I will be in St. Paul tomorrow and looking for brewpub suggestions. Typically I prefer traditional styles over the latest craze of hazy IPA's, fruited sours, sugar bombs, etc. I've tried Blackstack before, but not as familiar with some of the other options.
My recommendations would be Bad Weather & Waldmann which are within a block of each other and are both great.
Wandering Leaf is one of the metro breweries I have not tried yet. I can let someone else chime in on that one. Yoerg mentioned above is great, but They only have a couple beers of their own on tap at a given time. On the other side of St. Paul closer to Blackstack is Bang and Urban Growler (which again are right next to each other). Bang is inside of a grain silo which makes is unique. They do not serve food, so you could eat at Urban Growler and then hop over to Bang who has better beer (in my opinion).
Had a few of the Wandering Leaf brews in cans from retail, were decent. I highly recommend Bang, they make great beers, especially if you're looking for something that isn't flashy and stays relatively traditional. The food at Urban Growler is pretty good, but I would skip the beer entirely. Bad Weather has gotten consistently better over the years, I do recommend. Yoerg is a really fun spot to visit, great import selection. Haven't been to Waldmann in quite a while, but they do not disappoint.
Wandering Leaf lives up to its moniker with plants located high, low, and all around. Next door in the same strip mall is the restaurant Soul Lao, which is highly rated, but with limited hours of business. This features cuisine from Laos. https://www.soullao.com/home
+1 on Waldmann and Bad Weather . One parking spot for 2 breweries, would also stop at Falling Knife its just to the west of St Paul border close to Hwy 280.
Another vote for Waldman and Bad Weather. Then if you have time Yeorg. Yeorg may have some crazy Belgian or German import available you have never seen before. Their house beer is good. Closest thing to an old European pub you will find in Minnesota.
We ended up at Bang, and were planning on Dual Citizen but ran out of time. Really small place, but the silo, beer, and ambiance was cool. Interestingly it was pretty dead when they opened. I thought it might be due to the rain, but it quickly picked up. An organized group of older folks came in a big group with tickets. Not your typical beer aficionados. Since Bang didn't open until 4, I did make a quick stop at Surly beforehand to try their smoked doppelbock, which was good. The commute in was a mess with all of the construction, rush hour, and the light rail. Next time I'd be interested in trying Waldman and Yoerg.
