Minneapolis summer trip

Surly, Indeed, Dangerous Man, Steel Toe and Town Hall are on the top of my list now. Fulton is right near Target field and worth going to, but can kind of busy on game days.

If you like IPAs, Surly will most likely have Furious (APA, but hoppy), Overrated and Todd the Axeman. Indeed will have Day Tripper (APA, but pretty hopped up) and Let it Ride/Let it Roll will be out. Steel Toes Size 7 is solid.

The new Surly location in Mpls is the only one open to the public now. They moved the taproom there.

Others will be able to fill in more. There is no shortage of good breweries, craft beer bars and beer here .

 

Fulton Brewery is really close to the Twins stadium. Haute Dish is close as well that has excellent food and a really good taplist. Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery is on the opposite end of Washington Ave but is a must visit. Also go across the street to The Republic, an excellent beer bar.

 

Just opened in the loop is Red Cow always has a good taplist and food right of Washington Ave and 1st ave N

 

Agreed on the solid line up at Red Cow. The Happy Gnome and Muddy Pig are two of my favorite bars/restaurants. They are both just west of the cathedral in Saint Paul, each with mile-long tap lists.

 

For your criteria (and many others), Surly's Minneapolis brewery is king. It has the largest, nicest, and coolest taproom and makes the best beers in the IPA family in the Upper Midwest in my opinion (Todd the Axe Man, Wet, Furious, Overrated, Abrasive, Bandwagon, Asator Viking, etc.), and it's a short walk from a light rail stop (Prospect Park station on the Green Line).

Town Hall is the other Minneapolis brewery with a well deserved national reputation. It's a brewpub that has made dozens of very good IPAs, APAs, Double IPAs, etc., and it almost certainly will have the great Masala Mama IPA on tap. It's also a short walk from a light rail stop (West Bank station on the Green Line). There's another brewpub called Day Block just a few blocks away. Day Block isn't great but it's not bad and may well be worth a stop since it's so close to Town Hall.

Northeast Minneapolis has a bunch of breweries very close to one another (Dangerous Man, Indeed, 612Brew, Bauhaus Brew Labs, Sociable Cider Werks, Fair State, NorthGate, and Insight). Assuming you're able-bodied, you should have no trouble walking among at least the first six that I listed if you're in the mood and weather permits (the last two are a bit further east than the rest). Right now I would rank the best four of the Northeast Minneapolis breweries as 1. Dangerous Man, 2. Fair State, 3. Indeed, and 4. Bauhaus, with Bauhaus having by far the most visually interesting taproom (heavily industrial but brightly painted and with very high ceilings). Dangerous Man probably has the best crowd. I would rank Dangerous Man, Fair State, and Indeed among the top ten breweries in the state, and all three make excellent IPAs (Bauhaus makes one but specializes in lagers). Note Fair State in particular. You rightly will be hearing Dangerous Man and Indeed mentioned frequently. Just know that Fair State (along with Sisyphus, which I will get to soon) can hold its own with either of those older and more well known Minneapolis breweries in terms of both beer and taproom experience.

Barley John's is a tiny little brewpub with good food in New Brighton, a suburb close to Northeast Minneapolis, and at its best can brew among the best beers in town. If Dark Knight or Rosie's is on, it's worth a stop.

I love Sisyphus, a taproom-only nanobrewery just west of downtown Minneapolis with only four beers on tap at a time. It makes an excellent Brett IPA and Double IPA, but you will want to check its website at the time to make sure it has something along those lines on tap.

Steel Toe in St. Louis Park makes some very good beers in the IPA family. That said, the taproom is small, dark, and not very interesting, and given your limited time and the fact that so many breweries of comparable quality are more convenient to you, my advice would be to skip it (but you likely will be impressed by the beer if you do decide to go).

Bang in St. Paul is the brewery in a silo to which you referred (well, it's in a prefab building shaped like a silo; it never was an operating silo). Bang brews subtle but well made beer in the English tradition, and it's very close to Surly. I would rank it as the second best taproom atmosphere in the Twin Cities behind only Surly (and just ahead of Bauhaus). There is another, decent but not particularly memorable, brewery called Urban Growler next door to Bang, so you can get a two-for-one by going to Bang.

If by chance you happen to be a sake fan, the only sake brewpub in the world outside of Japan is in Minneapolis about three miles south of downtown. It's called moto-i, and it serves good Japanese street food and features one of the better rooftops in town. There are two breweries on the same block, a brewpub called The Herkimer and a taproom called LynLake, both of which I've found to be subpar, unfortunately.

tl;dr: Surly, Town Hall, Dangerous Man, Fair State, Indeed, Bauhaus, Barley John's, Sisyphus, Bang, moto-i

 

This thread is also a good read:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/minneapolis-taproom-day-advice.257800/

 

And go to Butcher and the Boar

 

I recommend checking out Harriet Brewing with a one block walk to Ganhi Mahal for tasty Indian food. In addition, a bit out of the way but not more than some of the other recommendations, is Bent Brewstillery which can have some good suds going. As to pubs, I like going to any of the Bulldog pubs and if you find yourself in downtown St. Paul the Bulldog Lowertown with Barrio (for Mexican small plates and great tequila selection) is next door.

