Top 5 Breweries to Visit in SW Minnesota

We’re originally from a small place called Estherville in northwest Iowa. And we’d drive to the cities, Mankato and Sioux Falls, SD for a lot for various events, shopping and other things. So we were already a bit acquainted with southwest Minnesota but we’d never stopped at any of the breweries until we lived in Minnesota. So a lot of the breweries in southwest Minnesota gave us some new perspective on places we’d known all of our lives, even if only by seeing their name on a highway sign. We used to drive by a sign for New Ulm all the time knowing Schell’s is there but never visiting.

So this post will be talking about 5 of our favorite breweries from Southwest Minnesota. We decided to choose from anything south of St. Cloud and West of I-35 while still being outside of the metro area. Let us know your favorite from the area!

August Schell Brewing Company – New Ulm

Full disclosure – we are both a little bit of history nerds. So when we went to Schell’s for the day, we knew we would be going on the tour and enjoying the lovely outdoor beer garden. The tour is simply one you cannot miss if you are into beer, history, or beer history. The tour goes through the grounds of the brewery (there is so much space!) and then ends with a tasting, including some of the Starkeller sours. We could not stop talking about the interesting history and fun facts we learned about on the tour after we left that day. Of course, the beer is classic and it’s always fun to learn about some of your favorite, familiar beers. We can’t stress enough how great the overall experience is.

Talking Waters Brewing Company – Montevideo

Talking Waters was one of those places we didn’t know a lot about before visiting. We visited shortly before they started distributing beer to the cities and we’d only skimmed their Instagram and website a couple of times. We knew the branding and artwork was great heading in but hadn’t heard a peep about the beer itself. We were welcomed with great beers that varied from traditional to newer styles; smoothie sours, cream ales, West Coast IPAs, New England IPAs. Talking Waters is a bit of an oasis in an area their brewer even called “a bit of desert out here.” Which isn’t wrong, it’s quite the drive to the next brewery over.

Spilled Grain Brewhouse – Annandale

Spilled Grain was another one of those breweries we just hadn’t heard much about. At this point, we hadn’t really formed much of a network of beer friends and so a lot of times our adventures to these lesser known breweries were always filled with surprises. With Spilled Grain, it was a good surprise! Not only was the beer really solid with a good variety of styles, the taproom was spacey and really cute! We always love a good, rustic taproom. This would definitely be a fun spot to cozy up in and pull out a few board games and enjoy the beer!

Montgomery Brewing Company – Montgomery

One conversation Minnesota beer fans love to have is “who has the best peanut butter porter/stout?” And Montgomery has one that one can definitely argue as the best in Minnesota. The Peanut Buster Porter and it’s big brother Yippie Skippy are both great entries in the style and worth the trip to Montgomery by themselves.

Half Pint Brewing Company – Waseca

Most breweries we have visited are usually on a busy street of some kind, or a main street, or anywhere that’s easy to spot. Well, Half Pint was one of the very few breweries we had to go down a long gravel road to find, and it was well hidden too! We think the hopyard made it stand out. We were the only patrons when we arrived, so we got to have really great conversations with one of the founders, Mike. He talked about being a farmhouse brewery – meaning they will be trying to grow as much of their own ingredients as they can, and what they can’t grow will be sourced where possible. The beers were great and we could tell Mike was really passionate about it. We also got to enjoy pizza delivered from Pleasant Grove Pizza Farm thanks to the recommendation by Kat (or @kmlpeterson) on Instagram, and we are so glad we took her advice. Nothing pairs quite like pizza and beer for us.

Honorable Mention – Lost Sanity Brewing Company – Madelia