Re: Official Drinking Thread: 7&7s for Everyone!
I'm in Rochester (Minny) for a tourney and am wondering if there's any local or state beers that I can't get at home that I should pick up as a souvenir?
I typically enjoy lagers, non-pale ales, stouts and porters.
Not a fan of wheat, flavored or Optimator types.
Is the beer still 3:2 here or whatever that was where they're weaker? Been a LONG time since I drank in this state. Believe that the bar time was still 1:30 the last time...
Any help would be appreciated.
The grocery stores sell the 3.2% beer, liquor stores are the only places allowed to sell the normal stuff outside of bars.
Schell's, Grain Belt and Summit are the three biggest MN brews right now, with Grain Belt being bought by Schell's a few years ago.
Grain Belt offers, basically, three varieties: Grain Belt Light, Premium and Nordeast. Light and Premium are traditional American lagers while Nordeast is darker, kind of slightly sweet, but drinks much like a lager. Nordeast is, by most estimates, their best offering, then it's Premium ( AKA "Premo").
Schell's offers a whole spectrum of beers under the Schell's name. Fire Brick is my favorite of their full-year brews, a red ale that's not very hoppy - I'm not wild about overly hoppy beers. They do excellent seasonal beers, too, but a lot of those have the various spices added into them at this time of year.
Summit is known for its pale ales primarily, but they have some good seasonals and stouts, too. I really like their oatmeal stout.
After those, the other beers in this state are mostly regional within the state itself as they're still growing. Surly is the probably largest of the next tier, but it's mostly different varieties of really hoppy ales.