Northern Brewer opens a Minneapolis location

Northern brewer opened a Minneapolis location last month (they have two other locations in St. Paul, MN and Milwaukee, WI) under 5 miles from my house! Pretty excited. I went to check it out and buy supplies for my rauchbier brew day a few weeks back. The grain room is open and spacious. I was the only one buying grain at the time but the room could handle three or four people measuring grain at the same time compared to only one at the St. Paul location (Midwest can handle two effectively). The biggest plus is that NB Minneapolis has two – count ’em – two mills in a separated mill room.

The entire space seemed very planned and thought out, unlike NB St. Paul which comes across as a crammed afterthought. It was so spacious and clean I told the guy it felt like Crate and Barrel in there! He seemed troubled by that, which was my intention. And PARKING! They have dedicated parking around back, something NB St. Paul severely lacks. 

I’ve been pretty religious about buying brew supplies after work on weekdays over the past year. I’m not one for crowds so I just hate how crazy any of these brew shops gets on the weekends. Plus, if you brew on the weekends like me and do your yeast starters on weeknights, you’d have to shop for supplies (and mill your grains – if you don’t have a mill at home) a full week in advance of a brew day.

I don’t think the spaciousness of NB Minneapolis will change the fact that I shop for supplies at off-peak times, but I do thoroughly appreciate the effort they’ve put into the new location. I definitely recommend checking out the space. I’ve included the address below in case you have a hard time finding it (doesn’t seem as though it’s made it into GoogleMaps a month after opening).

6021 Lyndale Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55419
phone: 612-843-4444