Breweries and bars within a 5ish minute Uber ride or short walk from the area between Wander North Distillery and the American Swedish Institute. Pretty specific geographically I know. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Surly is the only thing on the list as of right now.
Wander North is blocks from Insight Brewing and a short Uber ride to the concentrated area of NE breweries including Indeed, Fair State, Able, Dangerous Man, and Sociable Cider. Fair State and Indeed would be my picks out of that bunch. There aren't as many breweries quite as close to the Swedish Institute but if you venture downtown (somewhat in between your two stated landmarks) you could have your pick from Fulton, Modist, Dayblock, Inbound, etc. You could also head south from the Swedish Insitute and find yourself at Wild Mind, Nortbound, Town Hall, or Venn (opening this Saturday 12/16). Realistically you will be pretty much right in the middle of Minneapolis with easy access to 35/94/55 and can get to any of the local taprooms within 5-10 minutes.
Wander North is a couple dozen feet (yes, feet) from NorthGate Brewing, which I consider a solid if not always particularly exciting brewery that specializes in British-style ales. I'd say it's worth a stop if only for convenience. There's another pretty good distillery within blocks of Wander North called Norseman. @dbhammel covered most of the best of Nordeast Minneapolis, although I'll throw Bauhaus Brew Labs into the mix, especially if you like lagers (Bauhaus also has one of the cooler taproom spaces in the area). Tattersall is a distillery with a popular cocktail room also in that area. I'll note that Dangerous Man recently was named by the readers of a local beer publication the best brewery in Minnesota (I wouldn't rank it that high, and in fact I'd rank it below the nearby Fair State, but most people like it a lot). In between your destinations, just off of 35W, Town Hall is a legendary Minnesotan brewpub, and Republic is one of the best beer bars in town across the street from it. Day Block is another decent brewpub nearby. They're also all just a couple of miles west of Surly, and there's an inexpensive (about $2) light rail train that goes between that group and Surly. Stub & Herb's is a good beer bar in between adjacent to the University of Minnesota campus. (So, you can Uber from Wander North and NorthGate to Surly, then walk or take the train to Stub & Herb's, then walk or take the train to Town Hall and Republic, then Uber to the American Swedish Institute, not that I endorse drinking that much in a single day). Eastlake Craft Brewery is the closest brewery to the American Swedish institute at about a mile away, but it's nothing special. Here's a great map of Minnesotan breweries (and more), for your reference.
Avoid Eastlake Craft Brewery. IMO, it is on the short list for worst brewery in Minnesota. It is also the epicenter of the extremely pretentious Minneapolis cycling culture so it is constantly full of douchebags.
Shit. I mean, I've had some not so good beer at Eastlake, but I've also had some pretty decent stuff. The fact that they are located in the Midtown Global Market doesn't hurt. Lots of great food to be had there.
What day or days of the week will you be doing the beer crawl? Some of the mentioned tap rooms are not open early in the week. What beer types are you trying to sample? Breweries already mentioned have varying brewing expertise, which can assist us in recommending where to go. For a beer bar, it's tough to top Republic (which has an on line tap list kept up to date).
It's strange. I had never even heard of them before I ended up at the brewery one day. I really liked the beers they had on tap, but I've been pretty disappointed with every bottle of theirs I've tried since then.
if you end up at EastLake taproom maybe get a Camel Burger from the Safari Express to eat with the beer. http://safaritogo.net/ don't forget the Metro bus/ train system. it will take you many places, not sure how much time you have. Northbound is not all that far away and the blue line train will drop you off at the new Venn, these two are very close to each other. Bus # 21 runs on Lake Street if you get on the right 21 bus going east it will take you to downtown Saint Paul or if you go west it will take you to Uptown area
I would highly suggest taking a short ride to Wild Mind Artisan Ales they are unique to the twin cities landscape in that they are producing mainly wild, sour, farmhouse style beers mostly with yeast strains collected throughout Minnesota. Another unique brewery that doesn't get a whole lot of love or hype in these type of requests is Sisyphus Brewing, I personally enjoy their tounge-in-cheek take on other like style beers from around the state and elsewhere. The Sisyphus experience is even better if you enjoy comedy as they have live comedy multiple times a week. Enjoy your stay!
The idea that you’d let the type of clientele dictate where you’d choose to visit is considerably more pretentious than you labeling them to begin with. And I say that as someone that’s neither a biker nor an avid fan of their beers.
I'd say that we're all guilty of choosing to refrain from being around people we don't like. I'd call that human nature not pretense.
