Wild Mind Artisanal Ales

If you are at that location than go to Wild Mind. Take 76th street east to Lyndale Ave then head north to 61st street turn right you are blocks away.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that Wild Mind rarely has any sours on tap these days. Wild Mind lately has been reserving its sours for special releases, a members-only bottle program, and certain bar accounts. Even though I consider Wild Mind easily a top ten brewery in the state, that's largely on the strength of it's sours, and I'd tend to say that Wild Mind is only a slightly to moderately above-average brewery outside of its sours (nothing special). It does have a cool venue, if that matters to you. Pils and Das Nanners are the best beers on tap right now in my opinion based on its website taplist (which isn't always current). Another thing to keep in mind is that Wild Mind does not do flights or flight-sized pours, although it does do half-sized pours.

Barrel Theory would be a pain to access at rush hour from that starting location (which is not by the airport, for the record). I'm (sometimes very angrily) informed I'm in the minority, but I'm not a Barrel Theory fan regardless. I find most of its beers much too sweet, and its narrow, three-pronged style focus of NEIPAs, pastry stouts, and fruited kettle sours transparently is aimed at hype-maximization and building a hip brand.

Linked is a good brewery map. You can see that Wooden Hill is the closest brewery to your starting location. It's only a few months old and off to a pretty good start. I'd be tempted just to go there if I were you. Other options to consider based on your starting location are Sisyphus (which I rank as the second-best brewery in the state behind only Surly) and Shakopee Brew Hall.

 

Rush hour traffic going south to Shakopee will be heavy and slow.
As another choice, how about Town Hall Station? One can drive north on France Ave to Valley View and then over to Town Hall Station. After sampling there one can get to Wild Mind by getting back to Crosstown/Hwy 62, drive east and exit at Lyndale Ave, go north and then turn right on 61st St, and go east to Pillsbury Ave, and then turn left to find the tap room.

 

Another idea: Instead of driving, hop on the blue line train to 46th St. Station where you can hit Venn Brewing. Walk 10-15 minutes to Town Hall Lanes. Train ride is maybeee 10 minutes.

 

Anyone know if I can still get my fliptop growlers filled? I can't seem to get a response from Wild Minds

 

I used to go to Wild Mind regularly, but have only been once over the past few months. Their tap selection has really been lacking lately with sours rarely on. At this point I'd recommend going to Town Hall Station over Wild Mind.

 

Yes you can, as long as they are 64 oz growlers.

 

From your location it might be easier to get to Grizzly's in Plymouth (exit on Carlson Pkwy off of I-494 (Northbound I-494 is always moderately congested going through Eden Prairie and Minnetonka during afternoon rush hour, however). The current tap list includes a few Barrel Theory's IPAs plus a good selection of other regional hazy IPA selections, and even a sour from Junkyard (Moorhead MN).

Also Edina's Red Cow's (north on France Ave and then east on 50th St for a couple of blocks) current tap list is listing a special sour from Wild Mind that is not being served at Wild Mind's taproom. From the Edina Red Cow it is easy enough to take city streets over to Wild Mind.

Tell us where you are going to end up and perhaps members here will want to meet up with you.

 

So not this kind? I used to be able to get fills of anything on tap with this...

 

Was at Grizzly's last night and they still had everything from Haze for Days except the Forager. Fantastic!

 

Since they started barrel-aging all of their regular saisons, they have consistently had something funky and tart (to varying degrees) on tap. Looking at their Untappd, they currently have 4 saisons plus a kvass. Most of the sours they tap sell out quick (especially anything fruited). Hopefully the next batch of Pash Bash lasts as long as the last one. I feel like that stuck around for at least 2 months last year. Their barrel society and distro beers are a fraction of their sour program.

You can fill that with whatever they currently have on tap. They will fill any 64oz growler (some beers are excluded), but only their own 750mL growlers.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. Lots to wade through. I think I might go to Red Cow to try the Wild Mind sour and then to Wild Mind itself. Less driving, particularly since I have an unreasonably early flight out the next morning.

 

Great display of MN nice in this thread, everyone posting good suggestions.

Depending on your capacity and since you’re taking the above route you might as well stop in at Red Wagon Pizza for a pint. Always a great tap list and if you’re (still) hungry their pizzas are fantastic.

 

Let us know what you think of the place. It is a favorite stop of mine in the cities, and I might stop there Sunday.

 

Edina Red Cow updated its tap list (6/6/2018) and the Wild Mind sour is no longer listed. I checked around for nearby bars that have been serving Wild Mind special releases and did not find any with Wild Mind beer on tap.
From Wild Mind's social media posts, it looks like it last distributed kegs of a special release beer in late April, which explains why it appears no one has any still on hand.

 

Given my early flight out, I went to Wild Mind and had a couple of beers before heading to my hotel. Nice space and a friendly environment.

I tried the Das Nanners first as I was intrigued by the concept and really enjoyed it. It is not often that I encounter a recipe that is so totally out of the box where I can say that I enjoyed the execution as much as I respected the concept.

The second beer I tried was the Humulus Luau. With NE IPAs being so popular these days, so many brewers are riffing on the style but this one was a disappointment to me as the juicy flavors didn't really pop and I would have preferred a bit more citrusy bitterness. I had been to Modist the night before and liked their NE IPAs better, particularly the Sun Protection Factor.

Anyway, thanks again for all the suggestions. I always enjoy visiting your city.

 

How quick do thier bottles releases go? Im wondering if showing up at 10:30-11 for the bottle release today will be ok.

 

Framboise went fast, like 30 min i think. I'm not sure how early you had to be there for the general release, since I'm FBS. Abandoned acre lasted a while. I was curious about today's release too. I'm working until 3 and was wondering what the chances are of bottles still hanging around. Anyone there now?

 

The line is inside the entry. Not sure how many people have gone through already but its going slow.

 

Just got through the line. About 120 bottles left. Maybe 40 in line.