moving to Elk River in 6 weeks and looking for beer store and beer bar recommendations. Any places stand out?. I know Aegir is in town and Lupulin isn’t too far away, any others I’m missing? Good happy hours anywhere?
Aegir is solid. Lupulin your best bet. I would recommend a trip to Garphish in Bethel. Only been there once right after they opened but thought the beer was solid and a cool venue.
I haven't been there yet, but my friends have said Rustech in Monticello is quite solid. Not too far away from Elk River. If you want to go a bit farther, I'm a big fan of Pantown in St. Cloud.
For a beer store/beer bar Pour in Otsego has a good if small selection. On their bar side there is a solid rotation of 6 taps, and they do happy hour on Wednesdays for sure. If I go anywhere else to grab anything it's at Napa liquors.
Just my two cents but I thought the Nordic place in Monty was much better than Rustech. Ristech had a decent blueberry cream ale (tough to mess that up but it can be done) but two IPA's had butterscotch notes and another was astringent bitter....not good. This is based off samplers at both places. Nordic had an excellent smoked pineapple ale. Perfect touch of smoke and pineapple. Also a nice raspberry saison with just the right tough of raspberry and a nice double milk stout or something along those lines....decent IPA as well...all beers seemed clean, seemed well made....Planning on a return visit to investigate further as they show potential.
