Indeed Brewing Company

Awards
Alternative Sugar Beer (Can Can Awards 2021)
General Lager (National Honey Board’s Honey Beer Competition 2017, 2018, 2020)
Flavoured Beer (Brussels Beer Challenge 2019)
Specialty Honey Beer (European Beer Star Awards 2017)
Specialty Honey Beer (Great American Beer Festival 2014)

Availability: Year-round on draft and in cans

An imperial lager brewed with Mexican orange blossom honey, this golden lager has the definitive bread and biscuit notes of a lager, but amped up at 8.0% ABV. Essentially twice the lager, the sweet bready base gives a lot of flavor itself, but it’s the honey addition that separates it from others, adding a floral and citrus nuance that perfectly merges with the big lager base. A lower alcohol companion beer called Mexican Honey Light Lager is also available.

Fulton Beer

Awards
American Blonde & Amber Ale (Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild Brewers Cup 2021)
Best Blonde Ale (The Growler: Kind of a Big Deal 2017, 2018, 2019

Availability: Year-round

Made with German malts and American hops, this core beer from Fulton is an easy drinking, golden-hued American blonde ale with sweet biscuit, light orange and citrus notes, and a touch of herbal character. It drinks slightly on the sweet side with a light malty finish, but with a crisp, bitter balancing element. It’s deceptively simple, but with full flavor and a satisfying body. Fulton also sells a mixed pack variety pack of fruited renditions of the core recipe.

Modist Brewing Co.

Awards
Best Beer Label (The Growler: Kind of a Big Deal 2019)
Best Beer (City Pages: Best of the Twin Cities 2018)
Hazy IPA (Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild Brewers Cup 2021)
Hazy or New England IPA (The Growler: Kind of a Big Deal 2018)

Availability: Year-round on draft and in cans

Dreamyard is Modist’s flagship hazy IPA. It was one of the first in Minneapolis, it’s racked up recognition, and it’s always on tap. Made with oat and wheat malts, plus Citra and Sultana hops, it pours a thick yellow-orange with a pillowy white head with big notes of fresh tropical fruit and orange juice on the nose. The flavor is equally fruity, with notes of orange, pineapple, and papaya, with some toast and cereal flavors underneath with a steady, pithy fruit character. An imperial version, Double Dreamyard, is sometimes available as well.

Town Hall Brewery

Awards
Scottish-Style Ale (Great American Beer Festival 2002, 2004, 2011)

Availability: Year-round on draft and to go

Hope & King is a flagship beer at Town Hall brewpub, a dark-hued beer with dominant roasty flavors. While many Scotch ales go for the sweet caramel palate, this malt-forward beer has a full body with big earthy flavors of chocolate and toasted bread. Caramel is present, but subdued, along with notes of raisin and coffee. There is a subtle smoke that helps the beer maintain its balance. It looks like a big, bold beer but sips like a go-to, everyday session beer.

Venn Brewing Company

Awards
West Coast Double IPA (Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild Brewers Cup 2019, 2021)

Availability: Frequently available on draft and to go

The name of this 8.2% ABV IPA comes from its dank aromatics that share some traits with marijuana. The beer itself is clear and deep gold in color, with additional notes of citrus, lemon, orange, pine, and cracker flavors. It has the piney quality of old school IPAs but without the overpowering, sometimes metallic linger, which is replaced by an earthy, green and grassy note. It’s bitter and hop-forward, but with as much balance as can be expected of an imperial-style beer.

Surly Brewing Co.

Awards
Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout (Great American Beer Festival 2013)

Availability: Spring seasonal on draft and in cans

Like much of Surly’s famed lineup, Pentagram is big in flavor. This is a sour ale that hits the tongue hard, with fruit-forward sour and tart cherry, underscored by a complex, funky layer of leather, tobacco, red wine fruitiness, and truffle flavors. The aroma is accessibly wine-like and fruity, but the beer itself hits with big sour flavors first and layers of earthy, herbal, and funky notes within, which all pull together for a one-of-a-kind dark sour ale.

The Freehouse

Awards
English-Style Brown Ale (Great American Beer Festival 2018)

Availability: Year-round on draft and to go

The Freehouse leans traditional with its beers, and this brown ale is no exception. It pours at 5.2% ABV and offers a balance of roasty, nutty, and caramel tones. While many American brown ales lean sweeter, this brown ale hits with toasted bread, soft chocolate, and subtle dark fruit at first, building to reveal more complex English-yeast notes of nuttiness, earthy caramel, and light roast coffee. Over time, the sweeter caramel flavors begin to shine, but well balanced among a wide range of roasty flavors.

Inbound BrewCo

Awards
Fruit Beer (Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild Brewers Cup 2022)

Availability: Year-round on draft, cans available April-August

Hence the name, this raspberry blonde ale smells like raspberry jam and gives off big springtime vibes. Pouring a reddish-copper hue with a light pink head, this blonde ale has base flavors of biscuit and toast, rounded out with real fruit flavors that are neither too sweet, too tart, nor overpowering. Jam Bam tastes like a beer first, with a fruit addition. This is an accessible, everyday beer rather than a novelty or dessert.

Arbeiter Brewing

Awards
Pilsner (Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild Brewers Cup 2022)

Availability: Year-round on draft and to go

Haha Pils looks just like the beers on TV. It’s bubbly with a foamy white head and heavy carbonation. It drinks just as smooth as it looks, giving cereal grain, bread, cracker, and dry hop notes, along with slightly herbal notes and a touch of black pepper. Beginning with sweet grains, the hop counterpart adds a dry component that makes it bready in flavor, yet with an crisp, herbal clarity and a pleasingly, faintly sweet finish.