Anyone know of good quality beer stores in the Twin Cities?

Swmbo and I are in the Twin Cities for the week and would like to know if anyone has recommendations of good beer stores we could visit. Right now we are in Bloomington and the hotel clerk directed us to a liqour store that only carried BMC style brews or more national mico-brews but no local fare beyond Summit Brewing (which we can easily get back home).

Tomorrow we are headed into St Paul so anything there might be easier to find. I know we going to be on Grand Ave to visit Northern Brewer.

Also, if anyone has suggestions of local beers to try that would be great. Swmbo likes all types of beer (other than BMC's).

Thanks

Check out mnbeer.com they have a list of stores which I imagine have a pretty good selection of beers. The store I frequent, Hertitage Liquor, has a pretty good selection but it is a little ways from Grand Ave (Maplewood).

Thanks for the recommendation. My wife and I decided to try a place called Poor Richard's Commonhouse and we decided that we are in a beer desert. No grocery stores or convience stores around here in Bloomington that carry anything above 3.2 beer. This restaurant was uber common, uber bland and their beer at $5.50 a draft is uber overpriced for BMC quality.

try zipps

http://www.zippsliquors.com/beer

For bars, check my favorites, The Happy Gnome, and The Muddy Pig, both in St Paul

Surdyks has the best selection in the state.

http://www.surdyks.com/
303 East Hennepin
Minneapolis, MN

Go to Williams in uptown they have a ton of beer on tap. Get a fulton its brewed in st Paul and its good. But they are 12 dollars but they are big beers. The place is sweet go downstairs its free peanuts and popcorn. Also try a surly its brewed here too. The surly is really hoppy if you like that.

This place isn't too far from Midwest Homebrew Supply
http://www.thefourfirkins.com/

I'll second Zipps, its my go to store when I want to buy beer. If you catch it on the right day, Tyler occasionally brings goodies out of the cellar, he just pulled some KBS out the other day but it was gone long before I got there.

Ale jail on St Paul, all microbrews, no bmc. Cellars in roseville has one of the best selections in the state also.

I'll second happy gnome & muddy pig, great bars. Make sure you try surly, they come in 4pks of tall cans, always kept in the cooler. Best beer out of MN in my opinion. Schell's
is a solid local brew too.

bucfanmike said:

try zipps

http://www.zippsliquors.com/beer

For bars, check my favorites, The Happy Gnome, and The Muddy Pig, both in St Paul

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I also love Zipps. Small, sort of disoganized, but GREAT selection.

For bars, I love Town Hall, Muddy Pig and the Happy Gnome. I thought Barley John's was fun, but Bob didn't like it. The Rock Bottom in Minneapolis is actually surprisingly good and it's worth a stop.

Try Haskell's.

As suggested before Heritage Liquor is awesome. It's a hole-in-the-wall, but they have one of the best beer selections I've ever seen.

Surly is the best, you have to try Furious.

For bars, Old Chicago has a fantastic selection, Barley Johns has some great beers, I also really enjoy an Irish Pub on West 7th called Patrick McGovern's (also The Liffey is good).

onthekeg said:

This place isn't too far from Midwest Homebrew Supply
http://www.thefourfirkins.com/

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+1 to this, four firkins and midwest supplies. also make sure to try Surly beer and Flat Earth (both brewed in MN).

If you make it to Burnsville (a little drive from the Mall of America), Blue Max Liquor is awesome. Their beer coolers are broken up by the beer's country of origin. I never get out of there without spending $100+. Great selection of domestic and imports.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1287/

If you are still in Bloomington you can go to Edina liquor which is pretty close and has a much larger selection then grocery stores. Minnesota grocery stores have to have a separate store area for beer other then 3.2 at least in the metro area. You can also go to Sinful wine and Spirits in Bloomington in the southtown center area, they have make your own 6 packs and you can pick up a lot of different bottles.

Thanks everyone. I think we are going to go to brew pubs every night for dinner while we are here. Town Hall is scheduled for tonight.

Town Hall is great, you will enjoy it, I'd highly recommend the masala mama if you want a good IPA. I might stop in there myself tonight for a couple pints before the softball game tonight.

+1 Williams in uptown also check out the Town Hall brewery downtown Mpls.

Zipp's on Franklin and Surdyk's on first and Hennepin. Both great stores, Surdyk's has an amazing selection.

Yooper's right too, our rock bottom is great. Award winning brewer! Never been to barley john's, funny cuz it's walking distance from me, but I've heard good things.

A great bar with 24 taps of great beer, many of them local, is Bryant-Lake Bowl, interestingly on Bryant and Lake in s. Mpls.

Definitely Zipps and Surdyks!
Be sure to check out Midwest Supply while you're here. Also, The Chatterbox in Mpls is a fun lunch place, they've got a few good brews of their own.

