic & Town Hall

 

You can take the Green Line to downtown St Paul and check out 12welve Eyes (4th and Jackson) and Barrel Theory (7th and Wacouta) breweries. Dark Horse (beer bar) is right next door to Barrel Theory.

 

Modist is another taproom worth the visit imo and probably not too expensive of an uber from where you will be in downtown. There is always a new on tap in the twin cities thread started each month that will probably be most helpful for what actual bars have the best taps at the time you're here.

 

If you're going to be around Saturday, 9/16, I'd suggest going to the Autumn Brew Review! There are still tickets available, surprisingly.

It's the best beer fest in the Twin Cities Metro, IMHO. All of big local and regional names will be there, many with their very best stuff too. I've had pours of Central Waters Black Gold for two consecutive years and waited maybe 1-2 minutes in line each visit. It's not as good of a festival as say the Great Taste of the Midwest, but it's still very much worth your time and money.

 

Always like to recommend Sisyphus Brewing (excellent beer and they have a comedy club) and Butcher and the Boar (great beer selection, bourbon, and meat). Lots of good ideas here too: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/visiting-minneapolis-st-paul-march-2016.399740/

 

By the way, Surly Brewing is about a two block from the Prospect Park Green Line Station. It's 10 minutes from downtown. Walk over to 5th Street and jump on the Green Line for $1.75 off peak.

I can vouch for Sisyphus as well.

 

Wild Mind is a must stop in Minneapolis. I live in central MN, and whenever I'm in the cities, and able to stop, I do.

 

But be prepared for an hour train ride. You can break it up by visiting Surly on the way, though.

 

Add Blackstack, which isn't too far from Surly.

 

You can get a Northfield Lines ticket and bus down to Northfield for Tanzenwald and Imminent, both new breweries with fairly regular events. I'd highly recommend Tanzenwald for dinner as well. The biggest downside is that the Northfield Lines schedule is fairly inconvenient, so you'd probably need to make a full day out of only two breweries. However, both are within walking distance if you get dropped off at Carleton or in downtown Northfield. If I remember correctly it picks up on 8th St and Marquette in Minneapolis, so it's fairly central.

 

I think this takes the cake for worst suggestion I've ever seen in a recommendation thread. If I were to make a list of top ways to ruin a vacation, number 1 would be take a bus to Northfield and spend a day there.

 

Supa Sumo from TG might hit distro by that time. Not sure tho as I'm quite unfamiliar with MN Distro network for TG. But try to grab anything from them that isn't in cans.

 

Heh, fair enough. The ride is pretty boring but I promise the beer is good. Just thought I'd give a slightly different suggestion.

Probably more worth your time to get over to St Paul and hit up Barrel Theory, 12welve Eyes, maybe Summit if it isn't too out of the way. There's also the Vine Park brew-your-own beer thing, but whether it caters more to typical tourists or beer nerds I don't know. I have a friend who loved it but I haven't done it myself.

 

Matt's Bar for the win! I'm glad you liked Utepils, they make truly awesome stuff.