Minneapolis/St.Paul Visit Without a Car?

The correct forum for starters.

 

Barrel Theory is hot right now and if you are looking for hazy IPAs, is worth a stop. I think Wild Mind is another good stop, especially if you are into farmhouse and sours (they also have hazy and milkshake IPAs). Fair State (unfortunately they do not have Spirit Foul anymore) and Sisyphus (if you go on a Friday or Saturday night, you can also catch a comedy show) are also ones I would check out if you make it to the other would. I would also try to get some Lupulin Hooey and/or Blissful Igorance from a store or bar.

 

Nope. MN is in the Midwest, per BA.

 

I reported it for a mod to move it to the Midwest forum.

 

It is geographically, but it is not apart of the Great Lakes forum on BA. If you look at the sub forums for the US on BA, it lists Minnesota in the Midwest region.

I just reported it so our friendly neighborhood mods move it to the proper forum on BA. It will get a lot more responses there, especially by people more versed in public transit or maximizing taxi/Uber usage. I guess also walking too if you are a glutton for punishment by cold, though Sunday is supposed to hit t-shirt and shorts temps with a high of 31!

 

And so is New York and Pennsylvania...

 

Between downtown Minneapolis and Surly is Town Hall Brewing, with Republic beer bar across the street, and Acadia just down the street.

 

And Ontario.

 

I would be helpful to know where you will be staying.

 

Transit-wise, the light rail is easiest to use. If you don't mind a brisk walk, Surly, Modist, Pryes, and Fulton are the easiest top tier breweries to get to in Minneapolis from it in my mind. There are a few beer bars downtown, too, but I haven't spent much time at them. Hopcat seems to usually have a few good offerings, and there's a pour-your-own bar in the works that may be open by then.

In St. Paul, there's a cluster in Midtown: Lake Monster is a solid option that has developed some great brews over the last year and often has fun events. BANG is excellent. The other two in the area, Urban Growler and Blackstack, are more hit or miss but have their fans.

Barrel Theory is easy to get to via LR and has a ton of fans, and is near a bar with a pretty good tap list. There are other breweries in Downtown St. Peezy but they aren't my favs.

Northeast has a cluster of great breweries (Fair State, Bauhaus, Dangerous Man) plus others that are good. Probably the best area to Lyft to/around if you want a true "crawl" experience. Great food options, too.

Wild Mind and especially Steel Toe are excellent but hard to get to via transit, and aren't really near anything too interesting for travelers. Other MN brewers to keep an eye out for on tap/worth taking home IMO: Bent Paddle, Lupulin, Junkyard, Olvidae, Drekker (technically ND). Liftbridge has an excellent stout and barleywine.

 

Downtown St. Paul is over three miles from where Allianz Field will be, but it's a cheap and easy light rail train ride away.

I'll start for now with the downtown St. Paul-area breweries:

In downtown St. Paul, definitely check out 12welve Eyes. It opened in July 2017 but already is brewing some of the best beer in the state in an impressive variety of styles. It's versatile, sophisticated, and vastly underrated.

You'll get a lot of Barrel Theory recommendations. It's in a cool section of St. Paul adjacent to downtown called Lowertown (12welve Eyes may also count as Lowertown, depending on where you draw the boundaries). It opened in summer 2017 as well. I personally don't think Barrel Theory yet has reached the level of consistency and quality to justify the hype, and so far it has stuck essentially solely to New England IPA-family beers, fruited kettle sours, and sweet, usually flavored, stouts and porters (i.e., sweet IPAs, sweet sours, and sweet stouts). If you don't have a massive sweet tooth, so far you're largely out of luck. That said, hopefully Barrel Theory will have improved and diversified by the time you show up, and it certainly has its passionate defenders already. It's an interesting place within its narrow lanes, and I'd say it's worth a stop even though I don't care for most of its product.

Waldmann Brewery and Wurstery is another newer brewery just off of West 7th Street about a mile from downtown St. Paul. It's in an impressively restored, mid-19th century, German-American saloon. It brews classic, German-American beer styles to match and does so well. It's a unique experience, surely different from any other brewery you've ever visited, and I highly recommend it.

Practically next door to Waldmann is a solid brewery called Bad Weather that has been around for a few years. It won't blow your mind, but it produces above-average craft beer and is worth a stop, especially paired with neighboring Waldmann.

