5 new Twin Cities breweries to try over winter break

It’s the season to get together with friends and family over a pint. But is now really a good time to open a new brewery?

The Twin Cities beer scene saw a string of taproom closings coming out of the pandemic. Longtime favorites such as Eastlake, Able Seedhouse, 612 Brew, Clutch and Lakes & Legends all shut their doors 2022-2023. Stories began fermenting that Minnesota’s great craft beer boom of the 2010s was going flat.

Oh, what fun it is to tell a different story.

New breweries have been emerging all over town over the past year or two, from Burnsville to Brooklyn Park. And that’s not the only good news.

Many of these newcomers are making excellent beer, too, with a wider or more unique array of offerings than standard taprooms of the past decade. It’s what their operators knew they had to do in order to survive and stand out in a still fairly crowded field.

“I knew what I was getting into,” said Jeffrey Crane, who opened Burnsville’s Trove Brewing Co. late last year after two decades of working for other breweries. “I knew it was going to involve a lot of work and I needed a lot of experience to make it.”

“We were just so passionate about what we would have to offer,” said Denise Roberts, co-owner of Rail Werks Brewing Depot in Columbia Heights. “We had to believe our love for it would lead to our success.”

Opened in June, Rail Werks embraced the growing demand for seltzers and fruity beers, as did some of these other newcomers. Many are also offering THC-infused beverages and nonalcoholic beers, which are popular with younger consumers for whom alcohol consumption is trending downward.

Rail Werks is also reaching out to a more diverse clientele, regularly hosting events with Latino and even Tibetan residents who live near the brewery. Similarly, St. Paul newcomer Wandering Leaf Brewing Co. has proved popular with Ethiopian neighbors from its W. 7th Street neighborhood, the co-owners happily reported.

“We couldn’t just appeal to white men like me and expect to do well,” said Wandering Leaf’s Matt Holton.

Here’s a rundown of five new standout breweries to check out during winter break.

Location: 1368 LaSalle Av., Mpls., bruhaven.com

Its story: Minneapolis beer lovers already know the location well. It’s the former home of Lakes & Legend Brewing, a few blocks off Loring Park on the southwest edge of downtown. “It’s a beautiful space and had some history,” said co-owner Alex Doerig, whose previous brewing work at the Freehouse might also be familiar to local beerheads. “But we’re definitely trying to do our own unique thing here.”

Taproom: The large, open brewery now doubles as a daytime coffee shop, so the decor looks a bit more urban-hipster-y than before. Some ax-throwing cages and a pulltab machine were also added for sportiness, along with garage-door walls to open come spring. The adjoining LPM ramp now offers free two-hour validation for Brühaven customers. Also new: THC drinks, dubbed Hiii Water, which come in three fruity flavors.

Beer: Lagers rule here, ranging from the Leitstern Light and Pup’s Premium (a Timberwolves tribute) to the heavier Brunswick Black Lager and FestiBrü (one of our seasonal favorites at the Autumn Brew Review). Even Brühaven’s flagship IPA, the Minneapolitan, is a cold IPA brewed with lager yeast. We also enjoyed the rich but drinkable Witching Hour Butterscotch Ale, and the summery Pink Ribbon Strawberry Blonde Ale could be a hit all winter.

Location: 9801 Xenia Av. N., Suite 105, Brooklyn Park, heavyrotationbrewing.com

Story: Partly a way to lower overhead costs and a way to stand out, this new entry in Brooklyn Park is billing itself as a “nanobrewery,” specializing in small-batch beers because it only uses smaller barrels for brewing. Hence the name; the menu is constantly rotating. “We can play around with our beers a lot more, which is more fun for us, too,” said Ken Smith, one of two co-owners with previous brewery experience (Utepils, Wicked Wort).

Taproom: The utterly un-special location amid box stores and a McDonald’s near I-694 belies the specialty approach to beer, and the playful stuff that goes on inside the small and otherwise conventional taproom. I went on a Wednesday night when the weekly meat raffle was happening and eyed posters for a pop-punk trivia night, ugly sweater contest and other shenanigans.

