Top Breweries In Minneapolis, Minnesota

There are so many great local breweries in Minnesota to explore. Here are a few of my favorites :)

Hi everyone! I can't believe January is almost over. We got some snow this week and the temperatures have been cold!! I don't know about you, but staying inside with some hot chocolate (or a beer since this is what my post is about) is the best thing to do right now! This past fall, we decided to explore some Minneapolis breweries. We took advantage of the patios and the warm fall days and found some really great spots! Here are a few of my favorites!

*If you are someone who lives in Minnesota, I partnered with a few other MN bloggers to do a great giveaway to support local businesses. Check it out here if you want to see how to enter!*

Number 12 Cider

So I decided ciders are my new favorite thing this fall. I love beer and all, but not enough to actively get it at restaurants. So, ciders will be my go to if I have the chance. I heard about Number 12 Cider and knew I had to check it out. They offer so many different types of ciders, both dry and sweet. We decided to try a flight of each to get the best experience. Vince and I definitely have a big sweet tooth, so we liked the sweet ones better. There was one called "Janiken" that we absolutely LOVED. It had a maple taste, and we couldn't get enough of it! They have can orders to go, so if you are ever in the mood for some cider, but don't feel comfortable being inside, check out their website! Another fun thing that Number 12 Cider offers is a pizza food truck. I tried their margarita pizza and boy was it good! It is making me hungry just thinking about it!!

Fulton Beer

Another great brewery we enjoy in Minneapolis is Fulton Beer. They have a large patio for people to sit outside, and they had tables very spread apart inside. We felt comfortable and we could tell the workers really took the situation seriously as well! We loved the calm atmosphere and the beer tasted great too! One of their most popular beers is the Lonely Blonde. It is the one you would most likely to have heard about! A fun thing that they had to offer when we were there was something called “Hop Water”. That is what you can see us drinking in the photo! It was a new product they came out with, so they were letting us try it for free! It is basically just water, and not alcoholic, but for people that really love their hops! I am not a huge fan of hops, so it wasn’t my favorite, but such a good idea!

Surly Brewing Co.

Surly Brewing Co. is probably the most popular and most spoken about brewery in Minneapolis. Their patio are is HUGE and the indoor area is so big as well. They have bags games to play and a few bonfires as well. It is the perfect place on a warm summer night to go with friends or family! I went with my parents and brother a few years back and we had so much fun!! I haven’t been there with the new restrictions, so I am not sure how they are handling the current situation. I do know that they have some really great beers to offer and have great food too! I think if you are looking for a place to take visitors, this is the place to go.

First Draft Taproom

Okay, so I guess this isn’t really its own brewery, but instead a taproom of lots of different local, Minnesota breweries. But the reason I include First Draft Taproom, is because of how awesome of an idea I think it is (I hope I can explain it well enough!). So when you walk into the taproom, you check in at the entrance and you receive a fob. After this, you can go and get whatever beer you want! They have hundreds of glasses sitting out so each time you try a new one, you take a new glass. I think they had about 80 beers to choose from (I definitely got decision fatigue!). When you pick the one you want, you place the fob up to it, it recognizes that it is you, and then the fob had a knob on it to pour the beer into your glass from the tap. This feature on the fob allows you to not touch anything that other people have touched and is really nice during these times! It tracks how much beer you take, and from what and then at the end, you go back up to check out and find out how much you owe :D It is an interesting place and I really recommend trying it out, just be careful because your total can add up fast when you aren’t thinking about how much you are drinking!

Inbound Brew Co.

The last brewery we really enjoyed visiting this fall was Inbound Brew Co. It was a beautiful fall day to sit out on their patio and we took advantage of it! They only take reservations right now and give you a two hour time frame. I am guessing it is to allow as many people to come, with having less tables than normal right now. They have a large interior as well and the tables were really spread out in there as well. We were happy to see they had a flight option as a lot of the other breweries we went to didn’t have this option. I really enjoyed the fruity beers and ”The Fuzz Apricot Pale Ale” was my favorite. They also had a peanut butter beer, and it was absolutely amazing! We got a couple pints of them because they were so good!! The brewery is in a quiet spot, and we really liked this because we would prefer a quieter brewery over some of the louder ones. They also have beer to go right now if you are missing their beer!