Mom Visiting , what should she bring back?

Say no to Total Wine. If a one stop shop close to Eden Prairie where they can pick up most of the suggestions, I would suggest Haskell's in Chanhassen, Vintage in Chanhassen, Blue Max in Burnsville, Cellars in Burnsville, or Liquor Barrel in St. Louis Park or Golden Valley. Princeton's in Maple Grove is a little further out and there is road construction to deal with but not bad during non rush hour times. The Liquor Barrels will have Steel Toe Lunker if you do not want to send them to the brewery. And seriously have them pick up a bottle of Waconia Gin Barrel-Aged Honey Ale. It is legit and only getting better with age.

France 44 is awesome but a bit harder to get to from EP. Definitely worth the trip though.

 

i'll second (or third in one case) that bent paddle and summit. personally, i wouldn't buy fair state again - the pahlay'ahlay was so filled with floaters i thought i might have found the last bottle of orbitz and the ipa was pretty unremarkable.

it's a little hard to tell, but have you run through the basics already? i'd grab a size 7 from steel toe rather than dig for lunker. i'd grab furious from surly rather than pentagram.

but there's plenty of breweries not from mn that would be worth tracking down. dark horse from michigan should be pretty easy to find. central waters from wisconsin, or tyranena are typically good, too.

 

Fuckin' lord almighty, don't listen these sadists that say your poor mother should head up "15 minutes" to Princeton's. They'll be sitting in bumper to bumper for 30 minutes even at off peak hours. If you just want some good local stuff that you can't get at home, every muni in EP will have Indeed Let It Roll, Lift Bridge Hop Dish, Bauhaus Schwandoberfest, and plenty of Pentagram and Central Waters BBA Scotch. The shops in Channy or Minnetonka will have Toppling Goliath. But, yeah, if they can get to Steel Toe for some Lunker they should get to Steel Toe for some Lunker.