Top 5 beer festivals around Minnesota this summer

There are a lot of sour notes to go along with the sour beers in the craft brewing industry these days, but you wouldn’t really know it looking at the summer festivals on tap around Minnesota in 2025.

Beer fests remain a popular draw for summertime fun, despite the financial downturn that many breweries are facing. Those economic strains might even be all the more reason for these big brewing events to exist.

“It’s nice for brewers to get outside their bubble and show off their work to people around the state,” said Bob Galligan, director of government and industry relations at the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild.

The Brewers Guild has seen steadily rising ticket sales in recent years for its main summer event, All Pints North. On July 26 at Duluth’s scenic Bayfront Festival Park, breweries from around the state will be pouring samples of their brews. Among the showcasing beermakers are Twin Cities area newcomers such as Haggard Barrel and Heavy Rotation — who have defied the sad trend of brewery closures in recent years amid an overall decline in alcohol consumption and a rise in production costs.

First up for Minnesota summer beer fests, though, is an event that has been going on for 13 years and defied more than just trends.

“Breweries in Minnesota operate like community centers and good places to hang with your neighbors,” said Sam Steen, event coordinator for the Pride Beer Dabbler. “It makes sense they would serve marginalized people in the LGBTQ+ community.”

Happening June 27 in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden outside Walker Art Center, the Pride Dabbler will also incorporate craft brewers from around the state, many of which make special brews for the event.

Here’s more info on that first summer beer fest and the other big ones happening this year.

June 27, 5-9:30 p.m., Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, $55-$70 (nondrinkers $20), beerdabbler.com

This Friday night event applies the popular formula of other Beer Dabbler events to the festive spirit of that weekend’s citywide Twin Cities Pride festival. The nearly 70 participating breweries (and a handful of cideries) from around Minnesota will each have its own stand, where attendees can sample at will.

Among the unique brews are ones that specifically celebrate the cause, such as 56 Brewing’s Pride Session Ale and Brühaven’s Pride Punch Seltzer. Live music and DJs are thrown into the mix, as well as a partnership with the Little Wedding Co. for special marriage proposals or vow renewals.

July 12, 4-8 p.m., Viking Ship Park, 202 1st Av. N., Moorhead, Minn., $68, rarebeerpicnic.com

This one’s smaller but might have the most hardcore following among the summer beer events. For its ninth year, Moorhead’s Junkyard Brewing will host about 15 of its peers/competitors from the region to show off their “rare, aged, soured and infused beers.” Seltzer and light lager lovers probably need not apply. Offerings in previous years have included Lupulin Brewing’s Tart Cherry Funkin’ Around (an infused mixed-culture saison), Fair State’s Rum Raisin (dessert stout) and Blackstack’s Company Policy (“popsicle style” Berliner Weisse).

July 26, 3:30-7 p.m., Bayfront Festival Park, Duluth, $65-$85 ($20 nondrinkers), mncraftbrew.org

A showcase for Duluth’s booming brewery scene doubles as a good excuse for brewers and beer lovers from around the state to enjoy the breeze and scenery of the city’s harborside park. Like their Autumn and Winter Brew Reviews, the Brewers Guild’s participating members — more than 100, in this case — serve a wide variety of samples to show off their best and/or most unique beers. Food trucks and live music from Bauhaus Brew Labs’ resident cover band Viva Knievel are part of the recipe.

Aug. 17, 1-5 p.m., CHS Field, St. Paul, $49-$65 ($35 nondrinkers), chsfield.com

While the St. Paul Saints are on the road in Omaha, beer makers from around the country will take over the team’s home field. This inaugural event is an offshoot of the eighth annual spring craft beer fest put on at the Minneapolis Convention Center by Colorado’s Craft Beer & Brewing magazine/website, with the Saints acting as a partner. More than 100 breweries and distilleries are promised, along with music, vendors, artisans and maybe an appearance by the Saints’ pig mascot Mudonna — if she hasn’t sopped up too much of the spilled beer.

Sept. 5, 5-9 p.m., Wayzata Depot Park, 402 E. Lake St., $40-$50, jamesjhillsday.com

Part of the James J. Hills Day festivities that celebrate the (purportedly beer-loving) Minnesota railroad baron the weekend after Labor Day, this nighttime beerathon takes place in a hard-to-beat site along Wayzata’s Lake Minnetonka waterfront. It will feature more than 20 regional breweries and at least one seltzer maker serving samples, from nearby mainstays Luce Line and Excelsior Brewing to Iowa’s Toppling Goliath.