You can safely skip Tin Whiskers and Great Waters unless you're a downtown St. Paul brewery completist. A mile or two east of downtown, there's a brewery called Flat Earth that is ancient by Minnesota craft beer standards (founded in 2007) but, unfortunately, hasn't produced much of note in a long time. I'd call it skippable as well. It's located in the old Hamm's brewery if you're looking for a dose of brewing history From the Land of Sky Blue Waters.

A few breweries-in-planning may (or may not) be open in time for your visit. Obviously I can't vouch for them yet. One is called Stacked Deck in downtown St. Paul. Another is called Clutch on West 7th Street, a little further away from downtown than is Bad Weather. One is called Yoerg on the West Side of St. Paul, just south of the Mississippi River from downtown (I know; it's confusing). Yoerg will be across the street from an existing but skippable brewery called Wabasha.

Here's a handy, frequently updated, and pretty darn complete brewery (and more) map from a local beer publication.

Tl;dr: 12welve Eyes and Waldmann are your best bets in the downtown St. Paul area.

 

BA Fire Department, please not that you are on standby, over.

 

If you’re into malt forward IPA’s and traditional German and Belgium style beers listen to Islay above. If not, listen to everyone else.

 

Others St. Paul breweries (outside of downtown):

Summit is a legend of craft brewing in the Midwest. It's not going to give you the most exciting beer you've ever tried, but you're certainly not going to need a dump bucket. It's located a couple of blocks off of West 7th but a few miles from downtown. I'm not a bus guy, but I assume there's a bus that would go right down West 7th from downtown and take you very close to it. The only problem is there's nothing else of note close to it. There's a brew-your-own-beer spot called Vine Park somewhat nearby, but it doesn't have a taproom, and I'm guessing that's not what you're looking for.

Take the light rail train toward Minneapolis, and there's a bunch of options near train stations and not far from the soccer stadium. The best of them is Bang, which is located in a grain bin. I know that sounds weird, but it provides a unique taproom experience and is very cool. The beer is good too, mostly traditional British styles and 100% organic. As someone else mentioned, it's next door to a lesser brewery called Urban Growler. There's a gluten-free brewery called Burning Brothers that you should avoid. I don't think BlackStack or Lake Monster is anything special, but you might find a decent option or two. Between the two I'd recommend BlackStack. There's a brewery-in-planning in that area that may be open by the time you arrive called Dual Citizen.

All of these places are pretty close to and on the way to Surly, which is on the Minneapolis/St. Paul border and remains the must-stop brewery in town (and already is on your radar).

And that's it for St. Paul: 1 brewpub (Great Waters), 13 taprooms, and 1 brewery without a taproom (Vine Park), with 4 more that have a realistic chance of opening in time for your visit (Stacked Deck, Clutch, Yoerg, and Dual Citizen).

My complete St. Paul brewery ranking, as advice to out-of-town visitors (with Vine Park not applicable):

1. Bang: Both Bang and Waldmann have unique taproom environments but also merit high rankings based on beer alone.
2. Waldmann: See above.
3. 12welve Eyes: Best brewery in St. Paul, IMO, and best brewery to open in the state since Wild Mind opened in summer 2016. I'm putting it third only because the Bang and Waldmann taprooms are so interesting.
4. Summit
5. Bad Weather
6. Barrel Theory: I'm giving this a big boost because it has captured the zeitgeist (and has an appealing taproom space).
7. BlackStack
8. Flat Earth
9. Lake Monster
10. Urban Growler
11. Tin Whiskers
12. Great Waters
13. Wabasha
14. Burning Brothers: If you're not gluten-free, don't bother (and if you are gluten-free, you're probably not reading BA forums).

Tl;dr: Your best bet in St. Paul outside of the downtown area is Bang Brewing (pretty close to the soccer stadium, Surly, and a light rail stop).

 

Well, I just gave you a bunch of advice based on Allianz Field and the fact that you were planning on staying in downtown St. Paul, as you stated in your pre-edited post. Now that you've updated your base of operations to the U of M (since the United will still be playing in TCF Bank Stadium)... never mind. Do hit Bang, which isn't far away. Otherwise, if you have limited time, you may want to stick to Minneapolis, which still has most of the best breweries in the state.