 

South of Downtown, off the 38th street stop of the lite rail, is Northbound Brewpub. Solid beers and awesome chicken wings-plus other good food on the menu. About 1/2 mile south is Buster's. They have great burgers and a fairly extensive amount of taps.

 

If it is still operating next summer i would highly recommend trying to lineup Transportation to Dave's brew farm. just so you know if someone will give you a ride, once you think they are far enough from civilization to **** and kill you, you are almost at dave's. Seriously though if you could rent a car for a day Dave's is hands down the best taproom inn the Midwest.

 

I love Dave's. I would rank it as the second best brewery in Wisconsin (behind only New Glarus) and as high as third in the Twin Cities area (behind Surly and Town Hall), in terms of typical quality of beer. I also think Farmer Dave is the most creative commercial brewer in the Upper Midwest (or "The North" as our cultural betters now demand that we call it). Before the new Surly Beer Hall, I would have said that Dave's has the best taproom environment "in town." I like to say that if the BrewFarm were in Vermont, BeerAdvocate would be freaking out about it.

All that said, it's an hour drive each way from where you're staying, you're in town for only three days, you otherwise wouldn't be renting a car, you have a plethora of good closer options, and of course it may have been sold by the time you're in town. I bet the majority of Twin Cities area residents on these boards, even among the ones who like to go to taprooms, haven't been there in the six or so years it has been around. They don't have much of an excuse for not visiting, but you do.

If you do decide to rent a car, I would say HammerHeart in the northern suburb/exurb of Lino Lakes is the best brewery in the area besides Dave's that isn't within a few miles of where you're staying. It emphasizes smoked beers and would make my top ten list of breweries in the state. Lift Bridge in Stillwater in the eastern part of the metro area has been getting a lot of positive buzz here lately, and I think it's an above average brewery, but I wouldn't prioritize it. The other breweries you mentioned are far from among the better options in the area, unfortunately. Most of the best breweries in the area are in Minneapolis itself.

 

Just to add to this, if you did Dave's, Lift Bridge isn't too far from Hudson and there is also Oliphant in Somerset just across the river/border that has been getting so me buzz.

 

To add to the addition, there are a couple of breweries in Hudson, WI on the way to Dave's, Hudson Brewing Company / American Sky, which you should skip, and Pitchfork, which is okay bit nothing to write home about. You could stop at beer-oriented bars in Hudson like The Nova (which has an excellent attached bottle shop) and Stone Tap, both of which feature a bunch of beers not distributed in Minnesota. Then in River Falls, WI, just southeast of Hudson, there is Rush River, which I think is pretty good, comparable in quality to Lift Bridge. Its taproom should be open by then.

Also, there is a trio of breweries in Menomonie, WI about 20 minutes east of Dave's. They are Real Deal at the Raw Deal restaurant, which brews some impressive if subtle beer in an unexpected location, a raw/vegan restaurant with a coffee shop vibe, Das Bierhaus, a German brewpub on the same block that happens to be my favorite brewery in the German tradition, and Lucette, which should have its taproom open by that time. All three are better than either of the Hudson breweries. If you're going to Dave's anyway and have a designated driver, they're worth checking out during the day trip.

Pretty soon we'll be giving you Madison recommendations.

 

I hate to say this as I live in the western suburbs but Excelsior is not worth the drive...mediocre beer. Enki in Victoria is a notch above but have never been blown away by any of their beers. Badger Hill brewing in Shakopee might be a contender but I haven't been to the new taproom and can't comment on if it's worth the drive.

 

Furious has now been relegated to APA status? And what is Let it Roll?

 

Sorry, didn't mean to freak you out. I was wrong, not sure why I thought it was an APA, must be thinking of another beer that is technically classified as an APA But drink like an IPA.

Let it Roll is the same base beer as Let it Ride, just with different hops. It will be on the other 6 months that Let it Ride isn't as Indeed wanted another year round beer. Sounds like it had mostly to do with their hop availability that they could get.

 

Enki is OK, but I don't think it's worth the drive from Mpls. If you're already out that way, it might be worth a stop. The only beer there I really enjoyed was the Mocha Porter, and they ran out of that about 2 weeks ago - so unless they brew more of that, I wouldn't recommend it over many other closer-to-Minneapolis options.