Surly Brewing | Minneapolis, MN
Beer Trip: Surly Brewing in Minneapolis, Minnesota
As frequent visitors to the Twin Cities, Surly Brewing has long been on our list of places to check out. Based on our experience this first time, we sure hope it won’t be our last visit.
The Brewery
In all of our beer travels, there aren’t many places that can rival the facility that Surly has. For them to still be independently owned is even that much more impressive! This place is massive and covers multiple stories, featuring a huge brewing operation and an impressive outdoor patio. With such a large space, they actually check your ID right at the front door before entering and give you a stamp. Once inside, you’re immediately greeted with large windows that peer into the undersides of the fermentation tanks (which are so large that they actually jut through the roof 20+ feet)! As you continue on, you enter the main tasting room with more tables than you can count, and a 30+ person bar against the back wall. They actually have several reservable spaces inside, including one upstairs with its own outdoor patio.
The outdoor space is definitely the place to be if weather permits, offering an elevated deck, a spacious rock lot with tons of picnic tables and fire pits, and lawn seating with games beyond that. The place is very well laid out, with trees and greenery spread about breaking up the various seating sections. What really makes the place neat is the wall of trees lining the outer boundaries, giving the place a secluded feel from the rest of the city. While they do provide table service throughout the entire facility, they have an outdoor bar as well. To top this all off, you can bring your dog here to enjoy the environment.
The Beer
As far as the number of beers available, Surly might top the list from any place we’ve experienced. They have well over 30 beers on tap, plus a dozen additional bottles and cans. Of the taps, 9 of them are flagship beers, another 10 are seasonals, and the rest are taproom exclusives. All the special bottles and cans are barrel-aged brews ranging from $15, all the way up to $100 for a 15-year-old sour. One cool thing Surly offers that we don’t see often is that most of their beers are available for purchase by the pitcher, perfect for a group to share. This took us back to our college days!
With so many options to choose from, we obviously couldn’t sample everything - but we did cover a lot of ground in an afternoon. Although everything we tried was solid, nothing really wowed us either. Anyone who has been to Minnesota will certainly find their flagship IPA Furious at nearly every bar and restaurant. This beer basically keeps their lights on, and is a good, easy-drinker with nice notes of malts combined with a hoppy background. Our favorite of the visit was the seasonal called Xtra. This pale ale packs a lot of citrus and has a lingering bitterness. The last one worth mentioning is a brewery exclusive tap called Simpsons Scottish Ale. While we traditionally love this style packed with malts, this one was slightly more subtle, which made it even more enjoyable for a summer afternoon.
Food, Merch, & More
Surly has a full food menu to meet your hunger needs, and we were impressed by the options available. They have tons of appetizers along with tacos, bowls, and large portion BBQ choices meant to be shared. We both elected to go with bowls, and they might have been the best meal of our entire trip! In addition to the brewery food menu, they have an entirely separate pizza restaurant upstairs that seems to operate somewhat independently.
With our two kids tagging along, we were unable to do the brewery tour offered on Saturdays. This would definitely be on our list during a repeat visit, as they have an awesome facility that would be worth exploring. With a place of this scale, their merchandise section was also vast, with shirts, hats, socks, glassware, signage, and dog toys.