We went to Northern Brewer today after touring a few museums. I had planned on just buying a few pounds of grain and some selected hardware pieces but came of of the store a few benjamins lighter than I went in with. The staff were very friendly and helpful in answering many of my questions. The clerk directed us to a nearby liquor store named the Ale Jail that had a great selection of microbrews compared with what we find back home. Made a couple of of own six packs and bought a few cans of Surley which we we have tonight before bed (or maybe for breakfast). Could not find Flat Earth brand yet so that will be my project tomorrow while the wife visits a knitting/weaving convention. Also plan to visit MidWest brewing supplies and tour Summit Brewery.

Had dinner at Town Hall Brewery (new location in Minneapolis) and drank a few flights. Beer was solid and so was their food. The wife thinks we should have dinner out at different brew pubs around the Twin Cities which is fine with me. From the suggestions received in this thread I think we will need to come back next summer to hit more of these places.

Only one weird thing happened today. Had a glass of Grain Belt Premium on tap and a local place we walked by and it was very dissapointing. GB is one of my bottled go to lawn mower beers or fishing beers and the draft tasted very thin compared to bottles. Think I may skip the 90 minute drive to New Ulm on Saturday to visit their brewery site (which I have learned has a very limited tour of just the "old brewery")

I don't know if you're in the area, but near the University of Minnesota is Stubbs & Herbs. It's got decent food, and a good selection of beer. What I like about it is that it's got some good Vietnamese restaurants in walking distance, maybe only a block or so, away. They have Flat Earth on tap, along with some Surly and other good beers. Food is pretty good, too, and service is great.

I forgot to mention that earlier, I think. I'd still highly recommend the Gnome and Pig first, though! If she's up for brewpub dinners, those are first rate!

Sometimes you get lucky at happy gnome and they have special cask editions from the local brewers. Last time I was there they had Surly's Moe's Bender, which was a spin on their coffee Bender. Mmmmm.

I stumbled across this thread at the perfect time. I just moved to the area from Michigan and was wondering about the dismal selection at the grocery store. Thanks folks!

Another place that I would recommend if you have time is Grumpy's. There's 3 of them around the metro area. One in downtown Minneapolis, one in North East Minneapolis, and one in Roseville. They have a decent selection of taps and their burgers are great.

The wife was at her knitting convention for most of the day so I visited Midwest brewing supplies for the first time. Lots of really cool stuff but also a very busy place seeing as how it sells retail and mailorder out of the same building. Got to tour the Summit Brewery which was very impressive. My first visit to a microbrewery since I started homebrewing and thus I was able to understand so much more of how all of the equipment went together. The beer they served on tap at the end tasted better than what I was used to for Summit Brewery. Since I was back in St Paul I had to stop at Northern Brewer again which was even better the second time since several of the guys recognized me from the day before. Bot another corney keg.

Yooper--We really enjoyed our visit to Rock Bottom Brewery in LaSalle Plaza. We sampled 12 beers and had a great dinner. Tomorrow I hope we go by the Happy Gnome for either dinner or lunch.

tcklord said:

...You can also go to Sinful wine and Spirits in Bloomington in the southtown center area, they have make your own 6 packs and you can pick up a lot of different bottles.

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For the record, I tried going here last night. They're gone. Tried calling. No longer in service. Big disappointment since Southtown is only a half mile from where I'm at.

I don't live in the Twin Cities, but the corporate offices of my employer are there. Every time I'm in town for work, my boss and I go to Pairings Food & Wine Market in Minnetonka. On one side is a beer and wine store (with a few spirits) and on the other side is an upscale deli.

It's a small place, and they do a lot of wine-centric (oenocentric?) events, but the beer selection is not bad for the size and they do have a "beer guy" on staff.

If you get a chance, make the run over to Hudson, WI. About a 15 minute drive from the edge of the cities (as I remember, maybe a bit more). Closest place to Minneapolis to pick up New Glarus, get the Cherry Tart, great stuff.
Too bad about Sinful, that place had a nice selection. Blue Max does have a lot to choose from, build your own 6ers. 4 Firkins has a lot of imports, make sure you know what you want there, a bit over whelming.

Kelsch said:

For the record, I tried going here last night. They're gone. Tried calling. No longer in service. Big disappointment since Southtown is only a half mile from where I'm at.

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That's too bad, I used to know a guy who worked there and the staff were far more knowledgeable then an average liquor store.

Also forgot Great Waters if you are looking for food. Beer is VERY good, get the sampler first. Food is a little better than pub fare, but not a full blown dress up meal. Close to the museum if you are headed there.

Four Firkins has the best craft beer selection in the Twin Cities. You can google them to find their web or facebook page. For bar selection FINDABEERNOW.COM let's you find what bars serve your favorite beer. It only lists Twin Cities bars right now but expanding every day.

TC Craft Beer in New Hope has a good selection of craft beers and I would put it on par with the Four Firkins. Check it out at tccraftbeer.com