Saint Paul Brewing | St. Paul, MN
Beer Trip: Saint Paul Brewing in St. Paul, Minnesota
Housed in a portion of the old Hamm’s Brewery, Saint Paul Brewing brings the rich history of the brick building back to life while helping it serve its original purpose. With a wide range of craft brews and a lively atmosphere, we are glad we stopped in for a visit.
The Brewery
As you might imagine coming from such a historic brewery background, this place looks massive from the outside - almost as if it is a campus of buildings surrounded by parking. The brewery and taproom occupy most of the first floor of the structure and it will be fascinating to see how they expand into other sections of the facility as they grow! The indoor space is divided into a few different sections - the first one you see is the bar area where you place your order. This zone pays homage to Hamm’s, with tons of vintage signs and memorabilia lining the walls, just like we’d imagine it would have been 30 - 40 years ago! Our favorite area is their large back room seating section featuring exposed, rounded brick ceilings and walls. If walls could talk, we wonder what they’d say about the place back in its heyday. There are many tables, chairs, and booths spread about here, as well as live plants everywhere you look.
The weather was a bit chilly during our visit, but they have a very nice outdoor section that appears to have been a part of the brewery at one time but had a ceiling collapse! The patio is contained within the confines of the brick walls, creating somewhat of a courtyard feel. The vibe outside is lake-themed, featuring old boat motors and buoys spread about. One of the neatest features is a canoe fire pit in the middle of the space - one of the coolest fire pits we’ve come across!
The Beer
Saint Paul Brewing offers 12 different beers to choose from at any given time, with the menu displayed behind the bar on a quirky flower-themed display board. During our visit, they had a wide range of styles including multiple IPAs, a porter, stout, Belgian Dubbel, sour, and a barleywine among others. With such a hodgepodge of options, you really had to take a moment to think about your selection!
Unfortunately, we were only able to try a few during our visit, but everything sampled was solid when it came to flavor. Our favorite was the Shamm’s, which we were told was also the overall most popular. This American lager was light and crushable and am sure tasted very similar to its predecessor, Hamm’s. The Black Helicopter was their coffee stout and offered the perfect coffee notes with a faintly bitter aftertaste. The last beer we enjoyed was their American IPA, Space Pirate. This traditional IPA was hoppy and bitter with a hint of citrus mixed in.
Food, Merch, & More
In addition to beer, Saint Paul Brewing does have half a dozen or so specialty cocktails available, along with seltzers and even rootbeer made in-house. To cure your hunger, there is a nice food selection featuring appetizers like cauliflower wings and poutine, along with salads, burgers, and their specialty - wood-fired pizzas. They also have you covered in the merchandise department - in fact, there is an entire sectioned-off gift shop right inside the front door that features t-shirts, hoodies, lots of glassware, hats, and even postcards (which was the first time we’d seen that)!
Few breweries can rival the history that Saint Paul Brewing has, and it’s the spirit of continuing to bring solid beer to the Twin Cities that we admire most about this place. We hope to return sooner rather than later!
Cheers!