Beers: The fun continued in the beer sampling, which included the Hot Chocolate Brown Ale with marshmallows, a pucker- and wow-inducing fruited sour called Season of the Abyss and the unabashedly sweet apple-pie seltzer Yeah, We Have That. The menu could be very different each time you go, but the staples include the earthy cream ale Farmer Frank’s (made with corn), the caramel-y British ale Ready, Steady, Go and the more standard but well-crafted Woo Hah Czech pilsner and Madvillain hazy IPA.

Location: 4055 Central Av. NE., Columbia Heights, railwerksbrewingdepot.com

Story: This one’s officially a brewpub instead of a brewery, serving smoked barbecue and burgers alongside cocktails, with a bar almost exclusively stocked with Minnesota-made spirits. Married co-owners William and Denise Roberts have restaurateur backgrounds, but Denise caught William’s long-standing bug for brewing.

Taproom: Just north of the beloved Heights Theater, the large, tiered strip-mall space used to be a charter school and has ample room for a stage, large groups and railroad decor, including displays related to nearby rail yards. In addition to its pledge of locally sourcing, there’s a commitment to recycling and composting, too.

Beers: “We want to have something for everyone,” Denise Roberts said, alluding to the widely varied beer menu heavy with dessert beers and some oddball brews alongside more common IPAs and lagers. Among their flagship beers, the All Aboard was too watery even for a light lager, but the double-dry-hopped Squeaky Wheel hazy IPA oozed fresh flavor. Unusual highlights for us included the carrot-cake-flavored Have Your Cake and Drink It Too pastry ale and the Switchyard, a Kentucky common.

Location: 1719 County Road 42 W., Burnsville, trovebrewing.com

Story: A longtime brewer for the Granite City brewpub chain, Jeffrey Crane and his partner/wife Angie Crane saw a lack of breweries in the south metro area where they live. They opened their longtime dream business in a not-flashy but sizable strip-mall space behind a Red Lobster that previously housed a Chinese buffet. The neighboring LA Fitness closed since Trove opened in late 2023, but Jeffrey dryly noted, “We didn’t see a lot of crossover anyway.”

Taproom: It’s a bit hard to find tucked away behind a Red Lobster across from an Olive Garden; yep, you’re in suburbia. Inside feels like a welcoming brewery, though, with ample tables where couples were playing games during our visit, a side space where one large group congregated and a small bar lined with regulars.

Beers: Overall, the beer here was my favorite among the newcomers. Tops were the Goon West Coast IPA and the In-Between Porter, standard beers done exceptionally well; also true of their quenching Sideshow Kölsch. One rotating highlight was the Judicator, a hearty British strong ale. Trove is not a big brewery and thus doesn’t have a large menu. But that’s OK when everything on that menu is solid.

Location: 2463 W. 7th St., St. Paul, wanderingleafbrewing.com

Story: A few doors down from Aldi grocery store in the revived Sibley Plaza along W. 7th Street, Wandering Leaf was opened in April 2023 by two couples with little brewing experience. Co-owner Matt Holton, however, did put his training as a horticulturist to use in it, turning what otherwise would have been another drab, warehouse-like brewery space into an all-out conservatory, with rows and rows of green plants lining the walls and tables. There’s greenery on the menu, too (fruity THC drinks).

Taproom: The plants really are the defining trait, and they’re especially welcoming in winter. If you like drinking fresh beer but don’t like bro-style breweries, this is your place. Like all the other strip-mall sites in this roundup, it comes with ample parking and a variety of nearby restaurants, including Soul Lao, a popular Southeast Asian food truck now with a permanent takeout site right next door.

Beers: The non-brewer owners knew to hire a seasoned brewer, Erica Sorenson,formerly of Unmapped Brewing Co. and one of the few women brewmasters in town. She and the team go all over the map with a deep beer list that includes a beet-juice saison, peach seltzer and Mexican lager spiced with Takis. All fun, but they’re really best at the more conventional stuff, including the dry-hop-bursting Ancient Armadillo IPA, the English-style porter Feral Female and one of the best Czech pilsners in town, Pils Are Good.