WINTER BEER DABBLER
ST. PAUL 

Polar Vortex? No big deal! Frozen beer lines? We’ll make do. 

Winter Beer Dabbler just might be the most quintessential Minnesota beer fest if you’re going for tried-and-true winter vibes. It certainly helps that you can warm up near trashcan fires, and a silent disco keeps those joints moving, but the fun with this fest is that it can be snowy and still happen. Just make sure you’ve got a good winter coat and proper boots.

Beer Dabbler — the second life of the beloved print magazine The Growler — also puts on other top-tier fests, including the Pride Beer Dabbler in June. In years past, this event has featured everything from experimental beer to edible glitter.

BOCKFEST
NEW ULM

While you won’t find any beer other than Schell’s here, BockFest more than makes up for its lack of variety with substance. Schell’s sprawling campus is iconic — like being transported high atop a hill in Germany – and their bock beer is a wonderful interpretation of a malty Old World-style. You can even poke it with a hot metal rod to caramelize the beer, which is a nice touch.

Schell’s hosts one of Minnesota’s biggest Oktoberfests in the fall as well, firmly grasping New Ulm’s German roots with plenty of lederhosen, dirndl, pretzels and giant steins of its signature amber-colored, malt-forward beverage. Make a day of it by also swinging by such beloved local standbys as Kaiserhoff, Domeier’s and New Ulm’s iconic Hermann the German statue.

MINNESOTA CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL
MINNEAPOLIS 

With over 110 breweries in attendance, you'll surely find something you enjoy at the Minnesota Craft Beer Festival. Even better? If you want to try some heavy hitters outside of Minnesota, plenty of popular breweries are in attendance. Check out Chicago’s Hop Butcher, California’s Russian River and Colorado’s Weldwerks alongside Minnesota's greatest. It's a perfect combo of familiar and fitting breweries you’d normally have to fly to.

TAPPED AND CORKED
BRAINERD 

Brainerd is located on the Mississippi River and surrounded by more than 400 lakes if you venture out of the city a little bit. Toss in a few locations from the infamous film “Fargo” and you’ve got quite a unique setting for a beer festival. 

More than 200 beers are poured at Tapped and Corked by mostly local breweries like Jack Pine and Roundhouse in addition to national brands. You’ll also find wine, pre-mixed cocktails and seltzers. And this one is truly local; the fest helps raise funds for Brainerd Area Athletics.

RARE BEER PICNIC 
MOORHEAD

Junkyard Brewing Company was one of the early darlings of trendy craft beer styles like milkshake IPAs and peanut butter stouts. It has rapidly expanded since its opening in 2013, and hosts a personal favorite: Rare Beer Picnic. The event is laid back and literally held in a park with picnic tables waiting for you to sit down and enjoy a wide variety of beer from a select group of breweries like Modist, Forager and BlackStack. 

Not only that, but the “rare” in the name means plenty of barrel-aged stouts and other hard-to-find beers that usually cost quite a bit to acquire. If there’s a special beer you missed in the state, chances are it might be here, along with hazy IPAs, fruited sours, and small-batch infusions of special ingredients.

ALL PINTS NORTH
DULUTH

All Pints North is not only a fan favorite, but a brewer favorite; people really love being at a festival located on the shore of Lake Superior. The fest offers not only beer, but cider, seltzer and non-alcoholic options — a wide range of drinks for everyone. There are usually more than 100 businesses pouring beers at this fest, so if there’s a brewery you’ve always wanted to try, this might be the fest for you. It also has live music, with proceeds going to support the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, a nonprofit devoted to developing Minnesota’s craft beer industry.

CRAFT BEER & CIDERFEST
ST. CLOUD

A mix of hard cider and beer highlights St. Cloud's Craft Beer & Ciderfest every fall. Not only do you get unlimited samples and a collectible beer sample glass, but there’s a people’s choice pick for the favorite beer at the fest. St. Cloud also has some noteworthy breweries to visit, like Pantown and Beaver Island, and Bad Habit is in nearby St. Joseph, making this a fun weekend destination.

DARKNESS DAY
MINNEAPOLIS

If you drink Surly, you probably know the brewery likes to weave heavy metal into everything: the beer, the branding and their Darkness Day event. This major Minnesota beer event began at the original brewery (where the metal theme was tested to the limit after a dumpster was set on fire) before taking place in Somerset, Wisconsin, with live music, fire eaters, and a miniature beer fest that changed into a free-for-all featuring cases upon cases of Darkness and its barrel-aged variants. Surly founder Omar Ansari rode on the back of a golf cart the next day to serve up a keg of Surly Coffee Bender for those able to get out of their tents early enough. It’s a party.

Surly brought the festival back to Minnesota after a brief hiatus a couple years ago, so you can expect it to return around the same time this year — October, just in time for Halloween — with plenty of heavy metal permeating the air.

MINNESOTA CIDER FESTIVAL
MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL

The Honeycrisp — one of the country’s best-selling apples — happens to hail from Minnesota, so it only makes sense that the state also has a top-tier cider festival. The Minnesota Cider Guild’s Cider Week and its closing Cider Fest are hosted in different locations around the metro area each year, but no matter where it is, you will find local and regional ciders in addition to educational sessions. The fest is sometimes held on a farm, too, giving it a unique vibe where you can hang out with the trees that provided some of the hard cider apples.